Review: Sal's Pizza Hamilton

Get ready pizza lovers, Hamilton has a new slice in town.

Sal’s Authentic New York Pizza, located on Victoria St, opened Wednesday afternoon.

Known for their enormous 18 inch [almost 46cm] sized pizzas, with cheese imported from Wisconsin, USA, the opening of their Hamilton store has been highly anticipated by pizza lovers in the Waikato region.

Sal’s Hamilton had a rocky start when they leased the 213 Victoria St shop, which use to be Burger Fuel, in early 2012.

Initially planning to open a new branch in 2012 a “number of internal factors” let them to list the building and franchising opportunity on TradeMe.

In December 2013 signs appeared in the vacant shops windows that read “Coming Soon Summer 2014” and started a buzz on social media.

Within a month Sal’s started recruiting online for staff and on March 5 they confirmed an opening date for the following week.

Since the announcement stomachs have been rumbling and anticipating the big day.

“I've been counting down the days! It was better than I imagined” said Olivia Tingey-Graham, who dined at Sal’s last night. “I really enjoyed it, it was very filling.”

All the tables were filled and a small queue had formed when I went into grab my pre-ordered cheese pizza. 

A group of four teenagers were sitting by the front door, three giant pizzas crammed on the table. “We had never had it before but we were so excited when we heard it was coming” said Sam, who along with three of her friends were dining in the store tonight.

Although not keen on having their photos taken after gorging on several pizzas they didn’t mind having a quick chat.  “It is so good and the pizzas are so big, we are all stuffed!” said another girl in the group, named Jade.

After collecting my pizza, which weighed a lot more than I expected, I walked to my car.  On the short walk there I heard people whispering about Sal’s and a group of women pointed at the box with one saying “Oh that’s Sal’s pizza, I’ve heard they are so good, look how big it is!”

It felt like all the eyes were on me and this giant box of pizza.  My car was filled with the aroma of cheese, tomatoes, and garlic.

I don’t think you are prepared for the actual size of the pizza until you open the box.  One slice of pizza took up almost a standard dinner plate. 

Sal’s pizza is more expensive than their competitors but they have is at least five inches more than the other pizzerias in Hamilton.

I ate one piece.  It was divine.  It had a nice balance between a crisp base, fresh tomato flavour, and the salty cheese.

In my opinion, none of the other pizza places in Hamilton could compare to this taste.  I was pretty full after just once slice.

Which is good because Sal’s also sells pizza by the slice, so anyone who finds themselves downtown and hungry for pizza can head to Sal’s.

They are hoping to get their online ordering and delivery services work shortly, but in the mean time you can order in store or on the phone.

I will defiantly be back, more times than I probably should, because that really was a slice of heaven.