Pehr's Pizza - Scranton

Pehr's Pizza - Your Neighborhood Pizzeria

Sundays and Mondays are difficult days to find pizzerias to find a huge selection of pizzas that I haven't already reviewed within a reasonable radius of my home base.  This review happened to take place on one of those days, so I took to one of my favorite review sites (besides this one!) - Urbanspoon to see who was open.  It turned out that Pehr's was close by and open, plus I think I recall someone telling me that Pehr's had pretty good pizza recently, so I fired up the pizza mobile and headed in their direction.  I called ahead when I was about 5 minutes away, and by the time I walked in the door, my pizza was already done for me.  That was great because if you have been reading my articles, I'm perpetually in a hurry trying to get from place to place.

Since this was my first time at Pehr's, I'll describe the place to you for those who haven't been there either.  It's a very simple, straight-forward place with 4 small tables and a counter with a few stools.  I'm not sure if they offer table service, but it struck me as the type of place that you pick the food up at the counter.  The restaurant is conviently located and easy to get to, but it's in a residential area so this is truly your neighborhood pizzeria.  One important note is that they accept CASH ONLY and no debit or credit cards are accepted so come prepared.  The place is simple, but clean and inviting.

I ordered a small 12" pizza which cost $8.50 including tax.  I hustled back out to the pizza mobile to give the pie a try.  My first impression was that the pizza maker knew what he was doing because this pie was meticulously crafted with the dough stretched neatly, sauce and cheese spread all the way to the edge and cooked to perfection.  The appearance got me a bit excited to give this a try.  I picked up the first slice and noticed that it was cooked to a light brown on the bottom, but there was no crispiness to speak of.  This is more of a tender chewy crust, so I don't think the intention is to be crispy here.  I am kicking myself because I didn't take the time to evaluate whether the pizza was cooked on a brick or steel so I apologize for that.  Take a look at the picture to get an idea - it looks really good!  The sauce was pretty smooth and not too sweet - a sauce that most people will enjoy.  The cheese was also a pretty flavorful blend as well - my guess is plenty of cheddar, but I always get into trouble guessing cheeses.  To me, this pizza wasn't super unique, but it is certainly something that will match up well with most of the pallets of the NEPA Nation.  This pizza reminded me of the new Brick Oven Pizza over in South Scranton, but perhaps with a little more cheddar cheese content at Pehr's, and Brick Oven's sauce was a hint sweeter.

Overall, I felt this was a good pizza that most people will like.  Although the value score on this pizza wasn't exceptionally high, they do have some amazing pizza and wings specials.  I also saw some really amazing pizza specials on large pizzas, so my suggestion is to try out Pehr's, take it to go, and use one of their coupons or specials.  You won't be disappointed!  

Restaurant: Pehr's Pizza

Location: Scranton, PA
Date: March 2014
Pizza Ordered: 12" NY Style Cheese Pizza

Price: $8.50

Eat In/Take Out: Eat In

Crust: 3.25/5
Sauce: 3/5
Cheese: 3.25/5
Overall Taste: 3.5/5
Crispy/Cooked Properly: 4.5/5
Overall Value: 3/5
OVERALL RATING: 3.5/5
Similar to: Fratelli's, Sacco's, Grande