Newk's Eatery

Basic Information:

Pizza: Newk’s Eatery

Number of Locations: just under 100 across 12 states, mostly in the southeast

Location Reviewed: 132 SR 12 in Starkville, MS (diagonally across the parking lot from Vowell’s Market Place)

Website: https://newks.com/

Date of Review Visit: March 2019

What I Ordered: Sausage and pepperoni pizza with a fountain drink

Price: $13.06 (includes drink and tax)

Photo:

Summary Review: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: The crust on the pizza at Newk’s Eatery is the pleasant combination of thin underneath but thicker around the edge.  Corn meal baked into the crust adds some nice texture, and the crust has a fresh bready taste.  I like it.  Score: 10/10.

Sauce: This pizza is somewhat undersauced, but what sauce does appear has a fresh tomatoey taste.  Newk’s does offer the option of adding diced tomatoes as a topping at no extra cost, which I declined.  Score: 8/10.

Cheese: The cheese appears in decent quantity, but it produces a decent amount of grease.  Thus, there is the usual mandatory deduction.  Score: 8/10.

Toppings: The pepperoni appears in thin slices and is slightly spicy but unremarkable.  The sausage steals the show: I would classify it as a sweet Italian sausage, and it comes in nice fresh chunks with tremendous flavor.  Both toppings appear in high quantity.  Score: 9/10.

Overall Taste: The sausage really makes the taste, but the crust and sauce do their parts too.  Only the extra grease holds this score back.  Score: 9/10.

Pizza Appearance: The large amounts of sausage and grease dominate the appearance.  They also toss some sliced herbs on the pizza, and I promptly removed them.  It’s not the best look, but I’ve seen worse.

Dining Atmosphere: The Starkville location has a large dining room with an open air kitchen that allows you to see your pizza as it is being made.

Customer Service: The service was quick and fine.

Monetary Value: The quality is quite good, but the price is fairly high.  Newk’s only makes personal pizzas, so you gain no economies of scale by ordering a larger size.  They also offer other dishes, mostly sandwiches, but not as many as you would expect for a diner named an eatery.

The Final Judgment:

For a “non-pizza” place, Newk’s Eatery makes a surprisingly good pizza.  If they had a location near my home, I may not come here regularly due to the price, but I would definitely come here.  Score: 86/100.