The Great Pizza Adventure #14 - Casa Restaurants

And then there's pizza from Casa.  The Casa restaurants are a local-famous group of restaurants in Fort Wayne (there are four of them) best known for their house salad and lasagna.  The one about a mile from my house has the formal name of Casa Grille Italiano and, like the others, is a reasonably priced sit down restaurant.  My wife and I were having a rare lunch date with another couple and they always pick Casa due to specific food allergies.  My own food allergy is that if I have too much red sauce (which I love) I get heartburn.  And also there some specific herb or ingredient found mostly in Italian food that causes the bursa in my knee to swell painfully, so for me eating Italian food is a little like playing Russian Roulette.

I wasn't feeling up to the risk that day* so I ordered the Tutti pizza.  Although it sounds like it should be served with an umbrella, it really means that it has pepperoni, sausage and mushrooms, plus, accordion to the menu, "Casa's pizza sauce and italian cheese blend."  Because I hadn't intended to order pizza I didn't have my scale or camera with me**.  Or my tape measure, although I did manage to sneak a "hand measure" when I thought no one was looking.  I also managed to bring two slices home, pieces that were more than happy to pose for a picture.

And there it is.  It doesn't look like a very thrilling pizza, does it?  Spoiler Alert: It wasn't.  For a $11.29 pizza (plus tax AND tip, bringing it to $14.02) one would expect a very good pizza.  Unfortunately nothing really stood out.  The overall sensation wasn't one of savory goodness, which you'd expect from the toppings.  Despite being baked on a stone the crust was barely okay (good texture but no flavor), the cheese was nothing to write home about, and the meager toppings didn't scream "QUALITY" like a B. Antonio pizza.  The sauce was, well, was there sauce?  Overall it seemed like the owner said "Hey, this is an Italian restaurant!  We should have pizza 'cause, like, pizza is Italian!" and someone in the kitchen half-heartedly put a recipe together.  This is a rough draft pizza, kids.

 

Weight: 32 oz

Diameter: 11.5"

Cost: $14.02

Service: 7

Crust: 4

Sauce: 4

Toppings: 4 (quantity) + 5 (flavor) / 2 =4.5

Value: 4 (43.8 cents per ounce) / 13.5 cents per square inch

                  Overall Score: 4.7

                  Flavor Score: 4.2

 

* And I remembered that this restaurant was on my list of "Pizzas of 46815"... two birds with one kidney stone!

** Also because I'm not a weirdo freak who takes pictures of their food in public.  The diameter is an estimate and although I wish I took the time to weigh the last two slices and multiply them by four, I didn't.  Besides, the cut on the pie was so wonky that none of eight pieces were the same size.