You gotta sit down for this one! I am NOT from New Castle, but a friend of mine who was tired of me complaining about the quality of pizza throughout the region, finally, they said "STOP COMPLAINING & TRY MANGINO'S PIZZERIA." I can now say that my complaining days are over! WOW! I ordered the pizza, then stopped in a little early to check the place out. It's a like a wonderful throw back to a classic small town pizza shop. All kinds of specialty items that are traditionally Italian. The dear lady, who was the owner of this family run business gave me such a nice brief history, and you could tell that she was VERY proud of everything coming out of the kitchen. Okay... I get the large 8 cut. I was going to order it extra crispy, but I asked the girl on the phone if their pizza was traditionally made crispy or doughy, she replied. Our pizza is on the "crispy side." She was RIGHT on! Do you realize that most pizza places error on the side of "doughy" because they like to take it out of the oven as soon as they can to save on the energy? Well NOT Mangino's! The pizza crust was a slice of heaven that was baked to perfection. Crispy - YES! Wonderfully Chewy - YES! Not an easy task in achieving BOTH. I've actually Judged Pizza Contests in the Pittsburgh area and I carefully processed this crust. It truly is one of the best pizza shells I've ever had (and I am including pizza that I've had in Italy.) I was told in advance that the sauce would be on the "sweet" side, but I've had "sweet" sauce and this sauce is "Sweet with a TWIST".... It was SO good that I was actually taking my finger and trying to isolate just the sauce so I could figure out what was making it so tasty. Bottom line is I couldn't. So I just had to conclude that the "SECRET REALLY IS IN THE SAUCE." I prefer just ONE topping on my pizza and I selected mushrooms. They were great, but this pizza could stand alone with one or none of the tasty toppings they offer. I want to conclude with what was the absolute beauty of this pizza pie. Not only do they use high quality mozzarella on top (and trust me, I can tell), but the MARVELOUS presentation of how they cover it with cheese is something to behold. Be prepared for a carpet of cheese that leaves NO hint of the delicious red sauce that lurks beneath. They do put a very generous portion of cheese on their pizzas, and it could even be a drawback to some people. It usually is for me; however, as I mentioned, the cheese is definitely HIGH END and the large fresh cheese wheel in the display case makes it clear that they do NOT miss a beat when it comes to EVERY detail of an extraordinary pizza. Finally, when you are rating a pizza, to be fair, you have to take ALL of the components and assess each one individually. Then you have to assess them all again collectively as one. Crust, Sauce and Cheese were all off the charts. And when I put them all together and factored in presentation and overall baking, this pizza found itself in a class ALL BY ITSELF! This pizza enters a VERY elite group of pizzas that include Mineo's in Pittsburgh and D&G in Beaver Falls. MANGINO'S is now among them. BRAVO to this wonderful...
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