Rocky Rococo Pizza

Basic Information:

Pizza: Rocky Rococo Pizza

Number of Locations: 31, mostly in Wisconsin
Location Reviewed: Fox River Mall Food Court in Appleton, WI
Website: https://rockyrococo.com/
Date of Review Visit: October 2025
What I Ordered: small pizza with Italian sausage and pepperoni
Price: $20.01 (pizza only)
Photos:

Summary Review: 4 stars (out of 5)

 

Detailed Review:

Crust: Rocky Rococo Pizza has a thick crust, but it is not quite your typical Chicago-style pan crust.  The crust is very bready; it has a soft texture with a crusty outer edge.  This crust is very good.  Score: 10/10

Sauce: The sauce is on the bitter side, and this pizza is slightly undersauced.  I like sweet sauces, so to my taste palette the sauce is the worst feature of this pizza.  Score: 7/10

Cheese: This pizza has plenty of yummy cheese, and it does not produce a lot of grease.  Excellent!  Score: 10/10

Toppings: The sausage is a sweet Italian sausage that comes in nice large chunks.  The pepperoni has a mild seasoned pork taste.  Both toppings appear in above average quantity.  Score: 9/10

Overall Taste: The bitter flavor from the sauce really hurts because everything else combines to make a tasty pizza.  Score: 8.5/10

Pizza Appearance: Rocky Rococo makes rectangular pizzas, so they are bigger than you might think for the size you order.  It looks like the robust pizza it is.

Dining Atmosphere: The location I visited is located in a standard mall food court, and therefore the dining atmosphere feels like a mall food court with lots of people, noise, and other dining options around.

Customer Service: This location has counter service.  The service was quick, but they were not busy when I came here at 5pm on a Monday.

Monetary Value: The price is a mall price, i.e. it is high relative to what you put in your mouth.  Note that the price I give above is only for the pizza; drinks would have been extra.

The Final Judgment:

Rocky Rococo is a remarkable regional reward among Wisconsin pizzas.  I'd rave over this restaurant, but I reserve my regards due to the wretched-to-me sauce and the rocket-high price.  Score: 84/100

Sal’s on Fifth in Minneapolis, MN

Basic Information:

Pizza: Sal’s on Fifth

Number of Locations: 1

Location Reviewed: 10 N. 5^th St. in Minneapolis, MN (near the corner of 5^th St. and Hennepin Ave.)

Website: https://www.salsonfifthmenu.com/

Date of Review Visit: August 2018

What I Ordered: 2 slices of meatlovers pizza; Coke to drink

Price: $12.05 (includes drink and tax)

Photo:

Summary Review: 3 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: Like many downtown pizza places, Sal’s sells reheated pizza by the slice.  The pizza has a thin but crispy crust.  Reheated pizza usually has a very tough crust, but this crust has just the right amount of crispiness.  Crust is never the strength of this kind of pizza, but this crust scores better than most in its category.  Score: 8/10.

Sauce: This pizza does not have a lot of sauce, but the sauce does have a nice, fresh, tomatoey flavor.  Again, this criterion is better than you would expect for this kind of pizza.  Score: 7/10.

Cheese: This pizza does not have much cheese, and the cheese does not have much flavor.  This pizza does have a lot of grease, but the extra toppings on the meatlovers pizza might contribute to that.  Score: 4/10.

Toppings: The pepperoni and sausage are pretty tasty with just the right amount of spice.  The ham is nice and tender.  The bacon adds very little.  All toppings appear in good quantity.  Score: 8/10.

Overall Taste: Sal’s offers a lot of specialty pies, and the meatlovers is quite flavorful except for the grease.  Score: 8/10.

Pizza Appearance: Sal’s serves slices of pizza on paper plates, one plate per slice.  The slices are about the same size, which makes things fair.

Dining Atmosphere: The dining atmosphere is the usual crowded downtown environment, but Sal’s has a larger dining area than most downtown pizza places.

Customer Service: The service was impersonal, and I struggled to communicate with the men behind the counter.

Monetary Value: Sal’s has better quality than most reheat by the slice pizza places, but it is also much more expensive.  Therefore, the value is not that great.

The Final Judgment:

The pizza was pretty good but pricey; the service was horrible.  I’m not sure I would come here again, but only due to the service.  Score: 73/100.

Mesa Pizza in Minneapolis, MN

Basic Information:

Pizza: Mesa Pizza

Number of Locations: 3, 2 in Minnesota and 1 in Iowa)

Location Reviewed: 1323 4^th Street SE in Minneapolis, MN (in Dinkeytown)

Website: http://www.mesapizzamn.com/

Date of Review Visit: June 2018

What I Ordered: 2 slices of sausage and pepperoni pizza; can of Dr. Pepper to drink

Price: $9.25 (includes drink and tax)

Photo:

Summary Review: 2 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: The crust at Mesa Pizza has a very hard texture; it is hard to bite and chew.  It tastes reheated, as is usual for pizza by the slice.  I’ve had worse crusts, but this crust does not do much for me.  Score: 3/10.

Sauce: This pizza has very little sauce, although what sauce does exist has a nice tomatoey flavor.  Score: 5/10.

Cheese: There is not much to say about the cheese’s flavor: even sprinkling on some parmesan helps only a little.  It does appear in decent quantity.  Score: 4/10.

Toppings: Mesa has a wide variety of ready-to-reheat pizza types to choose from.  On my pizza choice, the pepperoni is unremarkable and low in quantity.  The sausage is strange: it comes in big rectangular slices and tastes more like goetta (for those of you from Ohio who know what goetta is) than the Italian or pork sausage you normally find on a pizza.  I really didn’t recognize it as sausage at first.  The slices of sausage cover nearly the entire pizza, which I guess is a plus.  Score: 6/10.

Overall Taste: The overall taste is pretty nondescript; enough said.  Score: 5/10.

Pizza Appearance: The block-shaped sausage dominates the pizza’s appearance, and thus the appearance is most ususual.

Dining Atmosphere: The dining atmosphere is the typical crowded downtown atmosphere except that it was nearly empty at 12:30pm on a Wednesday.

Customer Service: The service was counter service and was fine.

Monetary Value: The price is low at 2 slices of pizza plus a drink for less than $10, but the quality is also below average.

The Final Judgment:

The Dinkeytown part of Minneapolis has a college town feel, and Mesa Pizza is a college town pizza.  While not the worst, it is definitely not the best.  Score: 61/100.

Punch Neapolitan Pizza in the Twin Cities, MN

Basic Information:

Pizza: Punch Neapolitan Pizza

Number of Locations: 12, all near the Twin Cities

Location Reviewed: 802 Washington Ave. SE in Minneapolis, MN (Update: this location is now closed, but 12 locations in the Twin Cities remain open)

Website: https://punchpizza.com/

Date of Review Visit: June 2018

What I Ordered: Napoli pizza with pepperoni and sausage; soda to drink

Price: $12.21 (includes drink and tax)

Photo:

Summary Review: 2.5 stars (out of 5)

The Macro:

Crust: The crust at Punch Neapolitan Pizza is not as thin as some other hot oven crusts.  It has a fresh bready taste for the most part, but I also tasted burnt crust quite a bit.  A little burning is expected for this type of pizza, but not this much.  Score: 6/10.

Sauce: This pizza has very little sauce, and what little sauce there is has very little flavor.  The following score might be charitable: Score: 2/10.

Cheese: The 100% mozzarella cheese appears in decent quantity and produces little grease but also little flavor.  You can add more cheeses as toppings (for a price, of course), but the standard cheese is rather bland.  Score: 5/10.

Toppings: The sausage is fresh and yummy with just the right amount of seasoning.  The pepperoni is fairly nondescript.  Both toppings appear in good quantity.  Score: 8/10.

Overall Taste: The blackened crust really overpowers pretty much everything else except sometimes the sausage.  This is a shame because there are some decent things going on here in the taste department.  Score: 7/10.

Pizza Appearance: The pizza’s appearance is nice and robust except for the blackened crust.

Dining Atmosphere: The dining area was crowded and noisy when I came here at noon on a Tuesday.  Two large overhead doors at the front of the restaurant open and give a nice indoor/outdoor atmosphere during the summer.

Customer Service: The counter service was prompt and friendly, but the lady calling order numbers had to yell incessantly over the noise.

Monetary Value: Punch only makes personal sized pizzas, so this is not the choice to feed a large group with large pizzas. Also, the price is higher than it should be for this quality of pizza.  On the bright side, the counter service saves on the tip.

The Final Judgment:

Punch is different enough that I can recommend coming here once to see if it suits your taste.  It does not suit mine, and in the Stadium Village area of Minneapolis I prefer nearby Blaze Pizza over Punch: they make similar pizza styles, but Blaze is the rare combination of cheaper and better.  Score: 66/100.

Sammy’s Pizza and Restaurant in Minnesota

Basic Information:

Pizza: Sammy’s Pizza and Restaurant

Number of Locations: about 15 across MN, WI, and ND

Location Reviewed: 305 Sunnyside Drive in Cloquet, MN

Website: https://mysammys.com/

Date of Review Visit: July 2017

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

Price: $10.41 (pizza only; includes tax)

Photos:

Summary Review: 5 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: Sammy’s Pizza and Restaurant puts their signature twists in the crust of their pizza.  The twists have a nice crispy texture.  The crust is thinner than you would expect for a regional chain this far north.  My pizza was perfectly baked, which is essential due to the twists.  This crust is unique, and I like it.  Score: 10/10.

Sauce: The sauce has a slightly sweet taste.  It appears in good quantity, and it blends well with rest of pizza.  What more could you want? Score: 10/10.

Cheese: The cheese comes in good quantity and has decent flavor, but it produces quite a bit of grease.  Therefore, a mandatory deduction applies.  Score: 8/10.

Toppings: The sausage really steals the show: it comes in big chunks and tastes like fresh, tasty pork.  Eating this sausage is almost like eating pork meatballs.  The pepperoni is less remarkable: it comes in thin slices without a lot of favor.  Both toppings appear in good quantity.  Score: 9/10.

Overall Taste: The sausage takes center stage, but everything works together rather well.  Score: 9/10.

Pizza Appearance: The toppings are neatly placed with exactly one slice of pepperoni and one chunk of sausage on every piece of pizza.  This symmetry is not easy to achieve with Sammy’s criss-cross cutting pattern.

Dining Atmosphere: I ordered to-go, but they have a nice casual dining area.

Customer Service:  The service was quick and attentive.

Monetary Value: The quality is excellent, but this pizza is expensive.  The price I list above does not even include a drink, and it is only a 10” pizza.  Therefore, value is not the strength of this pizza.

The Final Judgment:

Sammy’s Pizza and Restaurant started as a family-owned business with a single location.  They have since expanded, and the region’s pizza eaters are better for it.  Sammy’s is a good pizza option if you find yourself in the upper Midwest.  Score: 90/100.