| rev:text
| - Overall: Cash only sucks but there are ATMs within walking distance. So get past the gruff service and blinding interior, and enjoy why you're there: an amazing non-Neapolitan pie and best in Pittsburgh.
_________________________________
Ambiance: 2/5. Occasionally overrun by local highschoolers, especially on weekend nights, that's the lesser of two issues here. Prepare for fluorescent hell--white walls and table-tops turning this into an operating room. It's bland and outdated. Empty pizza box stacks and storage within diner's site doesn't help.
_________________________________
Service: 3/5.
I don't mind the service after fifty or so trips. Essentially serve-yourself after you place your counter order. When placing, it's short, to the point, and occasionally warm or even playful. For newcomers, the gruff may be off-putting, and the shit-giving may stun, but get past it and realize it does little to detract once your order is placed. Pay when you leave, takeout or sit-down.
_________________________________
Drinks: 1/5. Not serving alcohol or water at a sit-down is 1/5. Soda from the coolers bottled, so no refills.
_________________________________
Food: 5/5. I've had most toppings and combos here over the years. I'll generalize as R/W and note significant details. After 20+ years, this is my #1 pizza in Pittsburgh, and when on point, among the best I've eaten in Baltimore, DC, NYC, Chicago, Naples, and Rome.
1) Red Pizza - excellent sauce. It's juicy and thin, fantastically sweet, and finishes with a lightly biting salt. Cheese is stellar too, though only mozzarella available. The dough is not quite crisp, but it's very fresh, fantastic flavor throughout, and the flour-dusted crust is soft yet perfectly chewy. Vegetables are canned, yes, but AIellos puts them under the cheese (might need to request it). This allows flavors to meld, particularly with the sauce. This is no truer than with the pepperoni, where the meat imparts spiciness to the sauce as it begins cooling. The interplay becomes something fantastic, a spicy contrast to the rest of the pie, and it totally won me over years ago. It's what sets it apart from regulars like Mineos, Fioris, Bado's, Vincent's (now closed), and the like.
2) White Pizza - Always order a small. The crust comes out flakier, crispier, and more flavorful. An appropriately light amount of garlic. The Parmesan dusting completes the texture. Most toppings work, but get the stewed tomatoes. It's probably the best pizza here, even better than the red sauce-pepperoni. The tomatoes burst with flavor and sweetness, offsetting the bitterness of Parmesan and garlic, and add a juicy quality to the thick, doughy, and occasionally dry experience. It's the intricacy and texture of a great white pizza with all the flavors and freshness of a sweet red.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)