reviews

Sweet tomatoes pizza

Upon entering Sweet Tomatoes Pizza, located in West Newton on 1279 Washington Street, your first impression is one of a large, modern pizza place. The large windows provide a great view of West Newton center’s shops and stores. Looking around, you spot the menu. At first glance, it is large and expensive. Included are interesting topping options, such as Pineapple and Canadian bacon, Pesto with sun dried garlic, or white shrimp. What choices!

After talking with the server, however, it is revealed that only 3 flavors of pizza are available in slice form: Cheese, Pepperoni, and Pesto. Slice pizza is served by making many pizzas at a time and boxing them up. If a customer wants a pizza or a slice, they heat one up and serve it to you.

A Sweet Tomatoes pizza slice is large at first glance, but a closer look reveals that it is actually just very thin and droopy. Starting out, the cheesiness can be overwhelming. What little sauce there is becomes overmatched compared to the amount of cheese. Some may like this amount of cheese, but the majority of people want an even match, not a one-sided fight.

This all changes though when you get towards the end of the slice. When the crust creeps closer, you will find yourself tasting some sauce. Actually, more than some sauce: a whole lot of sauce. In these lands, chunky tomatoes rule and the cheese hides for its own safety. This interesting combination of cheese and sauce makes for a paradox: If you like sauce then you won’t like the beginning of the pizza, and if you like cheese you won’t like the end.

Leaving Sweet Tomatoes Pizza is a lot different from entering it. Full, yet unsatisfied, you wonder why they made the pizza that way. Having two different styles of pizza in one slice is rather unsettling. At the door, you stop. It isn’t opening. After a little bit of struggle, you realize: The handle is pull, but the door is push; “yet another downfall of this place”, you think, doubting you’ll come again.

© 2009 The Daytime.