Erik David posted on January 15, 2010 15:30
Talayana's
I'm just going to show my cards right off the bat: I've never had a better pizza than Talayana's. It was that good. I am somewhat of a pizza expert too, having had most pizzas here in town on a regular basis, and even making my own killer pizza. I really didn't think it got any better than my own recipe, but I could try for years to get my crust to look and taste like Talayana's (the St. Louis style) and it'll never happen.
So let's start with the crust, the foundation of a good pizza. It is in my opinion the most important part of a pizza. Talayana's crust is literally wafer thin, and completely browned and crispy. We were concerned that the crust would get soggy on transporting it to our home, so we tried a piece right after getting in our car. It did get soggier as time went on, but it still stays reasonably crispy for a good amount of time.
I can't really say too much about the sauce because I didn't really notice or care about it. The toppings on the deluxe pizza we ordered were sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, and green peppers. The green peppers really stood out to me, they were really thick cut, crispy, and totally fresh. The sausage is also really key, some places use really bad sausage, but the sausage here was flavorful and perfectly distributed around the pizza.
The last part of the pizza is the cheese. This is where some people may disagree with me, because the 5-cheese St. Louis style mix that Talayana's uses is not for everyone. It tastes very unique and it's hard to explain the flavor of it. I think I prefer a more traditional pizza cheese, but for this pizza, the St Louis cheese just works.
In the end, Talayana's is a unique and truly delicious pizza, and is worth trying at least once. It's pretty new to town, and the building inside is impeccably clean. The owner/manager was so friendly to us, and we had our pizza right on time. The only real downside to Talayana's is the price, but I think the premium is completely worth it for the taste.