Critic's Review
The mystery is over. Yesterday I got a pizza at Sarpino's.
They finally got their website set up with the correct store number for Fort Lauderdale, but it's still a bit clunky. Why do I care about the web site? Because you get a 15% discount if you order online.
The business model seems odd to me. They're located in a business district where there are lots of people during the day and none at night or on weekends. They don't sell slices, and they don't seem to want you to eat in. They seem totally focused on delivery. Their prices are too high without the 15% discount. As it turns out, they're too high even with the discount.
Back to the website. An annoyance is that the discount isn't automatically applied. If you don't know about it; you don't get it. After you check out, you have to click on Coupons and then select the discount.
Another annoyance is that you can't order a pick up without fully completing the profile including your full address. I'm ordering a pizza; I don't want to give out my email and home address. Luckily they don't check that closely, so you can just enter bogus info.
What IS nice is that you can order half items and they have half item prices, so there are no surprises with pricing. What's not nice is the prices, even with the discount. To Sarpino's, a large pizza is 14", which is 20% smaller than a 16" pizza. So you're getting 20% less food and a 15% discount. It's really just a trick.
They do offer free delivery, but I don't like doing delivery. Cold pizza, having to tip, and delivery that takes too long are some of the reasons.
If you're unfamiliar with the neighborhood, picking up at night isn't fun. The park across the street is loaded with the homeless, and they like to yell at people as they get out of their cars. The sprinklers were on also, and it was impossible to get to Sarpino's without getting wet.
Inside, this is a Pizza Hut like operation. Young girls in the kitchen making the food; hire cheap labor instead of a pizza maker to make the pies. As usual, the counter dude was on the phone. "I'll be with you in a minute, you can look at a menu if you'd like". "I'm picking up". it seemed to throw them off. I paid for the pizza and out the door.
I looked at the pizza when I got to the car and was immediately saddened; what a crappy looking pie.
This pizza was $14.86 after discount.
Thick crust, but it just looked like it was made in a machine. There was more cheese on the sausage side, which was strange. I tasted it right away while it was hot; not terrible tasting, but VERY salty cheese. I'm a saltaholic, and it was very salty to me. They claim to have a "proprietary blend" of cheese that includes Edam cheese. I'm not sure that's a good thing. Properly made pizza sausage shouldn't curl up; this is an amateur operation. The cheese-only side was like eating cafeteria pizza.
One thing unique about Sarpino's is the extras that you just don't get at other pizza places. The peppers, the parmesan in a package, the crushed red pepper and the dipping sauce. What , no oregano?
Personally i don't dip pizza, but maybe some do. I'm trying to imagine a scenario where I'd put sawdust from a package on my pizza.
Conclusion
Perhaps Sarpino's will do well delivering salads and sandwiches, but the pizza is comparable to Pizza Hut or Domino's at a much higher price point. Even with Free Delivery and 15% off, i wouldn't buy this pizza again. I wouldn't buy it again for half the price.
These are franchise operations, so I expect that they'll be lowering prices in short order when they realize that they can't sell this junk for the list prices. The Oak Park location in Chicago is selling a large pizza with 1 topping for $9.99, which is all that it's worth.
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