I was really looking forward to dining at this pizza place, especially because I was led to believe…read morethey had the best New York Pizza in the area. But what I discovered was it was nothing like a New York style pizza, and not at all the best pizza around.
The fact is I lived for over 25 years in Boston, Massachusetts, and frequented the Italian neighborhood of Boston which is called the North End, that it is also widely known as Boston's Little Italy, due to its rich Italian-American heritage and abundance of Italian restaurants and bakeries. There, at the pizza place next to the Little Italy Market, I've had the best genuine New York style pizza ever. And I also visited New York frequently, and have actually eaten a New York style pizza in New York City often, so I guess you can say I know first hand the look and taste of a New York Style pizza.
I arrived at Franks Pizza on East Main Street, Salem on a Saturday early evening, and parked at the City of Salem Farmer's Market Parking lot, conveniently located across the street, and where you get 2 hours of free parking, Monday - Saturday, 6AM-6PM. As I entered the place I saw an open window on the wall with one of the cooks making a pizza, I stopped there on the way to the main counter to ask to be seated. The person making the pizza was kind of rude and asked me to move on, not allowing me to see how he was making the pizza. When I arrived to the main counter, the server, who was a very nice gentleman, greeted and welcomed me and asked me to sit in any booth available. Practically all the booths were empty except one where two older ladies were dining at. I found this a bit odd, on a Saturday early evening, when good restaurant are already beginning to get full.
The gentleman treated me well, handed me the menu, got me my softdrink, and took my order. I ordered a House Salad with Balsamic vinaigrette dressing, and a Special 12" hand tossed NY Style Pizza. As I was waiting I noticed there was no music in the background to make for a relaxing ambiance. Instead you could here the cooks back in the kitchen talking loud in Spanish, which I guess they didn't know I was understanding all the nonsense they were saying. That loudness coming out of the kitchen didn't create a relaxing ambiance.
The salad arrived shortly, inside a plastic black bowl, and it was the highlight of the meal. I invite you to watch and listen to my video clip and photographs accompanying this review to get a better sense of the place and its food.
Then the pizza arrived. My servered delivered it by placing it on a stand. At first it looked good, but a bit too white on top. It hardly had any sauce at all, and thus hardly any flavor from the lack of sauce and quality meats. The Italian sausage and pepperoni lacked flavor probably due to the low quality. It was full of cheese, that's for sure, but also lacking flavor. The dough of the crust was bland and burnt, not at all tasty.
Some customers, for whatever reason, might like their pizza this way, and might not mind the loud noise coming from the kitchen, and the lack of music creating a relaxed environment, and I respect that. But in my opinion, with so many other good pizza places around, even in the least expected alleyways, I would not waste my time and money here.
