Uno Pizzeria and Grill

Basic Information:

Pizza: Uno Pizzeria and Grill

Number of Locations: about 50 across 14 states

Location Reviewed: 5304 Sunset Blvd. in Lexington, SC (Update: this location is now closed.  There are no remaining locations in South Carolina.)

Website: https://www.unos.com/

Date of Review Visit: September 2016

What I Ordered: individual (7”) deep dish pizza with sausage, pepperoni, and extra cheese; Dr. Pepper to drink

Price: $15.57 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

Photo:

Summary Review: 5 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: After almost 4 years of keeping this pizza blog, I finally made it Uno’s, the original and most famous entry in my favorite pizza category: deep dish Chicago pizza.  The pizza is only 7 inches across, but the crust is nearly 1 inch thick.  My crust was nice and crispy on the outside but chewy on the inside and baked to perfection.  Score: 10/10.

Sauce: The sauce is Uno’s signature ingredient: it comes with huge chunks of tomatoes spread over the top of the cheese and toppings.  I don’t like chunks of anything in my sauce, not even tomatoes.  Thus, I went with a minor deduction here even though the tomato chunks are actually quite juicy and tasty.  Score: 9/10.

Cheese: My pizza had plenty of cheese, possibly because I ordered extra cheese as one of my toppings.  (Side note: their “create your own” pizza comes with three toppings, so my usual diet of sausage and pepperoni pizzas did not fit until I added the extra cheese as my third topping.)  The cheese tasted like pure mozzarella, and the little extra grease it produced led to another minor deduction.  Sprinkling on some parmesan helped the bland mozzarella taste.  Score: 9/10.

Toppings: Attention all pizza makers: these crumbled up chunks of sausage have the taste many of you are trying but largely failing to imitate.  The pepperoni is nice and filling too.  Score: 10/10.

Overall Taste: This is the classic robust Chicago-style pizza taste everyone else is trying to copy.  There is no such thing as a perfect tasting pizza, but Uno’s is close enough to earn, for the first time ever from me....  Score: 10/10.

Pizza Appearance: The pizza looks like the classic Chicago-style deep dish pizza that it is.

Dining Atmosphere: The dining room has a nice casual dining atmosphere with pictures from Chicago on the walls.

Customer Service: The service was prompt and friendly.

Monetary Value: This pizza’s price is the most I have ever paid for an individual sized pizza, so if this criterion were price I would be looking at a very low score.  Fortunately for Uno’s, this metric is value, not price, so the super-high quality helps a lot.  Uno’s does not make bargain basement value pizza, but it scores better than you would expect for a pizza of this price.

The Final Judgment:

Everyone should eat at Uno’s at least once.  I may not become a regular due to the price and lack of locations in my area, but I would come often if there was an Uno’s in upstate South Carolina.  Score: 93/100.