East of Chicago Pizza

Basic Information:

Pizza: East of Chicago Pizza
Number of Locations: around 70 locations, mostly in Ohio
Location Reviewed: 111 Pike Street in Marietta, OH (on SR 7 about 1 mile west of I-77 exit 1)

Website: https://www.eastofchicago.com/
Date of Review Visit: October 2023
What I Ordered: medium (12") Authentic Chicago Style pizza with pepperoni and sausage; Dr. Pepper to drink
Price: $22.69 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

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Summary Review: 5 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: East of Chicago Pizza offers several crust styles, but I chose the Authentic Chicago Style pizza.  As advertised, this crust is a true Chicago style crust similar to Uno's or Lou Malnati's.  This crust is thick and crispy but soft enough you can cut it with a fork.  It's a great crust.  Score: 10/10.

Sauce: Also true to the Chicago style, this pizza has a thick layer of sauce.  The sauce has a nice tomatoey taste, but you can also taste and find bits of other things in the sauce.  I don't like finding bits of anything in my sauce, so a small deduction applies.  Score: 9/10.

Cheese: The cheese comes in a nice thick layer on top of the crust but below the sauce and toppings. Again, this is true Chicago style.  Score: 10/10.

Toppings: I had a hard time finding the toppings amidst all of the sauce, so maybe the toppings are too sparse.  Both toppings taste OK, but I have had fresher-tasting sausage and pepperoni elsewhere.  Score: 8/10.

Overall Taste: The sauce dominates the taste buds, and not just with tomato taste.  I would have liked to have tasted the toppings more.  Score: 8.5/10.

Pizza Appearance: East of Chicago Pizza has an almost perfect appearance for a Chicago style pizza, i.e. it is dominated by the sauce and crust.

Dining Atmosphere: Their Marietta location has a nice casual dining atmosphere with a couple of TVs for entertainment.

Customer Service: The service was friendly, helpful, and prompt.

Monetary Value: East of Chicago does not make cheap pizza, but I've paid a lot more for similar pizzas elsewhere.  Thus, the value is better than you might think.

The Final Judgment:

Chicago style pizzas are typically my favorite kind of pizzas, and East of Chicago delivers what the name promises.  If I still lived in Ohio, I would head to East of Chicago (and not Lake Michigan) regularly.  Score: 90/100.

LaRosa's Pizzeria in Cincinnati, OH: Montgomery Inn Pizza

Basic Information:

Pizza: LaRosa's Pizzeria
Number of Locations: around 60, mostly near Cincinnati, OH
Website: https://www.larosas.com/
Location: 3291 Heritage Green Drive in Monroe, OH (near SR 63, in the same strip mall as Kroger)
Date of Review Visit: October 2023
What I Ordered: small (8") pan Montgomery Inn Pizza with pulled pork, 20 oz. Cherry Coke to drink
Price: $11.75 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

Summary Review: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

The Macro:

Crust: LaRosa’s offers three choices for crust: thin, super crust, and pan.  On this visit, I chose my usual choice: the pan crust, the thickest of the three options.  The pan crust has perfect thickness; it has the crunchy outside but chewy inside texture that makes for a good thick crust.  The pizza is well-baked, and the bottom of the crust has that special LaRosa’s taste that I still have not quite figured out.  Score: 10/10.

Sauce: The sauce on this pizza is Montgomery Inn's standard barbecue sauce.  Although it is a tomato-based barbecue sauce, it is very sweet, sweeter than any tomato sauce I have ever tasted.  I like this sauce on ribs more than I like it on a pizza.  Score: 8/10.

Cheese: The pizza is well-cheesed, and LaRosa’s uses only high quality provolone cheese, the perfect pizza cheese.  Hence, there is a very small amount of grease.  Perfecto!  Score: 10/10.

Toppings: The pulled pork is very tender and has a fresh pork flavor.  The pork comes in large chunks, and therefore it tends to be concentrated on some parts of the pizza and scarce on others.  Score: 9/10.

Overall Taste: The sauce makes the overall taste of this pizza too sweet, a statement I have rarely made in this pizza blog because I usually like sweet tastes.  Eating this pizza is more like eating cheese covered pork on bread than eating a traditional pizza.  Score: 7.5/10.

Pizza Appearance: The concentrations of the pork give the pizza an unbalanced appearance.

Dining Atmosphere: The Monroe location has no dining room, although many of LaRosa's locations have nice casual dining rooms.

Customer Service: I have always enjoyed the service at LaRosa's.

Value: The price is somewhat low given the quality of pizza and dining experience you get.  LaRosa’s stacks up far better than its casual dining competitors in this category.

The Final Judgment:

LaRosa's and Montgomery Inn are both Cincinnati legends, and I make sure to eat at both every time I go to Cincinnati.  But I prefer them separately rather than this combination, and I prefer LaRosa's double sausage pizza to this pizza.  Score: 88/100.

Cavoni's Pizza and Grinders in Battle Creek, MI

Basic Information:

Pizza: Cavoni's Pizza and Grinders
Number of Locations: 1
Location Reviewed: 5424 Beckley Road Suite D (in Minges Creek Plaza near Big Lots)

Website: https://www.cavonispizzagrinders.com/
Date of Review Visit: October 2023
What I Ordered: small (8") pizza with sausage and pepperoni; fountain drink
Price: $12.92 (includes drink and tax)

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Summary Review: 4 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: Cavoni's Pizza has a fairly thick crust that looks hand-made.  It has a nice crispy texture, and it does a good job of supporting the rest of the pizza.  I like this crust.  Score: 10/10.

Sauce: The sauce is way too spicy; I tasted more spices than tomatoes.  It appears in average quantity.  Score: 5/10.

Cheese: This pizza comes with a nice thick layer of cheese.  The cheese does not produce much grease.  It also does not have much flavor until you sprinkle on some parmesan.  Score: 9/10.

Toppings: The pepperoni is unremarkable.  The sausage has a little spice but not much other flavor.  For veteran pizza eaters, I will remark that this sausage tastes like Domino's sausage from 25 years ago, which I liked more than the sausage Domino's uses today.  That's not exactly a high endorsement, but it's something.  Both toppings appear in sufficient quantity.  Score: 6/10.

Overall Taste: The spiciness of the tomato sauce and sausage dominate the tongue, so the overall taste is unimpressive in spite of this pizza's other positive qualities.  Score: 6.5/10.

Pizza Appearance: The thick crust dominates the appearance, and it looks kind of odd sitting on a contoured plate.

Dining Atmosphere: Cavoni's has a small casual dining room with no TVs or anything else for entertainment.

Customer Service: The service is counter service, and it was quick and friendly on my visit.

Monetary Value: The price is low for decent quality pizza, and hence the value is quite high.

The Final Judgment:

I like Cavoni's, but they need to upgrade their sauce and toppings to become elite.  Score: 80/100.