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

The Facts:

Pizza: LaRosa's Pizzeria
Business Category: Local Chain (over 60 locations, 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)

The Micro:

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.

 

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The concentrations of the pork give the pizza an unbalanced appearance.  The Monroe location has no dining room, although many of LaRosa's locations have nice casual dining rooms.  I have always enjoyed the service at LaRosa's.  Score: 8/10.

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.  Score: 8/10.

Taste: The sauce makes the overall taste of this pizza too sweet, a statement I have rarely made in this pizza blog.  Eating this pizza is more like eating cheese covered pork on bread than eating a traditional pizza.  Score: 15/20.

 

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: 68/80.