Pizzino, Clayton - Visited May 2015

This week it was my wife's pick to select our Saturday lunchtime selection, and she decided on a newer place she recently read about on stltoday.com called Pizzino in Clayton near the corner of Hanley and Wydown. The place is hidden around the corner of Wydown and Westwood with its own small parking lot that is shares with a couple other places. Luckily when we arrived there were a few places to park so we were just a few feet from the front door.

The restaurant is small and unassuming with only a few tables, and you order from a small menu at the counter. They have two types of pizza, and we decided to try both, a thin, grilled custom pizza, and a "by the slice" thick focaccia style. My wife and daughter split both a margherita grilled pizza and a plain cheese slice of the focaccia, my son ordered two slices of focaccia with bacon, my mother-in-law selected one slice of the plain cheese focaccia, and I selected two slices of focaccia, one with bacon and sausage and the other with the Calabrese salami. They have a refrigerator filled of a good variety of bottled drinks, so we could all select whatever we wanted, but I opted for just a cup of tap water, which was also available.

We sat at one of the few tables there, where the owner could watch us as we waited for our food. Despite being small, the place was quite clean and well maintained, and they had personal photos and the cans of ingredients on display to give it a more homey and intimate feel. A few of us used their restrooms which were "one person units", and they were very clean, well maintained and smelled nice (which is much better than the alternative!)

They brought our food out on metal trays that acted as plates as well, and they also provided real metal silverware which made cutting the pizzas much easier. I tried the margherita grilled pizza and it had a good flavorful crust to it, with the grilling giving a nice touch. The focaccia pieces were bigger than expected and two slices provided quite a bit of food. They were slightly greasy and tasted a bit like the Jet's thick pizza, but not quite as greasy and heavy and with not as much sauce and toppings. It still had a good hearty focaccia taste and the toppings added a nice extra flavor to it without being overpowering. The Calabrese salami was not as strong as pepperoni with a more nuanced flavor, and the sausage and bacon were also flavorful without being overpowering or too greasy. My wife preferred the grilled pizza over the focaccia, but my daughter and I preferred the thicker style pizza.

They offer a few desserts, and we tried the "Rosa del Deserto" which was corn flakes covered with dark chocolate with honey and hazelnuts. They normally give you two clusters for $1.95, but since there were five of us he gave us five of them for two orders so we could each have one. That exemplifies the kind of personal attentive service we received there (it helped that we were the only customers dining in!) We definitely felt like valued customers (unlike my wife and daughter's most recent visit to SanSai which I have heard was quite memorable in a bad customer service way.) The desserts were not fancy and a bit messy, but they were quite tasty and made a good ending to a pleasant lunch. My son and I both had some focaccia extra to take home as leftovers, so I will get to enjoy it again for another meal.

Overall it was a very pleasant experience with good food and exceptional personal service. The food did not stand out as extraordinary, but was different and interesting enough to make it a very positive lunch if not an overly memorable one.