Sarpino's Pizza - Consistently Inconsistent

1803 Geneva Ave N. Maplewood, MN 


In my experience, when you order from Sarpino's you never know what your going to get. Usually, for some reason, the majority of the time I have ordered a pie, the pizza has a hint of hair smell, and with the smell of hair, a hint is all you need. A taste is even worse. The combo of the two? Simply regrettable. I am not sure if someone that works there is shedding, and each time they make a pie a tuft falls into the pie, but a good majority of the time I have ordered (in the distant past, I won't anymore) I have encountered that peculiar, awful smell.

Besides that issue, there is another equally troubling problem with Sarpino's that I find happens with just about every eatery that attempts to cater to a wide variety of taste bud's.. By having a large assortment of ingredients, and trying to appeal to every conceivable customer, they stretch themselves too far out, end up losing their balance, and fall on their collective heads.

Instead of making a few items really good, with fresh ingredients, these types of places instead tend to make a large assortment of items really poorly, likely with some ingredients that haven't been touched in ages. It looks good on the menu with more options, but not so good once you actually bite into it. The old adage of martial arts comes to mind; "better to practice one kick ten thousand times, than to practice ten thousand kicks one time". I think if Sarpino's adopted that philosophy, they would be putting out a decent pie, but even considering that change in philosophy, they would still have to cook a pie for long enough, which it seems they have failed to do in the past, seemingly opting to rush them out, in the process swiping quality for quantity-a seemingly recurring theme with Sarpino's. The result is poor pizza pie, and foodies like myself vowing never to order another pie.