Mario and Salvo’s Pizzeria, DeWitt

Some pizza shops are new, some have been around a little while, and some are “mature” – meaning that when you walk in, you can tell there is a lot of experience and expertise at work.  Mario and Salvo’s Pizza, at the corner of East Genesee and Jamesville Road in DeWitt, is in the mature category – it was established in 1992. And yes, Mario and Salvo both exist, and were both hard at work when I visited on a recent Friday evening during the dinner rush. Mario was handling the front end, and Salvo was working the dough in the prep area. At least six other employees were busy helping them shovel the pizza and wings over the counter to the long line of customers. UrbanSpoon shows Mario and Salvo’s as the #2 rated pizza shop, and the #14 overall restaurant in the Syracuse area, so we’re talking about a seriously important fixture on the Syracuse pizza scene.

For this review, I ordered a small (12″) with green peppers, onions, mushrooms and olives on half. The crust was very well browned on the bottom and rim, with a nice crispiness on the rim. I observed the pizza prep guys stretching the dough with minimal handling, and it shows with a larger than average bubble structure inside the crust. However, it was a rather chewy crust, taking more than average effort to bite off and chew. The general crust flavor was very good, but with just a little too much salt for my taste.

The sauce had some excellent qualities – good texture and color, and a very strong tomato flavor that was slightly acidic. There wasn’t very much of it, though. I couldn’t see much sign of spice flakes in the sauce, but it did appear that some spice was sprinkled on top after the toppings were added.

Speaking of toppings, they were very tasty and very good quality. The cheese had a little bit of oil separation, and was slightly orangey, which added to the general chewiness of the pizza.

Overall, this pizza was pretty good, and we enjoyed it, but it does still have a little room for improvement, in my opinion. I emphasize “in my opinion” because the VERY busy shop indicates a lot of happy customers – customers who might read this review and say, “He’s crazy to criticize ANYTHING!!” At any rate, I give Mario and Salvo’s a Pizza Geek rating of 4 out of 5 slices – meaning it is pizza well worth eating.

Summary – Pros: tasty toppings, tomatoey sauce. Cons: chewy crust, a little salty.

What do you think? Do you like Mario and Salvo’s Pizza? Click the comment link below.

Crust: ****
Sauce: ****
Cheese: ****
Toppings: ****
Value: ****
Overall:

Mario and Salvo’s Pizzeria – 4326 E. Genesee St, DeWitt – 446-8479