Noce's Pizzeria

Back in June, Amber suggested we try Noce's Pizzeria, so we added it to the list and a couple of months later, we checked it off! Noce's was a little bit of a drive north, but on a late summer evening, I didn't mind. And everyone there was friendly, so that always helps. For the pizzas, I chose Pepperoni, White Dream, and Hot & Spicy. Here's how they scored:

(1-5 scale, 1=worst, 5=best)

Appearance (overall): 4.17

Aroma (overall): 4.25

Taste (overall): 3.67

Crust - 3.92

Cheese - 3.50

Toppings - 3.92

Sauce - 3.33

Pepperoni Pizza (overall): 3.83

Specialty Pizza & Menu Options: 4.08

X-factor: 3.33

Kevin's favorite was the Hot & Spicy pizza, while Nik thought there was no real stand-out, but it was good. I also agreed that the pizza was good, but not great. I liked that it was NY style, but the Pepperoni pizza was greasy and the pepperoni's were not evenly distributed (as evidenced in the picture above). By now you know my issue with too much oregano in the sauce, which this pizza had. I had high hopes for the White Dream pizza, but the broccoli was overcooked (and seemed like it had been frozen) and there wasn't enough basil or garlic (and they used dried instead of fresh, which is far less superior). The Hot & Spicy didn't have as much flavor as I was hoping either, but it definitely was spicy!

While Noce's Pizzeria has some good pizza options, they just don't live up to some of the other gourmet pizza joints in Cincinnati.

Mac's Pizza Pub

Next up on the pizza quest? It's Mac's Pizza Pub, a good sports bar conveniently located in Clifton for those UC sports fans (and conveniently for us had been featured on Groupon). The Reds were on while we were there, and since we had our Groupon, we decided to go big and order 3 pizzas: Pepperoni, Pesto Primavera, and the Flying Pig.

Here's what we thought:

(1-5 scale, 1=worst, 5=best)

Appearance (overall): 3.92
Aroma (overall): 3.75
Taste (overall): 3.83
Crust - 4.00
Cheese - 3.67
Toppings - 3.67
Sauce - 4.00
Pepperoni Pizza (overall): 3.92
Specialty Pizza & Menu Options: 4.17
X-factor: 4.25

Kevin and I both really liked the pesto sauce as well as the spiciness of the red sauce on the other 2 pizzas. We both also really liked the garlic buttery edge of the crust - so delicious! They also had lots of cheese on them, which was fantastic, but it would slide off really easily. Nik and I both agreed that they had a good draft beer selection too. And to top it all off, the service was great! Not the highest ranking pizza joint, but solid pizza for a sports bar (and did I mention they have a good selection of toppings?! artichoke hearts, goat cheese, and pesto just to name a few). So, good pizza + great beer selection + awesome service = a fantastic sports bar, check it out!

Snappy Tomato Pizza

We're slowly but surely getting caught up on our summer and fall pizza ventures here. The next pizza place up for judging is Snappy Tomato Pizza, which we enjoyed at home before watching some Freaks & Geeks episodes on Netflix (the title had me worried it would be too geeky for me [Nik likes some weird shows], but this was yet another show that got cut way too early). But I digress, back to Snappy Tomato Pizza. We ordered a Pepperoni and a Loaded Potato pizza.

One of the things that's great about Snappy Tomato is that you can order online AND they deliver. Not only that, they deliver Ben & Jerry's ice cream too! But how is their pizza, you ask? Well, here's how they scored:

(1-5 scale, 1=worst, 5=best)

Appearance (overall): 3.92
Aroma (overall): 4.00
Taste (overall): 4.25
Crust - 4.17
Cheese - 4.00
Toppings - 4.42
Sauce - 3.83
Pepperoni Pizza (overall): 4.25
Specialty Pizza & Menu Options: 3.83
X-factor: 4.00

We all really liked the Loaded Potato pizza and all agreed that it tasted like a potato skin (yum!), and it even had good bacon too. Nik thought that it could have used more sauce though. Kevin liked the dual layer of pepperoni on the Pepperoni pizza and thought that the tomato sauce on it was pretty sweet. At times, I thought the sauce had too much oregano. We all also really liked that the pizzas came with a garlic dipping sauce that taste like Papa John's (delicious!). I thought that the pizzas were salty (in a good way) and greasy. I really liked the crust and thought that it was nicely cooked.

Overall, Snappy Tomato Pizza makes good pizza, but doesn't take the place of favorite. I'd be happy to order it any day though and have it delivered on a lazy weekend day, watching football or college basketball (or the Grey's Anatomy episode I missed...).

The Rookwood

You don't normally think of The Rookwood as a place to go for pizza, right? Well, this summer they had a special on Thursday nights of all night happy hour, which included pizzas. So we decided to check it out, and of course the week before was their last week of running that special. But, they checked with the kitchen and were able to offer us 2 choices: a regular margherita pizza and one with house made sausage. So, we chose both. Of course this makes it a little more difficult to compare since we didn't have our standard pepperoni pizza, but we scored The Rookwood none-the-less. So how did they fare? See below...

(Again, sorry for the lack of pictures, but it was too dark to take a decent picture. But here's a picture of one of their wonderful views - this one is from the parking lot.)

(1-5 scale, 1=worst, 5=best)

Appearance (overall): 4.67
Aroma (overall): 4.50
Taste (overall): 4.08
Crust - 4.33
Cheese - 3.33
Toppings - 4.33
Sauce - 3.50
Pepperoni Pizza (overall): N/A (Nik scored the sausage pizza with a 4.00 though)
Specialty Pizza & Menu Options: 3.00
X-factor: 3.83

The Rookwood has a great menu (we love their food), but it just doesn't include other pizza options, as it's not a "pizza restaurant," so that's not too fair of a comparison. Even so, they have the most attractive pizza thus far and some of the best smelling pizza. On top of that, the decor and ambiance of the restaurant is very nice, and they now have a new deck that I can't wait to check out!

In terms of the actual pizzas, Kevin thought that the sauce was bland and I agreed, noting that it needed more salt. Kevin liked the flat bread crust, but thought it could have used a touch more flour. I really liked the grilled aspect of the pizzas and thought that they had a good level of spice. I also really enjoyed the fresh basil (I love basil!) and the house made sausage.

We skipped dessert as I had already baked something of my own, but I really do love The Rookwood's Gooey Cake - definitely save room for it, it's amazing!

Padrino

Next up, Kevin took us North a little bit, up to Milford to try Padrino. Milford is a cute little town and Padrino is located on "the main drag" and even has a nice sidewalk patio. We were able to snag a table under the awning, protecting us from the short bout of rain while we were dining. We started the night off with some garlic knots, then moved on to a Pepperoni pizza and their weekly special, the Fajita pizza. Here's how they scored:

(1-5 scale, 1=worst, 5=best)

Appearance (overall): 4.42
Aroma (overall): 4.13
Taste (overall): 4.00
Crust - 3.83
Cheese - 3.67
Toppings - 4.42
Sauce - 3.92
Pepperoni Pizza (overall): 4.00
Specialty Pizza & Menu Options: 4.00
X-factor: 3.33

I lied, we did take pictures! Here they are:

Let me begin by recommending NOT ordering the garlic knots. Kevin said that they weren't so exciting and that he wouldn't get them again. That's because they're not actually knots. They were dinner rolls, brushed with butter (or oil of some sort) and sprinkled with garlic, parmesan, and parsley, but still didn't have much flavor. The marinara, however, that comes with the "garlic knots" was good.

In terms of the actual pizza, the Fajita pizza was the surprise of the night. All of us thought that the Fajita pizza was really good, in fact, it was better than I expected. It had chicken, vegetables (including spinach! unlike last weeks pizza stop...), salsa, and sour cream was served on the side. I know, sour cream on pizza?!? I went for it and actually thought it balanced everything out quite nicely.

The crust at Padrino is a thin crust and tasted like a cracker (not in a bad way) to me. It wasn't quite as crispy as Kevin was expecting though. The pepperoni pizza was greasy and Kevin thought that the ingredients seemed out of balance, the sumer was not greater than the parts.

The reason for the somewhat low X-factor score is because (1) I had a hair in my cocktail (but it was a good cocktail) and (2) the (young) waitress (although nice) didn't know anything and nearly knocked one of our pizzas off the table (good save Kevin!). We skipped dessert because we (I) was hoping to try Sugar Cupcakery, but it was closed by the time we finished up dinner :(

Buona Vita Pizzeria

We went on a lot of "field trips" this summer since it was summer and the Thursday night line up was on its break. Nik decided to try out Buona Vita Pizzeria in Dayton, KY. Dayton is a cute little town on the river, and Buona Vita fit right in. Buona Vita is a family owned restaurant housed in an old bank, and we got to eat in a vault! Here's a hazy picture of Nik and myself in the vault :)

We ordered the Pepperoni pizza and Sara's Supreme and really enjoyed them both, as you'll see in the scoring below. Everyone was super friendly and you could tell it was a well loved family run business.

(1-5 scale, 1=worst, 5=best)

Appearance (overall): 4.42

Aroma (overall): 4.25
Taste (overall): 4.33

Crust - 4.42

Cheese - 4.17

Toppings - 3.83
Sauce - 4.00

Pepperoni Pizza (overall): 4.33
Specialty Pizza & Menu Options: 4.08
X-factor: 4.58

We all agreed that the pepperoni was really greasy, but all liked that they had pickles as a topping option! We all also were disappointed that they forgot to put the spinach on Sara's Supreme pizza. Nik noted POPEYE WOULD BE PISSED!!! I also thought that the sauce and the top of the pepperoni pizza had too much dried oregano (as you've probably come to realize that I'm not a fan of, at all). But, they more than made up for these shortcomings with their awesome, homemade (by their mom!) cookies. We ordered a few of the cookies from our server, and not knowing we had done so, one of the owners also brought us some for free! Not to mention the fact that they're already very reasonably priced.

Overall, Buona Vita Pizzeria is one of our favorites because of its ambiance, incredibly friendly owners/staff, "x-factor", solid pizza, and awesome cookies!

The Works

This summer we ventured up to Loveland to try The Works Brick Oven Restaurant. The Works is located in a very cute part of downtown Loveland, right near the bike trail, in a nice, old building with a large patio and a bell tower (but it's hard to find!!). Not only did we get to enjoy sitting outside, we also enjoyed $3 Mt. Carmel draft beer specials and fried pickles! After our delicious fried pickle appetizer, we enjoyed the Pepperoni and the California Rose pizzas.

I'm finally finding all of our pizza pictures! For some reason, they were dated as 2004...anyway, here you go:

Here's how they scored:

(1-5 scale, 1=worst, 5=best)

Appearance (overall): 4.00
Aroma (overall): 4.25
Taste (overall): 4.33
Crust - 4.17
Cheese - 4.50
Toppings - 3.83
Sauce - 4.00
Pepperoni Pizza (overall): 3.83
Specialty Pizza & Menu Options: 4.33
X-factor: 4.00

I'm not the only fried pickle lover, Kevin and Nik both enjoyed them as well. Kevin also thought that the cheese on the pizzas looked great. In Kevin's opinion, The Works had a good pizza menu, but the rest of the menu just looked good, not great. Kevin thought that the edge crust was really good, but the crust under the cheese was just good, not great. I thought the crust and cheese were both good. The pepperoni were under the cheese, but it was still an attractive pizza. But, the pepperoni pizza was really greasy and didn't have much flavor - the sauce was very tomato-y and needed more herbs/spices. I really liked the pineapple and banana pepper combo on the California Rose pizza though.

We skipped dessert in order to get some ice cream from Loveland Sweets, but The Works' Creme Brulee Pizza sounds very intriguing (I do love creme brulee!).