Little Italy Pizza & Pasta in Abilene, TX

Basic Information:

Pizza: Little Italy Pizza & Pasta
Number of Locations: 1
Location Reviewed: 620 Ambler Ave. (corner of US 83 Business and Ambler Ave. on the north side of Abilene)

Website: https://www.littleitalyexpress.com/
Date of Review Visit: February 2024
What I Ordered: personal (10") pizza with pepperoni, pork sausage, and Italian sausage
Price: $10.81 (pizza only; includes tax but not drink or tip)

Photos:

Summary Review: 4 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: The crust at Little Italy Pizza & Pasta has medium thickness.  The crust has a crispy texture, but some people would say it is a bit too stiff.  This crust has a nice fresh bready taste that I like quite a lot.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: This pizza is slightly undersauced, but what sauce does appear has a nice fresh tomatoey flavor.  Score: 8/10.

Cheese: The cheese does not have much flavor, but it appears in sufficient quantity and does not produce much grease.  Thus, this cheese is better than most.  Score: 8/10.

Toppings: The pork sausage is the horrible pellet of grease that disintegrates on contact with your mouth.  The pepperoni is unremarkable.  The Italian sausage is the star of the show: it is a sliced link sausage with some pork flavor but not too much spiciness.  All toppings appear in sufficient quantity.  Score: 8/10.

Overall Taste: The overall taste would have been very bland except for the Italian sausage.  They need some other tasty toppings to go with some of the other good things on this pizza.  Score: 7.5/10.

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

Dining Atmosphere: I ordered to-go, but the tiny dining area with a few tables and chairs is nothing more than functional.

Customer Service: The service was quick but not helpful when I asked about toppings, which is why I ended up with the pork sausage described above.

Monetary Value: The price is for the pizza only, but this pizza is still very inexpensive for a quality pizza.

The Final Judgment:

Little Italy Pizza & Pasta is a solid pizza option that could be elite with some better toppings.  If I lived in Abilene, maybe as a student at nearby Abilene Christian University, I would come here often.  Score: 84/100.

Pizza Buffet of Anderson, SC

Basic Information:

Pizza: Pizza Buffet of Anderson
Number of Locations: 1

Location Reviewed: 3420 Clemson Blvd. in Anderson, SC (beside the Shell and in front of Ollie's)
Website: https://pizzabuffetofanderson.com/
Date of Review Visit: January 2024
What I Ordered: adult buffet and drink
Price: $14.00 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

Photo:

 

Summary Review: 2.5 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: Pizza Buffet offers 2 types of crust: regular and pan.  The regular crust is hard and crispy, and it is of the low quality you typically find on buffet pizza.  The pan crust is thicker and has a nice spongy texture.  The pan crust is better than you would expect for buffet pizza.  Score: 7/10.

Sauce: the sauce comes in sufficient quantity, but it has an almost bitter taste.  I like sweet tasting sauce, so while I can see why some people would like this sauce, it isn't for me.  Score: 5/10.

Cheese: this pizza is somewhat undercheesed, and the cheese produces quite a bit of grease.  Score: 4/10.

Toppings: of course the quality of the toppings varies by the type of pizza chosen, but the options are actually quite limited (see "Overall Taste" below).  The sausage is of the horrible pellet variety.  The pepperoni is unremarkable.  At least the toppings appear in decent quantity.  Score: 3/10.

Overall Taste: the overall taste is not the best due to the toppings and the sauce.  Bafflingly, there were basically only 3 types of pizza on the buffet: cheese, pepperoni, and sausage.  Most pizzas on the buffet were some variation/combination of those three.  Thus, there was little variety in pizza choice, and there were no "signature" pizzas (ham and cheddar, barbeque, etc.) that made me want to come back.  Score: 5.5/10.

Pizza Appearance: This pizza looks like the low to medium quality pizza it is. 

Dining Atmosphere: Pizza Buffet has a large but somewhat dated dining room.

Customer Service: The service was excellent: they refilled my Dr. Pepper regularly.

Monetary Value: pizza buffets usually shine on this metric, and this one is no exception.  In a world where $14 will barely buy you a small pizza and a drink, to get all the pizza you can eat for that price is a real bargain.

 

The Final Judgment:

Pizza buffets always seem to sacrifice quality for quantity, and this one is no exception.  That said, I like Pizza Buffet better than Pizza Inn, another pizza buffet in this area.  While I prefer higher quality pizzas for regular pizza eating, for the occasional mandatory self-gourding via pizza, Pizza Buffet gets the job done.  Score: 69/100.

Napoli's Pizza, Pasta, and Subs in Marietta, OH

Basic Information:

Pizza: Napoli's Pizza
Number of Locations: 9, mostly near Parkersburg, WV
Location Reviewed: 335 Pike Street in Marietta, OH (on SR 7 just west of I-77 exit 1)

Website: https://www.napolis.com/
Date of Review Visit: October 2023
What I Ordered: small (8") pizza with pepperoni and sausage; 20 oz. Pepsi to drink.
Price: $16.32 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

Photo:

 

Summary Review: 2.5 stars (out of 5)

The Macro:

Crust: The crust on Napoli's Pizza has a light and flaky, almost airy, texture.  The crust is quite crispy, but it is not as thin as many crusts of this type.  I don't usually like thin crusts, but I like this crust.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: The sauce has a nice tomatoey taste, but the pizza is slightly undersauced.  Thus, a mandatory deduction applies.  Score: 8/10.

Cheese: This pizza is slightly undercheesed, but the cheese does not produce much grease.  I've had worse cheese than this.  Score: 8/10.

Toppings: The pepperoni is standard commercial Hormel pepperoni, and the sausage comes in tiny flavorless bits.  Honestly, these toppings are terrible.  At least they appear in decent quantity.  Score: 3/10.

Overall Taste: The toppings really ruin what could be a very tasty pizza.  Unfortunately, on any pizza the toppings are one of the main taste contributors.  Score: 7/10.

Pizza Appearance: Napoli's Pizza has a very average unremarkable appearance.

Dining Atmosphere: The dining area at their Marietta location is tiny and purely functional.

Customer Service: The service was quick and friendly.

Monetary Value: For only an 8" pizza, this pizza is very overpriced relative to what you put in your mouth.

The Final Judgment:

There are elements of a tasty pizza here, but the toppings need a major upgrade and the price is unreasonable.  In Marietta, I like East of Chicago Pizza better.  Score: 69/100.

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)

Photo:

 

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.

Brattleboro House of Pizza in Brattleboro, VT

Basic Information:

Pizza: Brattleboro House of Pizza
Number of Locations: 1
Location Reviewed: 419 Canal St. in Brattleboro, VT (on US 5 just north of I-91, exit 1)

Website: https://www.brattleboropizza.com/
Date of Review Visit: September 2023
What I Ordered: small (10") pizza with sausage and pepperoni; fountain drink
Price: $14.09 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

Photo:

 

Summary Review: 4 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: The crust at Brattleboro House of Pizza has a crispy texture and pleasant fresh taste around the edge.  Unfortunately, it is also too thin and droopy in the middle of the pizza.  I prefer thicker crusts, and I've definitely had better crusts.  Score: 6/10.

Sauce: The sauce has a fresh tomatoey taste, and it appears in adequate quantity.  What more could you want?  Score: 10/10.

Cheese: The cheese is very greasy even though it appears in only average quantity.  The flavor is unremarkable, and adding some parmesan or romano would help with the flavor.  Score: 4/10.

Toppings: The sausage comes in nice, big, fresh chunks with nice pork flavor.  The pepperoni has some pork flavor and just a little hint of spiciness.  Both toppings appear in above average quantity.  Score: 10/10.

Overall Taste: I could have really gotten behind this pizza if it had a thicker crust and more flavorful less greasy cheese.  As is, the overall taste is pleasing but could be better.  Score: 7.5/10.

Pizza Appearance: The crust and grease dominate the pizza's appearance, which is not the best.  

Dining Atmosphere: Brattleboro House of Pizza has a large and somewhat dated dining room.

Customer Service: The service was quick and friendly.

Monetary Value: For decent quality pizza, the price is not crazy expensive for Vermont.  The counter service saves on the tip.

The Final Judgment:

Brattleboro House of Pizza makes a solid pizza that is only a few steps away from being elite.  That said, in Brattleboro, VT I like Brattleboro Village Pizza, which is located 2 exits further north on I-91, better than Brattleboro House of Pizza.  Score: 81/100.