I was really looking forward to trying Tasty Pizza as many people have recommended it on this very site and it always has high ratings on CitySearch.  We decided to go during a blizzard last Winter, so the usual crowds were non-existent and there were plenty (all) of seats available.

At Tasty Pizza you start by ordering at the counter, we went with our standard of sausage and mushroom.  The person helping us gave us a couple of plates and told us to go have a seat in their dining area.  The long corridor that is the dining area offers about 15 small tables at which you can enjoy your pizza.  The walls are covered with pictures and memorabilia of Cleveland’s sports past and present.

After a bit of chatting our pizza arrived steaming hot from the oven.  I immediately noticed the use of fresh mushrooms; major bonus points for that!  I also noticed that the dispersion of the toppings was severely inconsistent. (That sounded so professional.)  The pizza slice to the left here has maybe 4 mushrooms on it, but if you take a look at the piece below it is absolutely loaded with toppings.

Normally, a ton of toppings on a pizza is a good thing, but not so in this case.  The pieces with lots of toppings, seeing as that one of the toppings was fresh mushroom, were soaking wet.  They were difficult to eat with a knife and fork, I couldn’t even consider picking it up.

Lets break the taste of this Tasty Pizza down to its main components:

Crust - The crust was pretty good when it wasn’t ruined by the water from the toppings.  It was a thin crust, but not so much that it was crispy.  It had a nice flavor that was almost buttery and its consistency provided just enough chew.

Sauce - The sauce was ok.  I wasn’t real impressed with it.  A little too sweet for my liking, but it never interrupted with its sweetness.

Toppings - The toppings, as mentioned previously, could have been handled better.  They were delicious in their own right though. The fresh mushrooms were great, but a little precooking to remove some of the moisture would do them wonders.  Good Italian sausage added a bit of spice to the pie and the real cheese, well, it’s cheese, come on!  That’s why you eat pizza.

Overall I thought the Tasty Pizza experience was disappointing.  Maybe it was because I had my expectations set so high.  A lot of it had to do with the way the pizza was assembled though, my lofty expectations might have been met with a properly formed pie.  Everyone has a bad night though and from what others have told me about Tasty Pizza, they just had a bad night.  Even though I thought the pizza was just average, I think they deserve a second chance.  

Tasty Pizza
5101 Mayfield Rd.
Lyndhurst, Ohio 44124
440-449-1252

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