Is It Worth it?! Pizza

second, yet last edition :(

Christian Axenborg and Sloane Stoklosa|March 28, 2020

The following restaurants were visited before school closing and restaurants converting to take out.

We’re back at it again with a new, Is It Worth It!? article with Sloane and Christian. We tried three different pizzas at three drastically different price points.

This time we had a guest with us, Jacob Norman, and he weighed in with his own opinions. We included his rankings in the article, but keep in mind that he is a guest and not by any means a professional. Therefore his opinion should be taken with a grain of salt as he lacks experience compared to us.

First Pizza, Sabatino’s (Cheap)

Located on Calhoun Street in downtown Charleston awaited our first pizza stop, Sabatino’s. We walked into a very New York Styled place. There were two areas to sit located to the left and right of where you walked in. Directly in front of the entrance was a cash register and you could see the pizza being prepared. The pizza place was small and the smells were strong. We sat down and enjoyed our pizza, but left smelling very strongly of pizza.

Price
By the slice: $3.50

Sauce to Cheese Ratio
The sauce to cheese ratio is very important in a pizza and extremely up to preference. You may be a sauce guy or maybe you’re a crust girl, but either way this preference can be the ultimate decider of if you like pizza or not.

How we thought it tasted – 8/10 (Jacob), 8/10 (Christian), 9/10 (Sloane)
Sauce to Cheese Ratio (not based on taste, strictly based on the ratio- 1:4

Crust:
Jacob 8/10
Christian 4/10
Sloane 4/10

Ambiance Ranking:
Jacob 5/10
Christian 8/10
Sloane 8/10

Average score:
Jacob 7/10
Christian 6.5/10
Sloane 7/10

Second Pizza – Mellow Mushroom
Sadly due to COVID-19, Christian was sent back to Sweden before he got the chance to try this pizza, so this ranking is based solely on my (Sloane) opinion.
The Mellow Mushroom, located in Mount Pleasant is filled with brightly colored abstract art. It gives the customers something to look at during their meal as the art is found all over the restaurant. Mellow Mushroom is much different from Sabatino’s as it is sit-down with a waitress/waiter serving you. Both styles of restaurant are great, your choice just would depend on what kind of ambiance you are in the mood for.

Price
Small- 8.99

Sauce to Cheese Ratio
How I thought it tasted- 9/10 (Sloane)
Sauce to Cheese Ratio- 1:4

Crust:
Sloane 10/10

Ambiance Ranking:
Sloane 6.5/10

Average score:
Sloane 8.5/10

Third Pizza Coastal Crust

Located near Old Village, Coastal Crust has a very unique atmosphere. You walk up to a little building called the Pizza Bar in the middle of an open area filled with a little park and lots of tables. You order your pizza through the window or you can sit at the bar inside (but there are limited seats), and then after a little wait they hand it to you like take out. It is a very fun place to be shown by the fact that it was so busy there was not even a table to sit at, so we ate in the car.

Price
$13.88

Sauce to Cheese Ratio
How we thought it tasted- 8/10 (Jacob), 10/10 (Christian), 6/10 (Sloane)
Sauce to Cheese Ratio- 4:1

Crust:
Jacob 3/10
Christian 5/10
Sloane 9/10

Ambiance Ranking:
Jacob 7/10
Christian 8/10
Sloane 9/10

Average score:
Jacob 6/10
Christian 7.5/10
Sloane 8/10

Christian’s opinion
Sabatino’s:
My first impression of the little pizza restaurant was how much it reminded me of a little pizza place somewhere in NYC. With paintings of city skylines on the walls and the pizza being cooked by the cash register right in front of you it almost made me feel like it wasn’t in the south anymore. When it comes to the actual pizza it was what I expected. We got two slices, a pepperoni and a cheese slice and I must say that the price reflected the overall quality of the pizza, that being pretty cheap. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good pizza but it tasted pretty bland. With that being said I think that the pizza was worth its price. At just 3.50 Sabatino’s offers a local New York inspired pizza slice that is impossible to dislike. The cheese pizza slice I got was definitely worth its money.

The second pizza at Mellow Mushroom I unfortunately never got to try because i had to go home to Sweden because of Covid-19. But Sloane has eaten there several times and I trust her to give an honest opinion on Mellow Mushroom that represents both her and my opinion.

The third pizza place was definitely something different. The first thing that caught my attention was the lack of a building for the guests to sit in. The kitchen and reception was inside but all guests were sitting outside. I thought this was a really cool aspect of the restaurant that made it stand out from other pizza restaurants. The pizza itself was by far my favorite. While the Sabatino’s was a good regular pizza the Coastal crust pizza stood out to me as more than just cheese with doe due to the cheese to sauce ratio. The Coastal crust pizza was more of a tomato dish than a pizza which I personally really liked. In the end however it comes down to personal preference. Depending if you want a more “cheesy” or “tomatoey” pizza you would prefer one pizza over another.

My conclusion is that all of the pizzas we ate definitely were worth it by their price!

Sloane’s opinion

Overall I enjoyed the experience, and there was not a pizza I did not enjoy. I thought that all of the pizza places offered a different type of pizza and ambiance, so it really depends on what kind of night you want when deciding where to go. Luckily, you can not go wrong with any of the options. I really enjoyed Sabatino’s as it gave a very dominant New York feel. The pizza slices we ordered were huge, and I really enjoyed the taste as I prefer a sauce to cheese ratio that is heavier on the cheese. The pizza was really good, and we enjoyed every bite. However, the disappointment came for me in the crust. Personally, I like a very fluffy crust and the crust is usually my favorite part of the pizza, however, this crust was not fluffy so it was a let down for me. However, Jacob and Christian really enjoyed this crust, so it did not taste bad, it just wasn’t to my liking. Mellow Mushroom offered the perfect pizza in my opinion. The sauce to cheese ratio had more cheese, and the crust is one of the best crusts I have ever had. This combination led me to love this pizza the most. Coastal Crust had the best ambiance in my opinion, as it allows you to enjoy the outside while eating dinner. Typically, if the pizza has heavy sauce I am not a fan: however this sauce was very sweet, so I enjoyed it even though it was not my typical type of pizza. The crust was very thin making the pizza pretty light. Although I enjoyed Coastal Crust, the crust was the biggest disappointment for me as the fluff was a 0/10.
You could not go wrong with any of these choices as each pizza place brought their own benefits to the table.

Final results

Sloane’s Overall personal ranking