Fortissimo

Established in 1985, Fortissimo means “very strong” in Italian; but they should really change their name to “Pizza di Base” cause this is very basic pizza. The pie definitely looks better than it tastes; not to say it’s bad pizza, just very plain & generic. The biggest problem is the cheese is too thick with a somewhat sour, off-putting taste, much too heavy for the thinnish dough and overpowers the scant sauce. The dough isn’t crispy but it’s plenty firm, decently tasty, but fairly standard. The crust is excellent; crispy, crunchy, flavorful, easily the star of the pie. The sauce is another problem area; very light, watery, somewhat soupy with slivers of tomato skins, not chunks, providing the other real color on the pizza. I prefer a heartier, sweeter sauce on a pie like this; especially with a fair amount of salty grease invading the overall taste. The combo of the substantial oil and thick cheese overtakes the flavor of the underwhelming sauce; leaving the pie drastically unbalanced. All in all, this is uneventful generic strip mall pizza, nothing special, but saved only by the terrifically crispy & tasty crust; otherwise, this pizza is in the low 6s.