The Ultimate Slice Is Crowned: Eight Local Pizza Parlors Cage Match

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replying the story in its archived form does not constitute a re-publiccation of the story.

Getting a decent slice of pie in St. Louis is a matter of taste; everyone has their favorites and their own standards by which they judge a pie as decent versus delictable. We decided to put eight, discriminately chosen, locally owned pizza parlors in a cage match/very scientific exploration of pizza goodness in order to crown the ultimate slice. We rated cheese, crust, sauce, topping quality, and spices on a scale of one to five and a percentage was taken from an average of those ratings to determine the best pizza in the city. We found that feeding seven people for eight days is a mighty financial undertaking, but we also found the cheapest slice in St. Louis came from Imo's, which, coincindentally was also used as our control pizza - because you are supposed to have things like that in a scientific study don'tcha know.

The Contenders & Consumption Method

Fortels - delivery
Imo's - carryout
Talayna's - dine in
Three Monkeys - dine in
Pizza Haus - carryout
Pi - carryout
Cecil Whitakers - carryout
Joe Bush's - carryout

How We Rated Eight Pizza Joints (Without Getting Sick)

We set to eating the same type of pizza from all eight places every day at lunch for a week plus - and yes we eventually need to add leafy greens to our carb/cheese overload. Each ToastedRav staffer filled out a survey after we were finished with our slice, and as the week drew on discussed the pizza philosophies we were developing or reinforcing along the way. We all know that the food in the commercials doesn't look exactly like what you are going to eat. The winners for good looks were Pi, Joe Bush's and Three Monkeys - but you can be the judge of that. To see what the pizzas contenders looked like when they went into battle and read what we had to say when sizing them up, go to the Gallery tab.

The Results

In the individual categories:

Best Cheese: Joe Bush's tied with Imo's with an average rating of 4 out of 5
Best Crust: Talayna's with an average rating of 4.5 out of 5
Best Sauce: Cecil Whitakers with an average rating of 4.7 out of 5
Best Quality of Toppings: Joe Bush's tied with Three Monkeys with an average 4.4 out of 5
Best Spices: Joe Bush's with an average of 4.4 out of 5

In the overall taste test, the winner was Talayna's, followed closely by Joe Bush's. Here is how each pizza fared overall: