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| - I wish I could give this place a 3.5 because it isn't quite "Yay, I'm a Fan," but then again "A-OK" is underselling even if just by a little.
I went to Mario DiCarlo's after hearing from friends that they are one of the best by-the-slice pizza shops they have ever experienced. This particular location opened up recently and is one of two pizza-by-the-slice shops on the Steubenville Pike that you'll find in the Imperial/Oakdale area, there might be more I'm not currently remembering.
The place is new and it smells new. New paint, chemically cleaned floors, etc etc. The decor and amenities are sparse but they do have enough seating for about 5 parties of at least 4 to sit and eat on location. Perhaps they're slowly making it home and the welcoming touches will come in or maybe they're running a lean operating to pad their margins (kudos either way!). If the latter, I would suggest to the management to spruce it up just a little to avoid looking like a warehouse/storage storefront converted into Pizza shop feel.
Ok on to the main attraction, the pizza. If I'm not mistake they're evenly or lower priced than their main competition down the road (Police Station Pizza) and they offer a slightly different take on the dish. At Mario DiCarlo the slices I received were smaller than I expected, but only enough to notice not really enough to be like "oh wow I paid XYZ and I'm still hungry" so hurray for involuntary portion control.
Size aside it was a decent combination of cheese, sauce, and mushrooms. But that's where I am a little torn. The mozzarella was good (maybe not the freshest, but good), the crust was excellent in taste/texture, but the other two things were "meh." The sauce was in need of seasoning, it felt like it was closer to just canned stewed tomatoes with some salt added while the mushrooms had that canned marinated feel to them, maybe I'm just used to those two things being piping hot which I guess would hide the pre-fab taste. Honestly, just throw a little basil in the sauce so that there's a sweet-savory play to it and call it a day since I think at that point all the ingredients would be tied together well enough that the yummy crust would be like BAM! AWESOME!
I will definitely return. Be it for late night dinner options or on my way to/from the laundromat. Mario DiCarlo looks to be a no-frills reliable pizza option, I just hope the complaints I had are more due to growing pains than just the standard since just 5 minutes down the road there's some serious competition albeit more of a thicker crust kind.
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