Erie Perfect Pizza Pursuit

Price at Purchase: $1.50 per square Pieces: As many or few as you'd like Description: Spinach, sausage, onion and ricotta. What We Liked:   This was the second pizza we tried on our first trip to Virgil's.  Please see our Maggio Review for our impressions of the restaurant.  This was also a white sauce pizza, with a garlic infused olive oil and wasn't the typical greasy, salty, buttery, white sauce offered most everywhere else.  Because of this, the flavors of the other toppings really stood out.  Fresh spinach, not frozen.  Fresh onions.  Sausage that wasn't greasy and still full of flavor.  Great presentation and a pizza that looked like it should've been way more expensive than it was.  We really enjoyed the Maggio and we'd rate this slightly higher (if we could). What We Didn’t Like:  ( Reprise)   The crust is par-baked.  We understand the necessity of having a par baked crust when offering 12 individual squares.  However, this is the only downsid

Price at Purchase: $1.50 per square Pieces: As many or few as you'd like Description: Olive oil, spinach, onion, tomato, and ricotta. What We Liked:   This was our first trip to Virgil's and it was in a nice location, clean, and we were greeted by the owner when we first entered.  Their signature style is offering pizza by the square.  A large pizza has 12 squares and you can customize each individual square as you'd like.  As for the pizza itself, aesthetically...just look at it.  Where would you find pizza like this elsewhere in town?  We've been to almost every pizza shop and none of them look like a culinary work of art.  Clearly, the owner has put thought into the combination of toppings, quality of ingredients, and presentation.  The other employees were even dressed to fit the part of a "chef".  Being a white pizza, it had a garlic infused olive oil and wasn't the typical greasy, salty, buttery, white sauce offered most everywhere else.

Price at Purchase: $10.50 + tax Size/Diameter/Slices: Medium / 12"/8 Description: Medium "white pizza" with chicken, tomato, and onion What We Liked:   To be honest, we liked almost everything about this pizza.  Not only was the freshly made dough consistent and flavorful, all the ingredients really popped.  I first noticed how much cheese there was, which I enjoyed.  The tomatoes and onions tasted very good, were fresh, and again complemented the rest of the pizza.  The chicken was fully cooked, but still tender.  We would comment on the "white pizza" aspect here, but we can't...which leads me into the next section... What We Didn’t Like:  Unfortunately...this wasn't a white pizza!  Traditionally a white pizza is devoid of pizza sauce, and has a good amount of olive oil, salt, and herbs.  There was definitely pizza sauce here, and we didn't notice any additional herbs sprinkled on the top.  Jen had wished she added some fresh basil to

Price at Purchase: $13.95 + tax Size/Diameter/Slices: Standard / 14"/8 Description: Deep Dish pizza with pepperoni...and pepperoni...and pepperoni. What We Liked:   Where to start with this thing?  Well, in terms of what we liked, the dough and crust was very good.  Even though this crust had to support multiple layers of toppings, it wasn't thin and non-existent, which is a good thing.  Also, the sauce was pretty excellent and was actually the tastiest part of this deep dish.  It's a good thing because there was SO much sauce... What We Didn’t Like:  We're not really sure where to start with things we didn't like.  Some people might love multiple layers of pepperoni (I'm a big pepperoni fan), but on this pizza they were simply overwhelming.  A little bit of pepperoni goes a long way.  As mentioned above, there was a ton of sauce on this thing also.  We think there was cheese on the pizza, but we couldn't tell.  The "assembly" of the p

Price at Purchase: $9.95 + tax Size/Diameter/Slices: Medium / 12"/8 Description: Medium pizza with tomato, spinach, oil, garlic, and Parmesan cheese What We Liked:   Spinach and tomato...although I was hesitant, this pizza surprised me!  We typically find a fault with homemade crust, but Steveo's was evenly baked, light, and had a slight hint of seasoning.  We discussed coming up with descriptive words other than "awesome" and "great" but we failed miserably.  The tomatoes were fresh, were not pre-cooked (a touchy subject), and the oil and garlic added flavor, while managing to avoid being greasy.  The Parmesan cheese, although not a necessity, complemented this pizza nicely. What We Didn’t Like:  I'm not just saying this because it's healthy, but the spinach wasn't my favorite...but that's a personal preference.  Even still, I enjoyed the pizza, so it's a minor complaint (again, it was prepared the way spinach should be).  If

Price at Purchase: $10.95 + tax Size/Diameter/Slices: Medium / 12"/8 Description: Medium pizza with chicken, tomatoes, mozzarella, and butter garlic sauce What We Liked:   It was nice to try something different, as our usual orders consist of supremes and custom orders with sausage and pepperoni. This pizza had plenty of cheese, chicken and tomatoes and tons of flavor from the buttery/garlicky sauce. The tomatoes were fresh, the grilled chicken was tender and the crust was soft and chewy and crispy on the outside (fresh dough). What We Didn’t Like:  I tricked myself into believing this would be a healthier version of the pizzas we typically order... not the case. This pizza was super greasy from the excess butter & garlic sauce. It tasted great, sure, but it was literally dripping with butter. I chose the patented napkin-dabbing method in order to minimize my fat/calorie consumption for the day, but not sure how much it helped. Overall:   We also ordered this ve

Price at Purchase: $10.80 + tax Size/Diameter/Slices: Medium / 14"/10 Description: Medium pizza with sausage and sweet peppers (medley) What We Liked:   We were anticipating the fresh homemade crust advertised on Alfee's menu and for the most part, it wasn't a disappointment. There were a lot of toppings on the pizza, and even though the veggies were cooked (a pizza sin in Jen's book) they were flavorful and good.  The sausage had a nice amount of spice to give the pizza some zing, and there was plenty of cheese as well.  We can't fail to mention the price was pretty reasonable too. What We Didn’t Like:  Although homemade, the crust was a bit tough; however, not enough so to really detract from the great taste.  The pie had a little grease, but honestly this could've come from the sausage, which is almost impossible to avoid.  Of course, even though the vegetables were OK in this form, we would've preferred them to not be cooked beforehand :)

Price at Purchase: $12.75 + tax Size/Diameter/Slices: Regular / 12"/8 Description: Regular pizza with pepperoni, sausage, ham, meatball, green peppers, onions, mushrooms, and banana peppers (yuck) What We Liked:   Advertised on their menu, the fresh crust was pretty good, and we think they may have added some garlic butter for extra flavor.  There wasn't a whole lot of texture, but at the same time it wasn't chewy.  There were a lot of toppings on the pizza, almost to a fault, but there should've been given the high cost of this pie.  Also, there was a good amount of cheese behind the mounds of toppings. What We Didn’t Like:  One of Jen's pet peeves returns in the form of pre-cooked vegetables.  While this wasn't a huge deterrent to me, I do notice quite a difference as the toppings were "soggy" rather than crunchy.  As mentioned, the large amount of toppings actually led to the cheese sliding off the crust when choosing a piece, which is

  Price at Purchase: $14.30 including tax Size/Diameter/Slices: Medium / 12"/8 Description: Medium pizza with 1/2 meatballs and green peppers; 1/2 sausage and onions What We Liked:   We were pretty impressed with this restaurant. The service was great, especially considering we placed this order on a holiday when most other local pizzerias were closed. The crust was made with fresh dough and the vegetables were also fresh (not pre-cooked). The sausage was a bit spicy (this is a good thing in my opinion) and the meatballs are homemade. There were a lot of toppings on the pizza and the sauce was very tomato-ey. What We Didn’t Like:  The crust on the pizza is a bit on the thin and crispy side, which was very good, but a little too crispy for my taste. We ordered a two-topping pizza; however, since we split the pizza in half (two different toppings on each side), we're pretty sure they charged us for four toppings instead. The guy working mentioned they would be comi

Price at Purchase: $11.50 + tax Size/Diameter/Slices: Large / 16"/8 Description: Large pizza with pepperoni Location: North Springfield What We Liked:   Location and convenience are the two biggest draws of purchasing a pizza from Tasty Twist.  Notice neither of those are pizza-related.  They JUST started offering pizzas (the day we bought it actually) so we understand they aren't trying to win any awards.  The pizza slices were nice and big, and the price for a 16" large wasn't too bad.  A lot of toppings was also a nice touch and the pepperoni was flavorful. What We Didn't Like:  Unfortunately having two pizza critics as first-day customers won't work out well for you.  The pizza needed to be in the oven a few more minutes as the cheese wasn't completely melted.  The amount of sauce, which tasted OK, was too high and overpowering.  In addition, the pepperoni was plentiful but the cheese was not.  Little cheese and a lot of sauce made the pizza t

Price at Purchase: $10.95 + tax Size/Diameter/Slices: Medium / 12"/8 Description: Medium pizza with extra cheese, pepperoni, green peppers, onions, and mushrooms What We Liked:   The amount of toppings was pretty good for a supreme.  The extra cheese was very flavorful and the other toppings were spread evenly over this pie.  That includes both onions (not my favorite) and mushrooms (not Jen's favorite).  The crust was fresh, which is good, but wasn't our favorite. What We Didn’t Like:  Although the crust was fresh, it was also  very  greasy and unfortunately it was fairly chewy as well.  It didn't have the light, fluffy, crispy taste that we've found in other pizzas.  One of Jen's pet peeves are vegetables that are cooked before going onto the pizza.  Barbato's does this and as a result the toppings, especially the onions and green peppers weren't full of flavor and lacked the "crunch" that makes fresh vegetables good. Overall:

Price at Purchase: $8.48 + tax (with coupon) Size/Diameter/Slices: Large / 14"/12 Description: Large(ish) pizza with cheese and meatball What We Liked:   The meatball topping (homemade) was plentiful and were sizeable chunks, rather than thinner slices akin to many other pizzerias.  The crust, although not homemade or fresh, was still enjoyable and crispy.  Many non-fresh crusts fall pretty flat on taste, but this pizza had enough butter (more on that later) to make it flavorful.  The sauce was tasty and sweet, and there was a pretty good amount of cheese as well. What We Didn’t Like:  Although flavorful as mentioned above, the crust was greasy, closer to a pan pizza from say, a popular franchise.  Jen thought the crust wasn't on par with homemade, but admitted it was pretty good for non-fresh. Overall:   We've both visited Valerio's in the past, but this would be our first pizza reviewed from the restaurant, and we enjoyed it.  Without a coupon, it wou

Price at Purchase: $9.49 + tax Size/Diameter/Slices: Medium / 12"/8 Description: Small pizza with olive oil, ricotta, cheese, mushrooms, onion, sweet peppers, garlic, oregano, basil What We Liked:   We liked the idea of this pizza. It sounded really good on the website and the pictures were very appealing. Also, the idea of fresh crust, garlic, basil and oregano had us excited to try this pizza. The red onions, sweet peppers and mushrooms were adequate as topping, and the amount of toppings was sufficient. It wasn't a BAD tasting pizza. What We Didn’t Like:  Even though the crust was homemade, this first pizza we tried from Mama Mia's had a very chewy, tough consistency.  I was also excited to try a pizza with fresh garlic, basil and oregano; however, I was disappointed  the garlic was powdered (which burns easily when baked and tasted bitter) and the basil and oregano were dried. As a personal preference, I like fresh vegetables on a pizza and the peppers we

Price at Purchase: $10.50 + tax Size/Diameter/Slices: Medium / 12"/8 Description: Medium pizza with pepperoni, sausage, green peppers, onions, black olives, mozzarella What We Liked:   South Gate prominently states their dough is made fresh daily, which we found to be true.  The crust was fresh, cooked evenly and had a consistent taste from start to finish.  It also was not greasy at all.  There was a LOT of cheese on the entire pizza, which was very flavorful.  In contrast, the sauce was good, but didn't really stand out in terms of taste.  The meatballs were great (store-bought frozen) and the veggies were fresh and full of flavor. What We Didn’t Like:  The amount of toppings on the pizza were a little sparse, especially considering the price.  While we didn't have any complaints about the overall taste, we did notice this shortcoming.  Also, I (Brian) called in the order, and asked if specialty pizzas were available in other sizes than large.  I was told n

Price at Purchase: $11.50 + tax Size/Slices: Large/10 Description: Large pizza with pepperoni, sausage, green peppers, onions, black olives, mozzarella What We Liked:   This pizza was edible. The cheese was good and there was a good number of toppings on the pizza. Brian thought the crust was of "consistent" shape, texture and size and the pizza was not overly greasy. What We Didn’t Like:  Although some people may enjoy a par-baked crust, I tend to think it is too crunchy and prefer a fresh homemade crust. Brian thought the crust was okay on this pizza, but he didn't feel strongly either way about it. The vegetables were also pre-cooked, which resulted in some unfortunately soggy toppings. Crunchy vegetables lend a fresher taste to a pizza and the precooked veggies made this pizza fall flat on taste. Overall:   This was our first pizza from Patti's and we were not overly impressed. It was an acceptable run-of-the-mill supreme; however, at best, we thou

Price at Purchase: $7.99 + tax Size/Slices: Large/10 Description: Large pizza with pepperoni, sausage, ham, salami, mozzarella, provolone What We Liked:   For most people, the number of toppings on a pizza make a pizza, and this meat lover’s pizza was completely loaded, especially considering the low price of $7.99.  In addition, the crust was homemade and wasn’t covered in grease like many other franchised/chain locations.  More importantly, the crust tasted good and was of optimal thickness around the outside. What We Didn’t Like:  Common in most meat lover’s pizzas, the combination of all the toppings resulted in a pretty salty taste.  It’s tough to hold it against Little Anthony’s because a lack of toppings would draw fire, and a good amount of toppings is bound to be salty.  There could have been a better balance of ingredients.  Jennifer wasn’t a fan of the sausage, but can’t put her finger on exactly why, albeit a type of seasoning or spice.  The thin crust in the mi