Sky's Pizza Pie in Pensacola, FL

Basic Information:

Pizza: Sky's Pizza Pie
Number of Locations: 1

Location Reviewed: 5559 N. Davis Highway (just north of Home Depot)
Website: https://www.skyspizzapie.com/
Date of Review Visit: February 2023
What I Ordered: 2 slices of pizza with pepperoni and sausage; Dr. Pepper to drink
Price: $13.19 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

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Summary Review: 3 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: Sky's Pizza Pie makes New York style pizza, so it comes in the expected large slices with a thin crust underneath.  The crust on the outside is too crispy for the slice to be foldable, as often happens on reheated pizza slices.  There is nothing really special about this crust.  Score: 5/10.

Sauce: As usual for a New York style pizza, there is not a lot of sauce.  What sauce does appear has a nice fresh tomatoey taste.  Score: 8/10.

Cheese: This pizza does not have a lot of cheese, but it does produce a decent bit of grease.  Score: 5/10.

Toppings: Both toppings come in thin slices and appear in adequate quantity.  The sausage has little flavor.  The pepperoni has just the right amount of spiciness.  Score: 7/10.

Overall Taste: The overall taste is pretty unremarkable due to the flavorless toppings.  Score: 6/10.

Pizza Appearance: The thin sausage slices dominate this pizza's appearance.  The pizza slices are large enough to take up the entire tray.

Dining Atmosphere: Sky's has a no frills casual dining atmosphere.

Customer Service: The service was quick and friendly.

Monetary Value: Sky's is on the expensive side for reheated pizza.  They have some very large pizza sizes that would score high on value, but I had nowhere to store leftovers on my visit.

The Final Judgment:

The overly crispy crust and bland toppings hold this pizza back.  A lot of people like this pizza place, but its score does not go to the sky in my system.  Score: 73/100.

Michelli's Pizzeria in West Melbourne, FL

Basic Information:

Pizza: Michelli's Pizzeria
Number of Locations: 1

Location Reviewed: 145 Palm Bay Road NE in West Melbourne, FL (beside Publix)
Website: http://www.michellispizza.com/
Date of Review Visit: January 2021
What I Ordered: small (10") pizza with sausage and pepperoni, 2 16.9 ounce Dr. Pepper's to drink
Price: $15.27 (includes drinks and tax)

Photos:

Summary Review: 3.5 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: Michelli's Pizzeria makes thin crust New York style pizza.  The crust is nice and crispy on the outside but a little soggy and droopy underneath.  While not terrible, I have had plenty of better crusts than this one.  Score: 6/10.

Sauce: The sauce appears in decent quantity and has a nice tomatoey taste.  What's not to like?  Score: 10/10.

Cheese: This pizza does not have a lot of cheese, but it does produce a decent amount of grease.  Therefore, this cheese is not the best.  Score: 5/10.

Toppings: The sausage is excellent: it comes in nice big slices with just a little spiciness.  The pepperoni is more mundane.  Both toppings appear in high quantity.  Score: 9/10.

Overall Taste: The sauce and toppings work together very well, and the crust and cheese do not get in the way too much.  I like the overall taste of this pizza.  Score: 9/10.

Pizza Appearance: As usual for a thin crust pizza, the toppings dominate this pizza's appearance.

Dining Atmosphere: The dining room was closed due to Covid-19 on my visit, but it looked like nothing more than a couple of tables with chairs.

Customer Service: The service was OK but not particularly helpful at decoding the somewhat complicated menu.

Monetary Value: This pizza has fairly high quality, but the price is high, even when you factor in the two drinks.  Therefore, the value is below average.

The Final Judgment:

I was amazed by how many New York-style pizzas there are on Florida's east coast these days.  Michelli's is not the worst of the lot, but I like nearby N.Y. Pizza Spot more.  Score: 75/100.

N.Y. Pizza Spot in West Melbourne, FL

Basic Information:

Pizza: N.Y. Pizza Spot
Number of Locations: 1
Location Reviewed: 2231 W. New Haven Ave. in West Melbourne, FL

Website: http://nypizzaspot.com/
Date of Review Visit: January 2021
What I Ordered: 2 slices of Sicilian crust pizza with sausage and pepperoni; Mr. Pibb to drink
Price: $11.56 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

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Summary Review: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: N.Y. Pizza Spot offers 2 crust styles: hand-tossed and Sicilian.  I chose the latter, which is a true Sicilian thick crust.  The pizza looks blackened and very overbaked, but in fact mine was only slightly overbaked.  The crust has a nice crispy-on-the-outside chewy-on-the-inside texture.  I like this crust a lot even though it may be a little too crispy.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: This pizza has a nice amount of tomato sauce, but the sauce is slightly overspiced.  Score: 8/10.

Cheese: This pizza features plenty of cheese, and it seems to be 100% mozzarella.  The cheese also does not produce much grease, and therefore it is excellent.  Score: 10/10.

Toppings: The thin slices of sausage are a little spicy but not overly spicy.  The same is true with the pepperoni.  Both toppings appear in high quantity.  Score: 10/10.

Overall Taste: Everything works together pretty well.  Maybe there is too much spiciness when combining the sauce and the toppings.  Also, the blackened crust is a little too crispy.  Score: 8/10.

Pizza Appearance: The blackened crust somewhat tarnishes the pizza's appearance.

Dining Atmosphere: The restaurant has a small dining area with some TV's for entertainment and pictures of New York City on the walls.

Customer Service: The service was prompt and attentive on my visit.

Monetary Value: This pizza is high quality at a reasonable price, and therefore it offers above average value even though the price is not cheap.

The Final Judgment:

I like Sicilian pizza, and N.Y. Pizza Spot makes a pretty good one.  I'm not sure how New York this pizza is, but I like it regardless.  Score: 88/100.

Red Elephant Pizza and Grill in Dothan, AL

Basic Information:

Pizza: Red Elephant Pizza and Grill
Number of Locations: 2, one in Tallahassee, FL and one in Dothan, AL

Location Reviewed: 3108 Ross Clark Circle in Dothan, AL (on the west side of Dothan near US 84)

Website: https://redelephantpizza.com/index.php

Date of Review Visit: December 2020

What I Ordered: Individual (8") pizza with Italian sausage and pepperoni, Dr. Pepper to drink

Price: $11.96 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

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Summary Review: 3.5 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: The crust at Red Elephant is a true southern thin crust.  It has a nice crispy texture, and my pizza was baked just the right amount.  I like it.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: There is not a lot of sauce on this pizza.  What sauce there is has a pasty texture and does not offer much flavor.  Score: 5/10.

Cheese: This pizza has a moderate amount of cheese, and it does not produce much grease.  Therefore, I like this cheese more than moderately much.  Score: 8/10.

Toppings: The sausage appears in tiny crumbles; it is spicy but provides no real flavor.  Likewise the pepperoni adds little flavor.  Both toppings appear in high quantity.  Score: 5/10.

Overall Taste: This pizza leaves spiciness but not much else on the taste palette, so this score leaves somewhat to be desired.  Score: 6/10.

Pizza Appearance: The pizza looks like the nice thin crust pizza it is.

Dining Atmosphere: Red Elephant has a nice dining area with some video games for younger patrons or young-at-heart patrons.

Customer Service: The service was quick and attentive.

Monetary Value: The quality is decent, and the price is relatively low.  Therefore, the value is pretty high.

The Final Judgment:

There are some things to like about Red Elephant (even if you are not a Crimson Tide fan), but in Dothan I like nearby Mama Rosa's a little more.  Score: 76/100.

OPS Pizza Kitchen and Cafe in Kingsland, GA

Basic Information:

Pizza: OPS Pizza Kitchen and Cafe

Number of Locations: 3, all in northeast Florida or southeast Georgia)

Location Reviewed: 1378 Boone Ave. in Kingsland, GA (just east of I-95 exit 3)

Website: https://www.opspizza.com/

Date of Review Visit: December 2018

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

Price: $12.40 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

Photo:

Summary Review: 2.5 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: OPS bills its pizza as a New York style thin crust pizza, but while the crust is indeed thin the pizza looks and tastes more like a wood-fired pizza.  The thin crust has a nice crispy texture.  Only a lack of flavor leads to a minor deduction.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: This pizza has almost no sauce, which is typical for a New York style pizza.  What little sauce it does have tastes slightly spicy almost like salsa.  This is not my favorite style of sauce.  Score: 2/10.

Cheese: The cheese appears in high quantity and does not produce much grease.  The 100% mozzarella cheese “blend” also does not have much flavor.  Even sprinkling on some parmesan helps only a little.  Score: 7/10.

Toppings: Both toppings appear in decent quantity, but that’s where the good news ends.  The sausage is slightly spicy but comes in flavorless tiny ground chunks.  The pepperoni comes in thin slices and is also fairly flavorless.  Score: 6/10.

Overall Taste: The overall taste is rather lackluster, as nothing really adds any distinct flavor.  Score: 6.5/10.

Pizza Appearance: The pizza has a solid appearance with an even cut.

Dining Atmosphere: The dining atmosphere resembles a sports bar with lots of TV’s big and small tuned to sports programming and 80’s rock music blaring through the speakers.

Customer Service: The service was attentive and fine.

Monetary Value: The price is fairly expensive for a 10” pizza, and the quality is not that great.  Therefore, the value is not that great.

The Final Judgment:

A decent regional pizza option but nothing more, OPS is OK in my book (but only OK).  Score: 69/100.

Gondolier Pizza

Basic Information:

Pizza: Gondolier Pizza

Number of Locations: 19 locations across 4 states; based in Cleveland, TN

Location Reviewed: 6901 Lee Highway in Chattanooga, TN

Website: https://gondolierpizza.com/

Date of Review Visit: October 2013

What I Ordered: 2 small pizzas, 1 with sausage and pepperoni, and 1 with sausage and onions

Price: $11.84 (includes tax but not drink)

Photos:

Summary Review: 4 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: The crust is a nice, thick crust baked to a perfect golden brown.  The crust does not have a lot of taste, but it does its job without being bulky or distasteful.  This is not the best crust ever, but it is pretty good.  Score: 8/10.

Sauce: You hardly notice the sauce thanks to all the cheese (see below), but that is not because the pizza is undersauced.  The sauce does not have a strong taste, and even though it may do little to add to the pizza, it certainly does nothing to detract from it.  Score: 8/10.

Cheese: This is probably not the tastiest blend of cheese I have ever eaten, but the quantity more than makes up for any blandness.  The cheese covers the pizza from crust to crust with a thick layer of off-white goodness.  Memo to the national chains: this how you cheese a pizza.  Score: 10/10.

Toppings: As good as the cheese is, the toppings are almost as bad.  The sausage appears as tiny ground balls, and the thin slices of pepperoni add only a little flavor.  The quantity is decent but not excellent.  There is room for improvement here. Score: 5/10.

Overall Taste: The cheese and crust make a nice combination, but the taste of this pizza is held back by the quality of the toppings.  I do like the taste of this pizza, but it could be better. Score: 8/10.

Pizza Appearance: The appearance of the pizza is satisfactory except that the cheese looks too white to me.

Dining Atmosphere: The dining room has a casual family atmosphere with big screen TV’s.

Customer Service: The service was quick and attentive.

Monetary Value: Now here’s an odd case.  Gondolier sells their pizzas buy-one-get-one free.  If you only buy 1 pizza, the value is probably average at best.  Buy two and the value/quality ratio starts to tip in your favor.  Thus, you should bring a friend or take one home for tomorrow whenever you come to Gondolier.

The Final Judgment:

Gondolier makes a pretty good pizza, and it is significantly better than the national chains.  I will come here again the next time I am in the Chattanooga area.  Score: 84/100.