First opened in 1977 as a hot dog stand outside of Funtown Pier, right near the Log Flume ride, which was the park’s most popular attraction and the origin of the Sawmill name. Since then, it has expanded into a full-fledge restaurant, serving its signature 27” Jumbo Sawmill Pizza for $31 per pie or $5.25 a slice. Humongous boardwalk pizza like this often comes with the stigma of being a “gimmick pie,” usually discredited as quantity over quality; and looking at these relatively low scores, that appears to be the case here. However, this pie has way more substance & much higher quality than standard boardwalk beach pizza. Massively large & incredibly filling, the undercarriage is remarkably firm for such a gigantic pie, with shockingly minimal flop, moderate crisp & modestly tasty dough. The mega crunchy crust has wonderfully smokey char, separating itself from typical trash boardwalk pizza. Super thick & abnormally heavy to accommodate the vast surface space, the shredded mozzarella blend is pretty generic, slightly salty but decently tasty, a notch above basic with a more tight than creamy consistency. Also thick & hearty, the sauce is a plentiful deep red tomato blend, a balance of sweet & savory with mild tang and not nearly as sugary as I had anticipated. Closer to a tomato paste than a purée with spices, the sauce has a distinct flavor, not bad for such a gargantuan pie, far better than greasy bland boardwalk grab-n-go slices. Overall, this is very solid pizza, especially for an excessively large “gimmick pie.” Beyond filling, 2 slices is essentially the equivalent of half of a regular 16” pizza. This pie isn’t gonna wow the pizza aficionados; but it’s not nearly as awful as some of these obnoxiously low ratings. If you’re coming off the beach and you’re starving, this pizza will get the job done much better than most boardwalk garbage slices. In fact, I bet if they served regular sized 16” pies, the overall score would be much higher. Bigger isn’t always better; but in this case, it’s not that bad either.
