Sal & Carmine’s Pizza

There was 1 guy working and suprisingly the service was takeout and quick. The pizza was really good and it was takeout or not. If you’re in a rush and need something quick I recommend this. I came here with my son and we had to go to the met so we purposely walked 10 minutes in two degree weather. 5 star

Best pizza in the USA… Yeah, I said it! Been going here since the 1980’s before I even got my first period. Yeah I said that too. But seriously, I will represent for sal and Carmine’s forever! Best NYC pizza ever!

I am a bit scared to write this review, since Sal & Carmine definitely sound like mafioso names. Since this is for my faithful Unilocal followers, I will gladly put my life in jeopardy. I came here on a Saturday evening and the only thing available was a cheese pizza. The crust was limp and tasted like cardboard. It’s worse than 99cent pizza and costs over thrice as much. If you are made an offer to eat here, I would refuse it.

Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.
2^nd time we tried this place. It’s (amazingly) listed as a top slice place in all of NYC in some pzza blogs so it’s pretty crazy to have such a polar opposite experience.
Got another pie today; it took 1 hour to get delivered 8 blocks, was burnt, and disgustingly salty.
All pizza on the UWS sucks but this place is the suckiest of them all. Never again!

I grew up just up the street from this place…25 years later it’s still my favorite pizza slice in NY and that is a bold statement. But true. Simply delicious. Quality ingredients, and the CRUST… oh mylanta the crust. If you aren’t a «crust person» probably because you’ve had crappy pizza half your life, you will see the light.
Service is fast and the guys who work there are legit. Good for delivery, but it’s nice to go in, especially on a cold day.
They even still have the bad ass White Lion poster up from forever ago. Perfect if you love classic NY pizza and appreciate glam/​metal bands. Cozy, clean and not overcrowded. All the pizza without all the BS.
If you are looking for some bougie NYC touristy pizza experience, stay away. Go to a flipping CPK if you want bbq chicken on your pizza, which is kind of gross but do whatcha like, no disrespect.
There is a reason these guys have been around since 1958. I can’t wait to come here when I’m way old and in a wheelchair and enjoy a mushroom slice with a ton of hot pepper flakes and a cream soda while gazing at that White Lion poster.
Seriously, six stars.

Sal’s by the slice is awesome. Some of the best I’ve had. Tasty sauce, delicious and soft crust, but still crunchy. I’ve ordered a whole pie before as well, and it is not nearly as good. But if you save it and reheat it, it is pretty awesome.

I initially walked in randomly after smelling the dough cooking from outside. Had never heard of the place.
Now I’m hooked! Whenever I want pizza, this place is all I can think about.
Service is always super friendly, fast and accommodating.
I really love this place and stop in whenever I’m in the area. Maybe the best pizza in ny.

Sal and Carmine opened their pizza shop in 1958. Two generations later, their pizzas are still the best. I was addicted beginning in the late 70’s when I moved into the West Side (S&C was then on Broadway at 95^th). For 20 plus years Sal and Carmine was my pizza of choice. But I moved West and haven’t been in town for many years. But back to the City for a visit, I was very pleased to see their store, almost completely unchanged from some twenty years ago.
But more important, the pizza is as good as ever. The cheese and tomato toppings are good quality. But what distinguishes S&C’s pizzas are their crusts. Never soggy in the middle, their crusts have that perfect blend of mild crunchiness and chewiness. If you judge pizzas by the array of toppings, this may not be your cup of tea. A simple cheese pizza is what I opt for at S&C. But if you are a true pizza connoisseur, you will appreciate the artistry at Sal and Carmines

I love pizza, don’t get me wrong, but this place is a dump. I had a plain slice tonight, and instead of feeling happy because I was eating pizza… The dough actually reminded me of Lenny’s bagel I had for breakfast! The pizza is kinda salty… More than usual. The sauce was actually ok, tangy… But the overall taste was weird. Lots of better pizza slice in the city. Disappointing.

I had decent pizza here — thin, chewy, and easy to eat. A little bit more variety would have been pleasing (only 3 different pizza to choose from around 7pm on a weekday). The interior also looks somewhat uninspiring — the walls are decorated with newspaper snippets from a reward they won more than 10 years ago.
I certainly had better pizza slices in New York City but not in this neighborhood — that should tell you something about the food options on the UWS.

It was recently recalled to me that this was one of the first NYC pizza parlors I was ever taken to by a native New Yorker after arriving in NYC. Why? Because for the first six months of my relocation here, I found almost all New York pizza to be worthless garbage.
Whereas Sal’s (I was informed) would change my mind forever. REAL New York pizza, I was told. Eating it would raise my experience of New York ‘zza up to the high level of esteem its residents habitually crow about.
Well, it didn’t quite do that, because I still find most New York pizza is phony, slouchy, lazy, ‘tourist’ pizza. But Sal’s was (I admit) better than average. Had something decent about it. Crust, sauce, cheese were all done .let’s say, eh, ‘properly done’. If I lived in the area I would certainly return as a regular customer.
But here’s the thing about New York pizza: there are a mere *handful* of exceptional purveyors like Sal’s…but I ask: how is that a compliment to a city of this huge size? The good ones are impossible to ever get to conveniently. So many NYC neighborhoods don’t even have a single really spectacular pizzeria. That’s your dirty little secret, New York!
So. Sal’s pizza reminds me of the type of solid, acceptable, adequate, middle-​tier pizza I can easily find at lots of places in my hometown. The truth is, what’s Sals does is simply that they don’t make any obvious mistakes. That’s the highest praise I can bestow. In my city these pies would be ‘middling’ and ‘alright’ –but here in New York people tout it and rave about a place like this as if the pizza is made out of silky, perfumed, womanflesh instead of pizza dough. Let’s keep it real, folks.
Anyway, at the time I visited Sal’s – New York was giving me a beating – so I was pleased to finally get a decent slice. Good memory.

I was staying on the upper west side and my cousin suggested we go here since it was close by. It’s a cute hole in the wall pizza place. I got a slice of pepperoni that they heated for me. I thought it was good — the pepperoni had good flavor and the crust was crispy and chewy. I’ve had better pizza, but it was a good first meal in NY.

The only time this place is acceptable to eat is when you are extremely hungry and need something within 10 minutes. And when the rest of the world has disappeared. The slices are large, but they are $ 4 each, extremely salty and served by a guy with a «fuck my life» face permanently plastered on.
If you want to make a meal out of something, I suggest going somewhere else. One slice won’t fill you up, but two slices will grease your stomach past recognition. And for $ 8 to grease your stomach lining, you might as well just go to a car shop. At least the grease there won’t dehydrate you as well.

Salty tangy thin crust and doughy. One of the best slices
In town and a must try on UWS. I’ve been coming here for years and its still quite good. Miss the original guys tho.

Big fan of the deliciousness here. A massive medium pizza is good for my wife and I for dinner AND lunch for one of us the next day. Always fresh, always good.
A REAL family owned business that people in the area would be good to support.

On my most recent NYC trip I was traveling alone and did some research before going to find famous NY pizzerias that sell slices. This is one of the places that kept coming up. This is another famous and well loved pizzeria in New York that is frequented by various celebrities and seems to have somewhat of a cult following from locals and those who know of it. Kind of like Joe’s Pizza in the Greenwich Village.
A lot of people who have reviewed this place before me complain that the cheese is too salty on their pizza. I didn’t notice anything like that.
I ordered a slice of traditional cheese and a slice with Italian sausage on it. The price came to $ 7. This may sound mildly steep for two slices of pizza, but remember these are big slices and you have to adjust your price expectations to fit NYC. Everything is just a bit more expensive in NYC.
The slice with Italian sausage had plenty of large chunks of sausage spread about it. The traditional cheese slice was pretty good. I have to say that I enjoyed my meal here quite a bit. This is definitely true NYC style pizza.
This place has a counter you can stand at to eat or there are plenty of tables you can sit at also. I showed up at lunchtime on a weekday and the place wasn’t busy.
My recommendation is to definitely give this place a try if you are looking to try out different well known pizzerias around NYC. The Upper West Side is a great neighborhood to walk around as well. Be sure to check out some of the neat articles on the wall that outline the history of the place before you leave.

Les pizzas sont énormes, 4 repas pour 1 personne avec une medium. Mais cher, 21 $ pour une peperonni, et 2 à 3 $ l’aliment supplémentaire, c’est cher!

It was alright. I prefer mama’s to this one. The place was very hot on the summer day I came in and the guy behind the counter was rude for no particular reason (I was the only customer in the store). The table I sat at was dirty, and there was trash in random locations. It looks like it’s a dying restaurant. Hopefully they own the building, so they won’t get «rent increased» out of business.
I had a slice of cheese that I asked the worker to leave in the oven a few extra minutes (it looked like it had been sitting several hours). Im not a professional pizza eater, but the crust was a bit salty and «doughy» for my taste. I think the dough taste would have been solved by the guy leaving it in the oven like I asked. Definitely could have been improved by more cheese coverage near the crust (1.5−2″ of uncovered crust is more than I prefer) but otherwise the pizza was good.
I wish I could give 2.5 stars, because I think the pizza would have been good hotter and less sloppily constructed. — lost points for overall experience — hot restaurant/​lukewarm pizza. unnecessary rudeness & dirty tables in a slow place (3 customers including myself in the 30 minutes I was there).