Next Door Pizza in Chino Hills, CA

Basic Information:

Pizza: Next Door Pizza
Number of Locations: 1
Location Reviewed: 15941 Pomona Rincon Road, Suite 110, in Chino Hills, CA (at California 71, exit 7)

Website: https://www.thenextdoorpizza.com/
Date of Review Visit: February 2024
What I Ordered: small (10") pizza with pepperoni and Italian sausage, fountain drink
Price: $17.78 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

Photo:

Summary Review: 4 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: The crust at Next Door Pizza is fairly thin but super hard, more hard than crispy.  My pizza seemed slightly overbaked.  The crust had too hard of a texture for my liking, so I can't rate this crust too high.  Score: 6/10.

Sauce: Next Door has several sauces to choose from, but I chose the traditional red sauce.  The pizza does not have a lot of sauce, but the sauce has a fresh tomatoey flavor.  Score: 8/10.

Cheese: This pizza has a nice blend of cheese that includes mozzarella, provolone, and a couple of others.  A mandatory deduction for too much grease applies.  Score: 8/10.

Toppings: The toppings are large slices of pepperoni and smaller pieces of crumbled up sausage.  Both toppings have nice pork flavor with just a little spiciness.  The toppings appear in above average quantity.  Score: 10/10.

Overall Taste: The overall taste is rather flavorful, but the grease and the crust keep this score lower than it really should be.  Score: 8/10.

Pizza Appearance: This pizza has a nice well-balanced appearance.

Dining Atmosphere: The dining room has a bar, a few TVs, but no chairs!  All seating is bench seating with no backs, which is very hard on people with back problems such as myself.

Customer Service: The service was quick and friendly.

Monetary Value: Next Door is on the expensive side, but the quality is high.  Therefore, the value is not that bad.

The Final Judgment:

Next Door makes a pizza that is a better crust, some grease, and some better chairs away from being elite.  Whether it is next door to your house or not, it is worth coming here at least on occasion for some pretty good pizza.  Score: 81/100.

Round Table Pizza in Southern California

Basic Information:

Pizza: Round Table Pizza
Number of Locations: 8, all in southern California
Location Reviewed: 2506 E. Chapman Ave. in Fullerton, CA (in College Plaza beside Subway)

Website: https://www.roundtablepizza.com/
Date of Review Visit: February 2024
What I Ordered: small (10") pizza with pepperoni and Italian sausage
Price: $16.25 (includes tax but not drink or tip)

Photos:

Summary Review: 5 stars (out of 5)

The Macro:

Crust: The crust at Round Table Pizza is on thin side.  It has a nice crispy texture.  The pizza looks overbaked, but it's actually baked perfectly for this kind of pizza.  This is a great crust.  Score: 10/10.

Sauce: The sauce has a fresh tomatoey taste and comes in plenty of quantity.  Perfecto!  Score: 10/10.

Cheese: This pizza has plenty of cheese, which is a tasty blend of several kinds of cheese.  The cheese produces quite a bit of grease, which leads to a mandatory deduction.  Score: 8/10.

Toppings: The pepperoni appears in thin slices with just a little spice.  The Italian sausage appears in medium-sized chunks with just the right amount of spice.  Both toppings appear in high quantity.  Score: 10/10.

Overall Taste: Everything comes together well to produce a fresh taste with a crispy crust, but the sauce is what really makes the taste.  Score: 9/10.

Pizza Appearance: Round Table Pizza has a well-balanced appearance dominated by the toppings.

Dining Atmosphere: I ordered carry out, but Round Table has a nice casual dining atmosphere with retro games such as skiball and Golden Tee Golf.

Customer Service: The service was quick and friendly on my visit; I was the only customer at the time.

Monetary Value: Round Table Pizza is not cheap, but it has high quality.  Hence, the value is not as bad as you might expect.

The Final Judgment:

Round Table Pizza calls themselves pizza royalty, and they are not far off.  For royally good pizza and a royally good time, Round Table Pizza deserves a spot in your pizza rotation, and it makes a great party destination.  Score: 90/100.

Gino's Italian Restaurant in Palmdale, CA

Basic Information:

Pizza: Gino's Italian Restaurant
Number of Locations: 2, both near Palmdale, CA
Location Reviewed: 819 W. Palmdale Blvd. (in strip center at corner of Palmdale Blvd. and 10th St. West)

Website: https://www.ginosofpalmdale.com/?utm_source=gbp
Date of Review Visit: February 2024
What I Ordered: small (10") pizza with pepperoni and sausage
Price: $20.95 (includes tax but no drink or tip)

Photos:

Summary Review: 4 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: The pizza at Gino's Italian Restaurant has a thick bready crust.  The crust has a fresh bready taste and is full of body.  This crust is not good if you only want a light snack, but it is great for the hearty pizza eater like me.  Score: 10/10.

Sauce: The sauce appears in sufficient quantity but tastes overspiced.  This is not my kind of sauce, but some people might like it.  Score: 6/10.

Cheese: This pizza has plenty of cheese that does not produce much grease.  Perfecto!  Score: 10/10.

Toppings: The pepperoni has a nice pork taste with just enough spices, plus the slices of pepperoni are huge.  The sausage is way too spicy for my taste palette.  Both toppings appear in very high quantity.  Score: 9/10.

Overall Taste: The overall taste has too much spiciness from the sauce and the sausage for my taste.  Get the glass of water ready if you eat here.  Score: 7.5/10.

Pizza Appearance: This pizza looks like the yummy, robust, thick-crust pizza it is.

Dining Atmosphere: I ordered carry out, but Gino's has a nice dining atmosphere with cloth napkins and glass drinkware to add a touch of class.

Customer Service: The service was quick and helpful on my visit.

Monetary Value: "Good" this pizza is, but cheap it isn't.  Hence, the value is not the best.

The Final Judgment:

Gino's is better than nearby Gezzinny's, but it is also more expensive.  The overwhelming spiciness keeps this pizza from being elite in my book.  Score: 83/100.

Gezziny's Homemade Pizza in Palmdale, CA

Basic Information:

Pizza: Gezziny's Homemade Pizza
Number of Locations: 1
Location Reviewed: 38750 Trade Center Dr. in Palmdale, CA (strip mall at corner of Trade Center Dr. and Palmdale Blvd.)
Date of Review Visit: February 2024
What I Ordered: large (14") pizza with pork pepperoni, Italian sausage, and ham
Price: $16.52 (pizza only; includes tax but not drink or tip)

Summary Review: 2.5 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: Gezziny's Homemade Pizza has a not-too-thick not-too-thin crust.  The texture of the crust is a little on the hard and crispy side.  The crust is also brushed with a garlic glaze, which I don't particularly like.  Score: 6/10.

Sauce: This pizza has sufficient sauce, but it is overspiced with a heavy garlic flavor.  I don't like garlic flavor, especially in the sauce, and hence I don't like the taste of this sauce.  Score: 4/10.

Cheese: The cheese appears in sufficient quantity but produces quite a bit of grease.  Hence, the mandatory grease deduction applies.  Score: 8/10.

Toppings: None of the toppings have a lot of flavor.  The ham is especially unappetizing: it is burnt black and too crispy.  All toppings appear in average quantity.  Score: 6/10.

Overall Taste: The garlic taste dominates everything else, so the overall taste is rather unappealing, at least to my taste palette.  Score: 6.5/10.

Pizza Appearance: This pizza's appearance looks a little bare, especially for a 3 topping pizza.

Dining Atmosphere: (not applicable: no dining area)

Customer Service: The service was quick but not friendly or helpful.

Monetary Value: I got this pizza on special, but even at the regular price it is fairly inexpensive for a decent quality pizza.

The Final Judgment:

Gezziny's is the local garlic king.  I don't like the taste of garlic, so I would prefer pizza from the garlic pawn than the garlic king.  Score: 69/100.

Lamppost Pizza

Basic Information:

Pizza: Lamppost Pizza

Number of Locations: about 20 across California and Nevada

Location Reviewed: 3290 Northgate Blvd. in Sacramento, CA (south of I-80, exit 89)

Website: https://www.lamppost-backstreet.com/

Date of Review Visit: June 2016

What I Ordered: small (10”) thick crust pizza with Italian sausage and pepperoni

Price: $11.09 (pizza only; includes tax)

Photos:

Summary Review: 3.5 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: Lamppost Pizza offers several crust options, but I paid the extra $0.50 to spring for the thick crust.  In fact, the “thick crust” is less than an inch thick, and the thickness is mainly around the edges.  Nevertheless, the slightly crispy crust gave the pizza a robust tummy-filling feel even if the crust’s taste is unremarkable.  Score: 7/10.

Sauce: This pizza is slightly undersauced, but what sauce does appear has a nice tomatoey taste without being overspiced.  I like this sauce, but I would prefer to have more of it, especially on a thick crust pizza.  Score: 8/10.

Cheese: Lamppost uses 100% mozzarella cheese in sufficient quantity, and the cheese has the somewhat bland taste you would expect from 100% mozzarella.  This cheese does not produce too much grease, so it does have that going for it.  Score: 7/10.

Toppings: Both toppings appear in excellent quantity.  The pepperoni has excellent flavor and is cut thicker than average.  The Italian sausage is spicy but only spicy: it has no independent flavor.  Score: 8/10.

Overall Taste: The quantity of toppings and spiciness of the Italian sausage really dominate the taste buds and give pizza a robust, hard-hitting taste.  The overall taste is not bad, but it does not give the flavorful combination some people expect.  Score: 7.5/10.

Pizza Appearance: The high quantity of toppings dominates the pizza’s appearance.

Dining Atmosphere: The location I visited features a medium-sized, nice-looking, functional dining area with a single TV for your dining entertainment.

Customer Service: I was somewhat concerned by the fact that this location had only 1 employee present on my visit, and she spoke only broken English.  Nevertheless, my order was accurate, and I got my pizza quickly.

Monetary Value: The price is a little high for a 10” pizza, even after you take the thick crust into consideration.  The pizza’s quality is also good, so the value is about average.

The Final Judgment:

Lamppost Pizza offers a lot of different pizza options, so you can return often without repeating an order.  This pizza ranks slightly above average in my book.  Score: 78/100.

Original Pizza House in Sacramento, CA

Basic Information:

Pizza: Original Pizza House

Number of Locations: 2, both near Sacramento, CA

Location Reviewed: 661 San Juan Road (Update: this location is now closed.  2 others remain open.)

Website: https://originalpizzahouse.com/

Date of Review Visit: June 2016

What I Ordered: medium (12”) pizza with pepperoni

Price: $6.50 (on special; includes tax)

Photos:

Summary Review: 4 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: The crust made by the Original Pizza House has a nice texture: it is brown and crispy on the outside but chewy on the inside. The crust has a fresh bready taste, as it should.  My pizza was baked exactly the right amount.  This is a solid crust, though nothing makes it stand out from its peers.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: The sauce appears in good quantity and has a fresh tomatoey taste, which is not surprising given that California is the top tomato producing state.  Overall, this sauce is near-perfect.  Score: 10/10.

Cheese: The pizza is slightly undercheesed, but only slightly.  The cheese does not have a lot of flavor, but it produces quite a bit of grease, hence the mediocre score on this criterion.  Score: 5/10.

Toppings: The thin slices of pepperoni appear in good quantity.  The meat features just barely enough spices to let you know you are eating pepperoni as opposed to mystery meat.  I only ordered 1 topping for the reason given under the “value” criterion below.  Score: 8/10.

Overall Taste: Everything comes together pretty well.  The only real downside is the large amount of grease produced by the cheese.  Only ordering one topping might have hurt this score a little as well.  Score: 7.5/10.

Pizza Appearance: The pizza has a balanced clean-cut appearance.

Dining Atmosphere: Original Pizza House has a small functional dining area with a single TV for your dining entertainment.

Customer Service:  The service was quick and attentive.

Monetary Value: On my visit, they were running a special for $5 off a 1 topping medium pizza.  This deal made the value extraordinarily good, and it is the reason I ordered only 1 topping.  At full price, the value is still decent.  They offer a large number of pizza sizes to help with the value as well.

The Final Judgment:

The Original Pizza House offers a slightly boring pizza but does so with good quality and value.  If I lived in Sacramento, I would come here often.  Score: 84/100.

Shakey's Pizza Parlor

Basic Information:

Pizza: Shakey’s Pizza Parlor

Number of Locations: about 50, mostly in southern California

Location Reviewed: 2437 E. Glenn Ave. in Auburn, AL (Update: this location is now closed.  Only locations in California and Washington remain open.)

Website: http://www.shakeys.com/

Date of Review Visit: January 2016

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

Price: $12.19 (includes drink and tax)

Photo:

Summary Review: 3.5 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: Shakey’s offers two crust options: traditional thin and sourdough pan. As regular readers of this blog would expect, I chose pan.  The crust has a near-perfect texture: crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.  I could not taste the sourdough, but the crust tasted like good quality bread.  I like it.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: This pizza is very undersauced.  When I did get a lick of sauce, it had a sweet taste similar to Papa John’s, which I liked.  Overall, this sauce is good, but the pizza needs more of it.  Score: 6/10.

Cheese: This pizza is definitely not undercheesed: a nice layer of mozzarella or provolone blankets the pizza.  The cheese does not produce too much grease, so it is good quality.  Sprinkling on some parmesan only enhances the flavor.  Score: 10/10.

Toppings: The Italian sausage is downright terrible: it comes in large pellets that dissolve into grease when you bite them.  The pepperoni is a little better: it comes in thin slices that are only slightly spicy.  Overall, the toppings need improvement.  Score: 3/10.

Overall Taste: The good and bad really clash here.  This pizza tastes like good quality pizza if your bite includes only crust and cheese, but you learn otherwise when you bite into the toppings.  Score: 7.5/10.

Pizza Appearance: The pizza’s appearance is fine except for the pellet sausage.

Dining Atmosphere: The restaurant has a nice casual dining atmosphere, but the dining area is too large: I was the only customer in the building at 5:30 pm on a Thursday.

Customer Service: Shakey’s offers counter service rather than table service, but I had no trouble ordering.

Monetary Value: The price is reasonable, but the quality is only OK.  Thus, the value is only slightly better than average.

The Final Judgment:

Shakey’s is a decent pizza option, but there are better.  It could be a real winner with some better toppings.  Score: 78/100.