With almost 60 years in the pizza game, Sal’s has been slinging pies since 1964. While their regular plain pies represent a classic New York style, they’re mostly known for having some of the best Sicilian pizza around. So naturally, I had to evaluate both styles. Starting with the traditional circle pie: the dough is firm, thickish, decent crisp with a cracker-like crunchy undercarriage. The sauce is solid, yet, subdued…sweet with decent tang, but somewhat sparse. The cheese is fairly standard but tasty, of good quality and not too greasy. This is a very prototypical football style New York pie that lacks pizzazz but is very reliable. The standard circle pizza comes in at a very reasonable 7.3, a pie you can set your watch to. The Sicilian pizza is very different in such a good way: thick, doughy, soft, fluffy up top, outstandingly crunchy underneath with exquisitely crispy crust. The dough is excellent in both taste & texture, some of the best you’ll find on a Sicilian pie. The mozzarella cheese is melty & creamy, not too thick, just the perfect amount to coat each slice. Not to be outdone, the sauce is sweet, tangy, and more delicious than the sauce on the regular pies, the only problem is how scantly spread it is on the pizza. Some slices taste like just dough and cheese with a hint of sauce. If they could scoop on a few more ladles of the sauce or maybe provide some on the side, this would rate in the low-to-mid 9s among Sicilian pizza. As it stands, the lack of sauce keeps the Sicilian pie at a very respectable 8.3 with room to improve with extra sauce. Overall, I’d tell the regular pie “I like you as a friend,” but the main attraction is the Sicilian, balancing out to a 7.8 combined score. Make the trek for the Sicilian and see if the sauce is enough for you.
