Rusted Sun Pizzeria — Restaurant in Salt Lake City

This place has the best pizza and calzones in the county without a doubt. They have for over a decade (that I've experienced). Only reason I haven't been in the last year is because of COVID and living in the south valley. Again, love this place, love the food, the people, everything... but...

---After reading some of the posts about 15% mandatory gratuity---

I know times are tough with COVID, but forcing 15% gratuity on takeout orders seems like a bad idea, because takeout orders aren't being serviced like dine-in orders are.

I would think most decent folk would volunteer to leave a few bucks for a take-out tip regardless, but when you force it, you're basically saying that your kitchen staff are paid server wages and need tips like servers (because they do 99% of the work, then someone just rings the customer up).

Honestly, eating out is a TREAT, and if you gotta charge more for pizzas to provide living wages for employees and stay open, then figure that balance out. I'd rather pay $25 for a damn good pizza than pay $16 and be forced to tip regardless of the service provided.

It's cool you're trying to get more money directly to employees, but don't put it on the customer to hand over money regardless of what service they receive or if they're served or come in to pick up an order. That kind of thing should be reserved for large parties of dine-in where things get...

As someone else stated, they are currently doing payments over the phone only and are automatically charging a 15% "gratuity". When I asked why, they told me "that's just how it goes." They are already pretty expensive and now adding that 15% can take some of their offerings to almost $20 for a small (12"). I would be ok with this if they just said it costs $20, but to say it costs 18 and then just arbitrarily tack on a couple bucks just for the heck of it doesn't set well with me. Tips are not supposed to be forcefully extracted from the customer - they are how a customer rewards the staff for good service; better service=better tip. IMHO, I don't think it makes sense to pay tips until AFTER you have been served and then IF the service was good, you should tip well. OK, off my soapbox. On top of that, their phone line was busy for half a dozen calls spread over 5 - 10 minutes. All in all, a very frustrating experience. Wild Mushrooms Pizza is just down the street if you are looking to support a small local business (and they are good, too). There are numerous other choices - many of them very good - within just a few miles of this place. You don't have to put up with this sort...

Rusted Sun is a controversy in my household, my wife loves it for the same reason that I'm not a fan. But let's start with the basics. The pizza crust has the style of "Neapolitan like" meets "New York". It doesn't fall into one camp and doesn't do either perfectly. But it does have great texture and chew. You can tell that care went into the dough. The sauce, cheese, and toppings are standard with no standouts, but still good. The controversy comes from the heavy handed use of semolina. My wife loves it, I am not a fan. So it comes down to personal preference. If you like your pizza with a heavy dusting of semolina, than this is your spot. I prefer just a flour dusting when working with the dough on the bench. If you don't know how you feel about semolina, check it out... you'll have an opinion afterwards. Other than that, it is a...