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.

Angelo's Italian Restaurant in Kingsland, GA

Basic Information:

Pizza: Angelo's Italian Restaurant
Number of Locations: 1

Location Reviewed: 1371 Highway 40 East (1st traffic light east of I-95, exit 3)
Website: https://www.angelositalianrestaurantga.com/
Date of Review Visit: February 2023
What I Ordered: large (16") pizza with sausage and pepperoni; Dr. Pepper to drink
Price: $21.16 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

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Summary Review: 4 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: The crust on Angelo's Italian Restaurant's pizza has a crispy texture with medium thickness.  I could taste the freshness in this crust.  Unfortunately, my pizza was also slightly overbaked.  I would have really liked this crust if it were not overbaked.  Score: 7/10.

Sauce: The sauce has a thick texture with a nice tomatoey taste.  It appears in high quantity.  The pizza tastes spicy due to spices they sprinkle on top of pizza, not due to the sauce as with many pizzas.  Score: 10/10.

Cheese: The cheese is 100% mozzarella.  The taste is a little bland, but it appears in adequate quantity and leaves very little grease.  Score: 8/10.

Toppings: The sausage comes in tiny crumbles and adds no independent flavor.  Likewise the pepperoni adds a little spice but nothing else.  Both toppings appear in only adequate quantity.  Score: 5/10.

Overall Taste: The spices sprinkled on top of the pizza combined with the spiciness of the sausage and pepperoni overwhelmed my taste palette.  It is just too much spiciness for me.  Score: 7/10.

Pizza Appearance: This pizza looks like what it is: a medium-thickness crust pizza with too many spices on top.

Dining Atmosphere: Angelo's Italian Restaurant has a small homey dining area that was quite crowded when I came here on a Friday afternoon.

Customer Service: The service was pretty quick considering they were busy.

Monetary Value: The price seems a little high, but this is a quality 16" pizza with a drink, so the value grades out better than you might initially think.

The Final Judgment:

Angelo's Italian Restaurant would win my golden oven pizza award with some better toppings and fewer spices to cover up the other flavors.  I still like it better than OPS Pizza Kitchen across the street, and I see why this restaurant is so popular.  Score: 81/100.

Marco's Pizza, Pepperoni Magnifico

Basic Information:

Pizza: Marco’s Pizza

Number of Locations: many nationwide

Location Reviewed: 1815 E. Greenville St. in Anderson, SC

Website: http://marcos.com/

Date of Review Visit: January 2023

What I Ordered: Large (14”) Pepperoni Magnifico pizza (2 types of pepperoni plus extra cheese)

Price: $10.99 (on promotional special; includes pizza only with tax)

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Summary Review: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: The standard crust on Marco's Pizza is the thickest standard crust of any national chain, but the thick crust is needed to support the large volume of cheese and toppings, as described below.  Besides, the crust has a pleasant bready taste, and I like thick crusts.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: There is plenty of sauce on this pizza, and it has a thick texture with a robust tomatoey taste.  The sauce tastes slightly overspiced to me, but that may be due to my preference for sweet sauces.  Overall, this is a good sauce.  Score: 8/10.

Cheese: The cheese is a little on the greasy side, but there is plenty of it.  You can even see the cheese baked into the edge of the crust.  This pizza is supposed to have extra cheese compared to their non-specialty pizzas, but I can't honestly say I could tell a lot of difference: their standard pizzas have plenty of cheese too.  Score: 8/10.

Toppings: This pizza has plenty of pepperoni, as its name implies.  The old world pepperoni comes in thin slices that cup as the pizza bakes, while the traditional pepperoni stays flat on the pizza.  The old world pepperoni is slightly spicier than its traditional counterpart.  I like the pepperoni combination here, but I like the sweet/spicy combination of Marco's ham and Italian sausage more.  Score: 8/10.

Overall Taste: The robustness of the cheese and toppings are what really stand out with this pizza.  This is hearty fare for the serious pizza-eater, not a light snack for the delicate among us.  I like this pizza's taste, but you have to decide if it is what you want.  Score: 9/10

Pizza Appearance: The golden brown pizza looks great.  Even the box is one of the best looking pizza boxes I have ever seen.  Magnifico!

Dining Atmosphere: The Marco's in Anderson has a small dining area with a few tables and chairs; it is functional but no more.

Customer Service: Rarely have I had issues with the service at Marco's.

Monetary Value: The quality is quite high, and even at the regular menu price, the price is reasonable.  Thus, the value is quite high.

The Final Judgment:

Marco's is my favorite national chain pizza.  Even though I like one of their non-specialty pizzas more than the Pepperoni Magnifico, I would still recommend this pizza to pepperoni lovers.  Score: 89/100

Giordano's Pizza

Basic Information:

Pizza: Giordano's Pizza
Number of Locations: around 60 across 9 states, most numerably in Illinois; based in Chicago
Location Reviewed: 10180 Diebold Road in Fort Wayne, IN (just east of I-69 exit 316)

Website: https://giordanos.com/
Date of Review Visit: October 2022
What I Ordered: small Meat and More Meat deep dish pizza (sausage, pepperoni, salami, and bacon); Dr. Pepper to drink
Price: $31.64 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

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Summary Review: 5 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: Giordano's offers several crust styles; of course I chose the deep dish.  This crust is a true Chicago-style deep dish crust.  It is crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, and it is almost as good as any crust I have ever had.  Score: 10/10.

Sauce: the sauce is a thick, robust tomato sauce that tastes like real tomatoes.  This is my kind of sauce.  Score: 10/10.

Cheese: the cheese is a thick layer of mozzarella cheese made especially for Giordano's in Wisconsin.  Yum!  Score: 10/10.

Toppings: I have never cared for the taste of salami on a pizza, so I would have preferred they held the salami.  The sausage comes in nice big chunks.  The pepperoni has just the right amount of spiciness.  The bacon is on the salty side.  All toppings appear in high quantity.  Score: 10/10.

Overall Taste: The salami taste has never blended in on any pizza for me, and I tasted too much salt with the bacon.  Otherwise, everything comes together very well.  Score: 9.5/10.

Pizza Appearance: This pizza has the classic look of a Chicago style deep dish pizza.

Dining Atmosphere: The Fort Wayne location has a nice, slightly upscale casual dining atmosphere.

Customer Service: I have no idea why it took 45 minutes to make my pizza. Otherwise, the service was fine.

Monetary Value: Honestly, this is the most I have ever paid for a small pizza.  Giordano's makes great pizza, but it will cost you.

 

The Final Judgment:

I really like this pizza, almost as much as fellow Chicago-style classics Uno and Lou Malnati's.  Due to the price, I would save Giordano's for those special pizza occasions.  Score: 90/100.

Raimondo's Pizza in Fort Wayne, IN

Basic Information:

Pizza: Raimondo's Pizza
Number of Locations: 1
Location Reviewed: 2608 W. State Blvd. in Fort Wayne, IN (just west of Price Elementary School)

Website: https://www.raimondospizza.com/
Date of Review Visit: October 2022
What I Ordered: large (14") pan pizza with sausage and pepperoni; fountain drink
Price: $16.83 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

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Summary Review: 4 stars (out of 5)

The Macro:

Crust: Raimondo's offers pan and hand-tossed crust options.  I chose the thicker pan crust.  The pizza does indeed have a nice thick pan crust, almost a Chicago-style crust.  It is brown and crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.  This crust is excellent.  Score: 10/10.

Sauce: The sauce appears in adequate quantity, but it is very overspiced.  I tasted the spices more than I tasted the tomatoes, and that is not my style of sauce.  Score: 6/10.

Cheese: The cheese appears in above average quantity, but it leaves quite a bit of grease.  Hence, a mandatory deduction applies.  Score: 8/10.

Toppings: The sausage appears in tiny ground up bits.  It has some spices but no real flavor.  Likewise the pepperoni has a little spice but no real flavor.  Both toppings appear in high quantity.  Score: 6/10.

Overall Taste: Several components on this pizza are overspiced, so the overall taste is rather lacking.  Score: 6.5/10.

Pizza Appearance: The pizza's appearance is dominated by the crust, as you would expect on a pan pizza.

Dining Atmosphere: Raimondo's has a no frills dining area with just some tables and chairs.

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

Monetary Value: For a 14" pan pizza, the price is down right cheap. Therefore, the value is high.

The Final Judgment:

My like for this pizza begins and ends with the crust.  I can see why some people like it in total, and I would come here at least occasionally if I lived in Fort Wayne.  Score: 81/100.

Capri's Italian Restaurant in Spartanburg, SC

Basic Information:

Pizza: Capri's Italian Restaurant
Number of Locations: 1

Location Reviewed: 1927 Boiling Springs Rd. (on SR 9 just north of I-85, exit 75)
Website: https://www.caprisitalian.net/
Date of Review Visit: September 2022
What I Ordered: 12" Trifecta Pizza (Italian sausage, Canadian bacon, and applewood smoked bacon)
Price: $17.34 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

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Summary Review: 4 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: The crust at Capri's Italian Restaurant is on the thinner side, but it is not a true thin crust.  The crust has a solid bready flavor.  Unfortunately, it is also a little on the hard side, possibly due to overbaking.  Score: 6/10.

Sauce: This pizza is rather undersauced, but what sauce I did find had a rich tomatoey flavor.  Score: 7/10.

Cheese: The cheese comes in a thick layer of white goodness, and it appears to be mozzarella or provolone.  The cheese appears in plenty of quantity and produces very little grease.  Score: 10/10.

Toppings: The Italian sausage is very spicy, and the spices even leave an aftertaste.  This sausage is way too spicy for my taste palette.  The Canadian bacon has a nice delicate ham-like flavor.  The applewood smoked bacon comes in tiny bits and tastes like regular bacon to me.  All toppings appear in high quantity.  Score: 7/10.

Overall Taste: The spiciness of the Italian sausage really dominates all of the other flavors, so this score is not as high as it could be.  That's too bad, because some of the other flavors are worthy of coming out more.  Score: 7.5/10.

Pizza Appearance: The toppings dominate this pizza's appearance, as they do on any multi-meat pizza.

Dining Atmosphere: Capri's has a nice casual dining atmosphere with touches of elegance such as cloth napkins and a hostess to take your name when you arrive before announcing that your table is ready.

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

Monetary Value: This pizza is not cheap, but the price is reasonable for a dining experience this good.

 

The Final Judgment:

Capri's is fairly popular, and deservedly so.  But for the spiciness of the Italian sausage, this pizza would be a real winner.  Score: 81/100.

Papa Johns Pizza, Epic Pepperoni-Stuffed Crust

Basic Information:

Pizza: Papa Johns Pizza
Number of Locations: many nationwide
Location Reviewed: 3014 N. Main Street in Anderson, SC
Website: https://www.papajohns.com/

Date of Review Visit: August 2022

What I Ordered: large (14") Epic Pepperoni-Stuffed Crust pizza

Price: $15.25 (pizza only; includes tax)

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Summary Review: 4 stars (out of 5)

 

Detailed Review:

Crust: My usual view of Papa Johns' crust is a mixture of good and bad: I like the fresh bready taste, but I find the crust too bulky.  Enter the pepperoni-stuffed crust.  As the name suggests, they bake both pepperoni and cheese into the crust.  The cheese blends better with the crust than with Pizza Hut's stuffed crust, and I really like this combination.  Score: 10/10.

Sauce: Papa Johns is well-known for using sauce that is way too sweet.  It even tastes too sweet to me, and I like sweet sauces.  Aside from the sweetness, the quantity and texture are quite appealing.  Score: 7/10.

Cheese: Like the crust, the cheese also has a rather bland taste, but this pizza does not suffer from severe undercheesing or greasy poor quality cheese, the two things that make for bad cheese.  Thus, this area grades out fairly high.  Score: 8/10.

Toppings: The only topping is the pepperoni, which of course appears both in the crust and atop the pizza.  The pepperoni is not overly spicy, and it blends nicely with the sweetness of the sauce.  The pepperoni appears in high quantity.  Score: 8/10.

Overall Taste: Everything works together rather well here.  The overall taste seemed a little on the salty side to me.  I could not tell if the saltiness was from the cheese, the pepperoni, or both.  Score: 8/10.

Pizza Appearance: The ample cheese and toppings give this pizza an appealing appearance.  The large crust is a bit unappetizing, but knowing there is cheese and pepperoni inside helps.  I have always thrown out the infamous peppers and garlic sauce that come with every Papa Johns pizza.  That fact does not directly impact the appearance of the pizza, but I needed to mention it somewhere.

Dining Atmosphere: Like most Papa Johns locations, this location does not offer dine-in, and therefore atmosphere is not applicable.

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

Monetary Value: Granted I got this pizza while it was on a promotional special, but this pizza has above average quality for a pretty low price.  Therefore, the value is quite high.

 

The Final Judgment:

Papa Johns is my favorite national pizza chain, and they delivered a nice pizza here.  You should try this one while it is still on promotional special.  Score: 84/100.