Todaro Pizza in Clemson, SC

Basic Information:

Pizza: Todaro Pizza

Number of Locations: 1

Location Reviewed: 105 Sloan St. in downtown Clemson, SC

Website: https://todaropizza.com/

Date of Review Visit: June 2014

What I Ordered: Personal (8”) carnivore pizza; Dr. Pepper to drink

Price: $9.80 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

Photo:

Summary Review: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: Google maps calls Todaro Pizza New York style pizza.  They must mean southern New York: the flatbread thin crust is far more similar to pizzas normally found here in the southeast than the floppy, foldable crusts of New York.  Thin crust pizzas are hard to bake well, but mine was perfectly baked, crispy without being burnt.  The crust has a hard time holding all of the toppings (see below), but overall I like it.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: There is not much sauce on this pizza, but that observation fits with the thin crust.  What sauce there is has decent taste but thin consistency.  For you college students who do not want to eat your vegetables, not even on a pizza, this pizza is for you.  Score: 7/10.

Cheese: This pizza appears under-cheesed until you realize that most of the cheese is actually under the toppings.  The mozzarella (or provolone?) cheese is solid white in color.  It appears in good quantity and produces little grease, but it does not have a lot of flavor.  Overall, this cheese grades out pretty well.  Score: 8/10.

Toppings: Todaro may put too many toppings on its pizza.  Wait, did I just write that?  Indeed, this pizza is loaded.  The thick, tender, juicy chunks of ham are especially yummy, but the pepperoni and sausage are also pretty tasty.  Only the bacon, which I found too salty, and the tasteless beef topping prevent a perfect score.  Score: 9/10.

Overall Taste: This pizza makes its marks by brute force with abundant toppings, not by placing delightful flavors on your taste palette (sausage and pepperoni slightly excepted).  That said, it does make its marks, and mostly good ones at that.  Score: 8.5/10.

Pizza Appearance: The pizza looks as robust as it is.  The presentation on waxed paper in a paper plate is basic but functional.

Dining Atmosphere: The dining room has a typical college town atmosphere: merely functional seating with loud rock music blaring through speakers.

Customer Service:  The service is prompt and very New York style (here ya go, buddy!).

Monetary Value: The price is low and quality good, but there are two other considerations.  First, this is only an 8” pizza, not the 10” or 12” that I normally order as a “personal-sized” pizza.  Second, I got a $0.50 discount because I ordered a pizza-drink lunch combination.  Overall, the value still grades out pretty well, but not as well as you might initially think.

The Final Judgment:

Todaro Pizza is a couple of cuts above your run-of-the-mill college town pizza, but it lacks the flavor of the elite level pizzas.  As a self-appointed professor of pizza, my homework assignment for you is to come here at least occasionally, maybe more often if you see fit.  Score: 85/100.

Monte Carlo Italian Restaurant in Lynchburg, VA

Basic Information:

Pizza: Monte Carlo Italian Restaurant

Number of Locations: 1

Location Reviewed: 3230 Old Forest Road in Lynchburg, VA (across the road from Wal-Mart)

Website: https://www.montecarlova.com/

Date of Review Visit: May 2014

What I Ordered: Large (16”) pizza with Italian sausage and pepperoni

Price: $15.65 (pizza only)

Photos:

Summary Review: 5 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: This restaurant may be in Virginia, but the style is as New York as you can get.  The floppy, thin crust will not hold the toppings unless you fold it.  The only real gripe I have about this crust is that the pizza was somewhat underbaked: the crust was even slightly doughy in places.  The underbaking might be due to the fact that I was sitting in the lobby waiting for the pizza.  Overall, New York style pizza, welcome to Lynchburg!  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: There is not much sauce on this pizza, which fits with the ultra-thin crust.  What sauce there is has good taste, consistency, and seasoning.  The sauce does not stand out on its own, but it goes well with the rest of the pizza.  Score: 7/10.

Cheese: The cheese tastes excellent, even aged, and it appears in good quantity.  What’s not to like?  Score: 10/10.

Toppings: Both the pepperoni and sausage have good taste, and the freshness of the sausage is evident by the fact that it is hand-sliced.  Only a slight skimping on quantity prevents a perfect score.  Score: 9/10.

Overall Taste: The pizza is a little greasy, but overall it tastes like a good New York style pizza.  I like it.  Score: 8.5/10.

Pizza Appearance:  The pizza appears a little bare due to the lack of toppings, but otherwise the appearance is fine. 

Dining Atmosphere: The dining room is exquisite: it looks like a 5-star dining room, or as close as I ever get to 5-star dining.  I used to dine in at Monte Carlo all of the time just to sit in the dining room.  

Customer Service: The take-out service is slow: I had to knock on the counter several times to get someone’s attention.

Monetary Value: The quality is very high, and the price is reasonable given that this is a 16-inch pizza, not the 14-inch pizza some pizzerias call a large.  Thus, the value grades out well.

The Final Judgment:

Owned and run by an immigrant from Sicily, Monte Carlo has much going for it and little going against it.  Monte Carlo is not quite my favorite pizza in Lynchburg, but it is very good.  Score: 89/100.

Mama G's Italian Restaurant in Clayton, GA

Basic Information:

Pizza: Mama G’s Italian Restaurant

Number of Locations: 1

Location Reviewed: 777 US 441 South in Clayton, GA (just south of US 76)

Website: https://loveisgoodfood.net/

Date of Review Visit: February 2014

What I Ordered: Small (10”) pizza with sausage and pepperoni; Mello Yellow to drink

Price: $12.52 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

Photo:

Summary Review: 4 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: The crust at Mama G’s is the not-too-thick not-too-thin hand-tossed variety.  I am a thick-crust pizza fan who also sees the value in a thin, crispy crust.  The middle-of-the-road style is probably my least favorite, and the rather pedestrian qualities possessed by this crust did not improve its standing in my book.  On the bright side, the pizza is almost perfectly baked, and some shreds of cheese end up baked on the crust.  Overall, this crust is not bad, but it is a rather ordinary crust that gives the pizza a rather ordinary character.  Score: 6/10.

Sauce: The sauce appears in good quantity, but it has too many herbs and spices for my taste palette.  I ended up tasting only the spices and not the sauce.  A little more delicacy is in order, in my view.  Score: 7/10.

Cheese: The cheese comes in good quantity and quality.  The cheese blend is slightly bland unless you sprinkle on some parmesan provided on the tables.  Then again, given the overspicing of the sauce, blandness in another category may not be so bad.  Score: 8/10.

Toppings: The pepperoni is OK but nothing special.  The sausage, on the other hand, is excellent: it appears to be hand-sliced.  Both toppings appear in good quantity and have the right amount of spiciness.  Score: 9/10.

Overall Taste: The crust holds this category back, but everything else works together pretty well.  The quality of the sausage really helps.  Score: 8/10.

Pizza Appearance: The pizza has a balanced appearance with a nice golden-brown color.

Dining Atmosphere: The dining area is rustic and functional with lots of decorations (too many, in my opinion) on the wall. Some TV’s give a sports bar feel, and live entertainment on selected summer nights adds to the energy.

Customer Service: The service is quick and attentive.

Monetary Value: $12.52 for a 10” pizza and drink is quite steep.  The quality is good but not that good.

The Final Judgment:

I stop at Mama G’s rather often when I am hiking in the north Georgia mountains.  This restaurant is a good if somewhat pricey option to satisfy your pizza hunger.  Score: 79/100.

Pizza House in Travelers Rest, SC

Basic Information:

Pizza: Pizza House

Number of Locations: 1

Location Reviewed: 310 Poplar Street Extension in Travelers Rest, SC (visible from US 25)

Website: https://www.pizzahousetravelersrest.com/

Date of Review Visit: October 2013

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

Price: $10.64 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

Photo:

Summary Review: 3.5 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: Pizza House makes the nice, inch-thick crust that I like.  The crust is crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, as it should be.  Some cheese that spills over onto the crust adds to the flavor.  Occasionally the crust seems bulky and tasteless, but for the most part I really like it.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: The pizza is somewhat under-sauced, and the sauce does not have a lot of flavor or seasoning.  The oddest part about this sauce is the temperature: the sauce is much hotter (in terms of temperature, not spiciness) than the rest of the pizza.  This fact might be a consequence of the way this pizza is cheesed (see below), and I can’t say I like the sauce this way.  Score: 6/10.

Cheese: The cheesing is also unusual: there is a thick layer of white cheese in the middle of the pizza and almost none toward the edges.  Thus, the pizza is only undercheesed if you insist the cheese go all of the way to the edge.  The only real problem in my view is that the cheese does not have much flavor.  Overall, slightly above average marks here.  Score: 6/10.

Toppings: Aside from perhaps the crust, the toppings are the strength of this pizza.  The ground-up sausage almost forms another layer, and there is plenty of pepperoni too.  Neither the sausage nor the pepperoni are particularly spicy, and their tastes are pretty good but not stellar. Score: 9/10.

Overall Taste: Some of the parts grade out well, but nothing on this pizza adds any real flavor.  Thus, the blandness of the thick crust governs the entire taste metric.  The taste is not bad, but it is not particularly good either.  Score: 8/10.

Pizza Appearance: Removing the pizza from the pan gives the pizza an unrefined look, as does the odd cheesing and the sausage “layer.”

Dining Atmosphere: The dining room has not been updated for at least 25 years, and the seats have no padding.  The dirty ceiling tiles make the dining room’s appearance even worse.  Some serious improvement is in order here.

Customer Service: I like the friendly, homey style of the service at Pizza House.

Monetary Value: The price is reasonable, and the quality is above average.  Pizza House seems to be a favorite stop for families with kids.  Overall, the value grades out pretty well.

The Final Judgment:

Pizza House makes a quality if somewhat unspectacular pizza.  A renovation of the dining area would take this pizza place to the next level.  As is, I come here occasionally, but Pizza House is not my favorite pizza restaurant.  Score: 77/100.

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.

Ledo Pizza

The Facts:

Pizza: Ledo Pizza

Number of Locations: 100+ locations across 8 states; based in Maryland

Location Reviewed: 410 Herlong Avenue in Rock Hill, SC

Website: https://ledopizza.com/

Date of Review Visit: September 2013

What I Ordered: Small (10” square) pizza with sausage and pepperoni, breadsticks as appetizer, Dr. Pepper to drink

Price: $12.83 (includes appetizer, drink, and tax but not tip)

Photo:

Summary Review: 5 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: I like this crust: it is thin and crispy yet has some substance.  I also like the fact that Ledo only makes square pizzas, meaning you get more pizza per inch.  I remember the days in Lynchburg, VA when I would carry-out a large Ledo pizza: it would provide all of my meals for two days.  Score: 10/10.

Sauce: Ledo’s sauce is a thick, robust sauce, just as I like it.  The sauce has a good fresh taste, and it is not overspiced.  Mm-mm-mm!  Score: 10/10.

Cheese: If this pizza has a weakness, the cheese is it.  The cheese is used in good quantity, but it has little taste except for the parmesan that I sprinkled on.  Also, this cheese produces quite a lot of grease, far more than produced by good quality cheese.  There is some room for improvement here.  Score: 6/10.

Toppings: Ledo’s toppings are fantastic.  The fresh Italian sausage is sliced into small cubes, and it has just the right amount of spiciness.  The thick-cut pepperoni is among the best I have ever had. Score: 10/10.

Overall Taste: I really like the taste of this pizza.  Only the grease from the cheese keeps this score from being even higher.  Score: 9/10.

Pizza Appearance: The square crust gives this pizza a unique look that I really like.  

Dining Atmosphere: The dining room in Rock Hill has flat screen TV’s and college football decorations covering the walls.

Customer Service: The service was somewhat disappointing: I had to flag the server down to be served even though the dining room was almost completely empty.

Monetary Value: The price looks steep for a 10” pizza, but you have to remember that this is a square pizza.  Also, my order included $2+tax for breadsticks, which has nothing to do with the value of the pizza.  Considering all of these factors and the excellent quality, the value actually grades out pretty well.

The Final Judgment:

I grew attached to Ledo when I lived in Lynchburg, and I remain a fan of this pizza today.  I even drive the 94 miles to Rock Hill on occasion to eat this pizza again.  Score: 91/100.

Al's Pizza and Subs in Harrisburg, PA

Basic Information:

Pizza: Al’s Pizza and Subs

Number of Locations: several, all near Harrisburg, PA

Location Reviewed: 409 N. Enola Road in Enola, PA

Website: https://alspizzaenola.com/

Date of Review Visit: July 2013

What I Ordered: Medium (14”) Pork Heaven Pizza

Price: $15.37 (includes tax but not drink)

Photos:

Summary Review: 5 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: Al’s Pizza makes a nice northern style thick crust.  The pizza is perfectly baked, as evidenced by the speckled brown crust.  The taste of the crust is slightly bland, but only slightly.  Overall, I like this crust.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: The most remarkable thing about this sauce is that I hardly noticed it, and that is not because the pizza is undersauced.  This sauce is not a bold sauce with award winning taste, but it blends with the pizza very well.  Score: 9/10.

Cheese:  The cheese here is exquisite.  The blend is tasty, and it is applied with sufficient quantity to even bake a little on the top of the crust.  Excellent!  Score: 10/10.

Toppings: The toppings are served in high quantity, and most of them are quite tasty.  Most amazing of all, this all-pork pizza does not taste the slightest bit greasy.  Only the bacon causes a deduction: I found it too crispy and salty.  Score: 9/10.

Overall Taste: With all these toppings, no apparent grease, and only a slight salty taste, the taste is top-notch except for the bacon.  Score: 9.5/10.

Pizza Appearance: The pizza looks like the hearty robust pizza it is.

Dining Atmosphere: (unknown because I ordered delivery)

Customer Service: I usually don't order delivery, but of course the one time I did the delivery person was rude.  In his defense, the only reason I had the pizza delivered is because it was raining, but I did give him a large tip.

Value: The price is slightly high but not outrageous for a medium all-pork pizza.  The remarkable fact is that Al’s medium pizza is 14”; that’s a large pizza at the national chains.

The Final Judgment:

I am glad the hotel clerk at Days Inn recommended this pizza to me, and I now recommend it to anyone who finds themselves near Harrisburg.  Score: 92/100.