Joe's New York Pizza in Upstate South Carolina

Basic Information:

Pizza: Joe’s New York Pizza

Number of Locations: 3, all near Clemson, SC

Location: 273 Market Street in Seneca, SC

Website: https://www.joesnypizzaupstate.com/

Date of Review Visit: March 2015

What I Ordered: Small (10”) pizza with pepperoni and Italian sausage; Dr. Pepper to drink

Price: $14.02 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

Photo:

Summary Review: 2.5 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: Joe’s New York Pizza does not make the usual floppy, foldable, New York style crust.  Instead, this crust has medium thickness; it is crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.  The result is that this crust produces a non-descript almost manufactured taste.  To their credit, Joe’s does have a deep dish option, but it costs $2 extra.  The “traditional crust” that I had is passable but nothing stellar.  Score: 5/10.

Sauce: Unlike the crust, the sauce on this pizza is in-line with the traditional New York style, i.e. there is very little sauce.  What sauce exists is rather overspiced: I tasted the spices and not the tomatoes.  Some people may like this sauce, but it is not for me.  Score: 4/10.

Cheese: The cheese appears in sufficient quantity, and it produces some grease but not too much.  The cheese blend tastes like bland pure mozzarella, but sprinkling on some parmesan helps in the taste department.  Score: 6/10.

Toppings: Both the pepperoni and the sausage are pretty bad.  The pepperoni comes in thin slices of pepperoni, and the sausage appears as tiny shredded bits.  Even worse, the pepperoni has little flavor, and the sausage is overspiced.  The quantity is passable but not remarkable.  Score: 5/10.

Overall Taste: This pizza has too much spiciness from the sauce and the sausage and not enough flavor from anything else.  I’ve eaten worse tasting pizza before, but this combination does not work for me.  Score: 6.5/10.

Pizza Appearance: The shredded sausage gives the pizza a crude appearance, but the golden-brown crust looks nice.

Dining Atmosphere: The dining area features some nice TV’s tuned to sports events, and the purple and orange tables and chairs make sense due to the geographical proximity to Clemson University.

Customer Service:  I had no problems with the service.

Monetary Value: Joe’s pizza is not terribly expensive, but it is not of particularly good quality either.  The half-price Monday special would really help on the price side, but I came here on a Saturday.

The Final Judgment:

Some people really like this pizza, but I am not one of them.  In fact, this is one pizza I would not mind shipping back to New York.  I could see eating at Joe’s occasionally, but there are far better pizza options in the Clemson area (such as Todaro Pizza).  Score: 66/100.