Week 5: Sal's Pizza

To wrap up our first month of the 2011 Pizza Adventure, we drove east to Sal’s Pizza (www.salspizzadallas.com) in Plano, TX.  We dined at the Shops at Legacy location, but Sal’s Pizza also has it’s original store in Uptown Dallas.  Due to sick kids, we pushed back our regular pizza night from Saturday to Sunday this week.  Fortunately for us that meant there was no wait, and we could sit right down and get to work.

The menu at Sal’s is very extensive and offers much more than pizza, including hot sandwiches, pasta, soups, salads, etc.  Our server claimed that they had the best pizza in the world.  My wife chuckled and after he walked away said “he hasn’t eaten at Grimaldi’s.”  So yes, we were a little biased after two weeks of great pizza, but we were hungry for some more NY style.  The pizza is sold in 5 different sizes, small all the way to Sal’s Giant 20”.  There was also a “sicilian” style that comes only in a 16x16 pan.  After much debate, we went for a small cheese pizza, and 3 slices (Meat, Special, and Margharita).  The  server brought out some free garlic bread to keep our stomachs happy while the pizza was made in the kitchen.  After a short wait of about 10 minutes, the slices came out first, followed by our small cheese.  I will note that the order was incorrect, but Sal did not charge us for the extra slice!

The “pizza by the slice” was average, and we’ll take it as a lesson learned.  The slices were reheated with a sprinkle of mozzarella on top to give the appearance that they were fresh out of the oven.  The Meat Lover was covered in ground sausage, pepperoni, and circles of canadian bacon that looked like they might have been hijacked from my daughter’s “Lunchables” snack box.  My first comparison wass that it tasted a lot like the pizza you get from the mall food court.  After a couple bites, I picked up the Special slice and found similar results.  A very soggy crust towards the middle, and a crust handle that was as thick as a steering wheel.  Things improved slightly when I tried the freshly cooked, small cheese pizza.  The temperature of the pizza was right out of the oven, and it tasted far superior to the pizza by the slice.  With that being said the highlight was probably the Margahrita.  The tomatoes and fresh basil were delicious, and looking back I wish we would have ordered a full pie.  

All in all, the slices were disappointing, and the freshly cooked pizza was alright.  Although it was voted best pizza by the Dallas Observer in 2003, clearly a lot has changed in 8 years.

The Final Report: 5.5 out of 10

I hope my wife is not right and we don’t have 47 more weeks of disappointment.  Thanks a lot Grimaldi’s!