Salvatore of Soho

Sal is back OPEN on Staten Island, focusing on what he does so great, Pizza!!!
His Pizza in Great Kills, is truly the BEST on SI, you Must try his Voka or Clam Pies… fantastic!
We are so very glad that he has reopened his doors once more!

WHY DID THIS PLACE CLOSE WTF! Their pizza was great
My only guess is they didn’t deliver till after 4 or 5 but who knows
ill miss it

As others have noted, Sal had to close down both this place and SoHo Pizza Factory due to a dispute with his landlord (s). It is fucking disgusting that a great guy like him – who makes EXCEPTIONAL food – has to have this happen to him. However, what goes around comes around: Sal will be back, somewhere. He’s too damn dedicated not to be.
See his Facebook page for more info.

My wife and I really enjoy this small pizza spot in Staten Island. The pizza around us on this part of the island is horrible, so when we came across Salvatore’s, we were saved! The pizza is consistantly great and the service is quick!
One time we ordered a pie to be delivered and they took forever. I called to find out where our delivery was, and within 5 minutes the owner came and delivered it himself with an apology. I was impressed.
I hear rumors that they are in the process of being sold or closing down. Lets not let this happen! Lets go support Salvatore of Soho!

Wow! I used to hate on Staten Island pizza, and though it is true Joe & Pat’s vodka slice on Staten Island might be my favorite slice pound-​for-​pound, but this pizza is just wow!
Don’t get my wrong I will say Totonos’ is the best pizza forever, because that was the original and it is still amazing, but this place is on that level and you don’t need to go to Coney Island and you can use credit cards.
Salvatore’s of Soho is to Totono’s what Wolfgangs is to Peter Lugers…
It is that good, and maybe in a way just a bit better, because the calzone… That is how you are suppose to make a calzone. All other pizzeria owners should get on a bus together and take a trip over the VZ to Salvatore’s and learn how to make a calzone. The calzone comes out it is huge and puffed up, and it slowly deflates, and the dough is amazing. You can taste the coal fired oven, and than is what brings it up to another level.
The pizza was on point, I would only stay away from the onions as they can make an otherwise amazingly crunch crust get a little soggy. Once again the coal fire really comes out. If you call this burnt you know nothing about pizza, this is how they do it at Totonos’ this is how it should be done everywhere.
Just to put an added exclamation on the Wow! I also tried Lee Tavern the same week… yeah not even close. Lee’s crust is almost like a flaky pie crust and for all the hype it gets it just highlighted how much better Salvatore’s was.
One last thing, the wait staff was excellent. The second time I came here we over ordered and the waitress missed something. No big deal I was honestly too full anyways at this point. When we asked the waitress if the calzone was on the bill she admitted that she forgot, asked if we still wanted it, offered to give it to us for free, and when we turned that down she took $ 10 off the bill for the misunderstanding which was very awesome of them.

Excellent pizza. Really yummy meatballs. Service is always solid.

Quite possibly the greatest pizza you will ever have.
I recently reviewed DiFara’s in Brooklyn… as a direct comparison, Sal’s would be more of an «everyday» pizza. that is in no way a negative thing.
DiFara’s has it’s own unique charm and Sal’s is just unreal.
Fresh pepperoni slightly crisps on the edges and the brick oven charred crust is baked perfectly in only a few minutes.
Lots of toppings to choose from but pepperoni is the way to go!

So good! I’ve been wanting to try this place for about a year, but as I no longer live in staten island I haven’t found a time to come here.
We came in for a late lunch and had such a great experience. The décor and atmosphere is real old school and so nice. The service was great and the food was even better. We ordered a house salad which was huge and not anything special, but the dressing was so delicious. We also got a small meatball and ricotta pizza which was absolutely amazing. Having grown up in staten island, I recognize that I am such a pizza snob and this place really impressed me. The crust was tasty, slightly charred, and held up well under two toppings. The meatballs were thinly sliced and delicious and the ricotta was so creamy and fresh. The sauce was tasty and tomato-​y, but still had lots of great flavors.
This place comes highly– HIGHLY recommended.

Back up to 5 stars!
Got the mushroom pie, which was liberally sprinkled with fresh basil. Really flavorful, nice mushrooms. The coal-​oven crust was as perfect as a pizza crust gets.
Sitting outside, perfect weather, the owner hanging out chatting…
So nice, we had to splurge for the hazelnut-​biscotti gelato… ok, my guy said there could have been more of it in the dish… but it was as delicious as gelato gets, and perfect with a cup of brewed-​fresh-​for-​me coffee.
So excellent!

My wife and I visited this establishment last night with another couple. They were busy, but the way the presented the meal made the experience less than enjoyable.
The entire meal was presented out of order… 2 of us ordered entrees and the other 2 split a pizza… We ordered a pasta fagioli soup and some salads too… The pizza (which was dinner for 2 of us) came out with 5 minutes… After 30 minutes we got the salads… Then the entrees came out… Shortly after getting the entrees, she brings the pasta soup. I tell the waitress I do not want it, and she gives me a deer in the headlights look. To avoid confilict and creating a scene, I ask her to wrap it up.
The Pizza tasted fresh, and well seasoned, but it was soggy. The entrees were delicious. The house salad was pretty good. I would have gotten the ceaser salad, but I was told it was a creamy ceasar dressing. At $ 9, I would expect a proper ceaser salad.
The pasta fagioli is sitting in my refrigerator as I write this. Maybe tonight I will try it.
Would I got back here? Possibly. But to be honest, his prices are a bit much for what you get… I personally see WAY more value in spending the same $$$ or perhaps a bit more in a true resturaunt like Da Noi or Enoteca Maria. You will get proper service, and will not have a delivery boy and customers picking up food walking straight past your table all night. The atmosphere here was about a half tick better than a regular pizzeria. Their prices, on par with a sit down resturaunt.

Salvatore of SoHo is as good as New York pizza gets. Hands down. The quality of the pies, combined with the overall friendliness of the place and the relaxed, throwback style of the décor make it unbeatable. The odd name for a Staten Island pizza joint comes from Salvatore’s days with Lombardi’s in SoHo, but it could honestly be said that the student is now the master.
The menu is full of other Italian favorites, which you see regulars ordering, whether it be baked clams, an array of parmigianas, or pastas. It would be nice to come here with your large family or a big group of friends, getting a suitable assortment of items.
The pie below is a large sausage and pepper ($ 22.95). As with the other pies, the mozzarella is made fresh daily, the herbs come from organic sources upstate. The tomatoes and olive oil are also not afterthoughts.
What you find on this one is supremely fresh red peppers that are cooked right on the top, fresh basil, and crumbled sweet Italian sausage. The crust is thin and the rim of the pizza will be perfectly blackened on every pie you see. They really know what they are doing here, creating works of art.
Sal says it himself about the place: «Pizza as it should be.» That about sums it up.

Penne Vodka was AMAZING! Delicious! I cannot wait to go back for more. The zucchini sticks were so good. The waitress suggested we try them with blue-​cheese and she was right, it was the perfect.
It is so nice to have a place like this on Staten Island. It was small, not crowed, and great service.
It may be a little pricey for some, but well worth it in my book. You certainly get what you pay for. I will be going back very soon.

I was visiting a friend who recently moved to New York when I read about this place. We wanted some authentic New York pizza and after opting for burgers instead of pizza in Brooklyn we needed someplace good.
It was kind of a long trip from her apartment in Washington Heights but it was worth the trip, this was place was great!
When we got there we were the only ones in the restaurant so that was nice. The menu is full of options, so many toppings to choose from. I had grilled chicken, meatballs and ricotta cheese. Delicious! I recommend adding ricotta cheese every time.
And the personal size, or small, pizza can feed 2 – 3 people. Both my friend and I ordered our own personal pizza and had a lot left over, which worked out for us when we started running low on funds.
So, if you’re ever in Staten Island and looking for a place to eat, go to Salvatore of Soho! Great food, great service and great atmosphere. I forgot to mention they some great old school jams.

First let me assert myself as a pizza expert, I have lived in New York City my whole life. I am originally from Staten Island (the pizza capital of the world, and have lived in Manhattan for two years. I love pizza.
If you asked me where the best pizzeria in New York City was I would have said Denino’s, but Salvatore has set the standard extremely high.
First off, we were seated immediately, absolutely no wait. I don’t understand why people aren’t cued around the block. We tried the regular, Neapolitan pizza. Good God it was PERFECT!!!
The pizza is cooked in a brick oven, so the bottom was charred just right. The sauce was sweet, but not lacking any acidity. The cheese was fresh. Most importantly, some how, their was none of that extra grease drip.
The décor wasn’t awful and the service was great, our waitress very kind.
It was by far the best pizza in NYC and quite frankly the best pizza in the world.

It’s one of the finest pizzas I’ve consumed. On par with the best in this city and this country.
The coal gives it the wonderful rustic accents of soot.
The dough is salty in a good way. I bet they use wild yeast cultures, or at least ferment it long enough to give it some flavor and tang. The crust leans towards the Frank Pepe style, but a softer flour is used for a more tender crust. They cook it well-​done by default (heck yeah). I find it to be the perfect balance between the Naples and New Haven styles.
The ricotta used in the white pie is just plain stupid rich flavor. Forgo the sausage (it sucks) and even the rabe (it distracts). This antithesis to the tomato pie deserves focus on the crust and cheese alone. I already know I’ll be thinking of it for years to come.

The best tasting pizza on staten island… coal oven rustic minerally flavor to die for.
Better overall pizza than Joe and Pat’s??? eh…
They’re both great in their own right. With Joe and Pats getting the nod simply because I love ultra thin more than anything and Joe and Pats does it right.
However, Salvatore of Soho definitely has the better ambiance… which isn’t saying all that much when you consider the cold hard fact that Joe & Pats has crème colored plastic roman columns, fake sky ceiling murals, tacky plants, and female gavone waitresses all permeating your sense of comfort like annoying little chiggers.
Salvatore’s goes for the quaint vintage Italian American Restaurant vibe and it works. The Red and White Plaid Table Cloths, Pantry-​Sized Dining Room, Friendly Vintage Garbed Waitresses and perhaps most of all, home-​style Italian pasta and main courses.
Yellowtail wine only, eh… but what the hell Yellow Label means Shiraz means the House Red means Pedestrian Kiwi Wine flows like beer and the women distinctively flock like the salmon of capistrano.
We had a vegetarian pie which was abound with rustic flavor. sauteed broccoli rabe, roasted peppers, onions all complimented the robust coal oven dough very well. Only complaint was a Veggie Pie like that can be heavy and have lots of residual grease making the crust a bit soggy (which I hate)…
this is why I try to stick to plain pies or 1 topping if i’m pressed.
Sticky to mention, our Eggplant Rolitini, which was a giant portion stuffed with copious amounts of ricotta and topped with a generous portion of melted mozzarella (to put it lightly).
First of all… if you fill anything with any kind of cheese and it’s even semi-​substantial, you don’t need to smother the top with more cheese… this isn’t domino’s, we aren’t coming here for your new discoveries in the frontier of places to stow away and hide cheese in food. A simple sprinkling of parmesan would have more than sufficed.
Second, the Eggplant wasn’t fried… it was sauteed and therefore turned slimy. Eggplant Rolitini with a light frying, creates a more well rounded dish.
Third, the sauce was a bit sweet. This is ok for Pizza sauce but not for pasta and main dishes. This tells me they might have 1 sauce working as their pizza sauce and marinara.
IF YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE 1 SAUCE, YOU WANT IT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. NOT YOUR SWEETER PIZZA SAUCE POSING AS MARINARA, BUT YOUR HERBY MARINARA POSING AS PIZZA SAUCE.
I stay at 4 stars because… this was a great meal with very nice waitresses that served us delicious pizza and comp’d us almond cake, espresso, coffee and sambuca.
I will be back here for pizza and use caution around pasta dishes and other sauce dishes.
I suggest you do the same, and don’t buy into the waitress’s sales pitch about how their pasta is incredible, because it’s not.
If you want good pasta with marinara or arabiatta, just send me a message and i’ll make you some or give you my great grandmother’s recipe from Abruzzo.
Ciao

By the end of the meal, Salvatore of Soho (S.O.S.) had changed our perspective.
«Dude, check out that rotating oven! Nice», said Michael F, my pizza crawl companion.
«Very nice», I responded while checking out the 50s diner uniform of our fetching server. As Michael engaged her in friendly conversation, I surveyed the premises to note that by this time only 10 people were seated. I smiled back politely at the friendly ladies sitting to our right, while commenting to Michael about how clean, bright, and welcoming S.O.S. was — in contrast to the few places I’ve visited on S.I., and generally, pizzerias.
After some debate (Michael wasn’t in the mood for the popular white pie) we chose two personal pies: Tomatoes and Onion, and Vodka. We sampled but prudently held back on the consumption of the warm, homemade bread in anticipation of the many pies that awaited us in the hours ahead. Within 10 minutes our pizzas were before us.
The pizza crust was a hybrid between Neapolitan and NY pies: thin and chewy-​crisp, slightly puffy, nicely charred or rather, «well done». Once I had conquered the naysayer within (what is it: Roman, NY, or Neapolitan?) I quite liked it despite the slightly soggy middle. The vodka sauce was good, but I preferred the Tomatoes and Onion pie. The sauce (from San Marzano tomatoes) was lively and fresh, though I would have been happier with more, and the mozzarella was clearly fresh and homemade. The smoky onions and fresh basil added to the complexity in terms of flavor and texture.
Our neighbors had ordered the plain pie and were happy with it. One of the ladies remarked that she preferred the pizza at Denino’s. While perusing the menu for coffee drinks, I pointed out the Al Puccino as an option and Michael immediately inquired from our winsome server whether Al Pacino had ever visited the pizzeria. When the server replied in the negative, the witty neighbor who had been delayed by parking difficulties commented aloud, «He probably went to Denino’s, after circling around the block looking for a parking space!» Hilarious! :)
Confronted with the task of deciding upon dessert, I inquired from the server whether they were homemade. She replied in the negative, adding that they were sourced from a few different suppliers. As I debated abstinence, the server suggested the toasted almond cream cake with such passion that I consented to the final course. It was a good call, for the sweet treat was simply fantastic! It was similar to the more famous Pick-​me-​up dessert, but soaked in intoxication of another kind, perhaps Amaretto. While Michael was initially inclined against partaking in anything sweet, he too decided to place his faith in the server — sweet smell has a way of disarming people with developed olfactory senses :) But, as by now the pizzeria was packed to capacity with a line of people waiting outside, the server was busy assisting other customers. Without any hesitation, our friendly neighbor offered Michael her own fork so that he didn’t need to wait. I must confess, in my 5 visits to Staten Island, S.O.S. is where I’ve found the friendliest souls.
I reminded Michael later that he had focused more on the dessert and service (er, server) as opposed to the pizza — for someone on a pizza crawl! While I had overcome my own crust issues, prejudices against desserts sourced elsewhere, and accepted the possibility of friendly dining companions in the city. If you go with an open mind, S.O.S. might do that to you — make you look differently at a slice of life :)

Event:
Holiday Staten Island Pizza Crawl
Date:
December 30, 2009
Time:
Approximately 1:15pm
In attendance:
Atif I., Michael F.
Two pies were ordered:
1. Tomatoes and onions: smokey tasting onions added a nice flavor to the pie. Sauce and cheese were both quite good and high quality. Crust was good, but not mind-​blowing; a tad on the fluffy side, and I like it denser and more chewy. A pretty fair pie overall.
2. Vodka: first time I’d had one. I have to say, I’m not a fan. Call me conservative, but to me pizza isn’t white nor has vodka sauce on it. At a minimum it does have tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese; the rest is pretty much up for grabs (except for stuff like pineapple, which is freakin’ WRONG. Go move to Hawaii if you want to eat that shanizz). The pizza was well-​executed, it’s just not in my pizza wheelhouse.
Other highlights:
1. Upon arrival we were given some warm, crusty homemade bread and tapenade-​ish dipping sauce that we were told was made of olives, sundried tomatoes, capers, and olive oil (possibly one or two other ingredients as well). It was extremely tasty.
2. Our waitress was totally fetching and smelled absolutely divine. She also recommended an almond cake that was devastatingly good. The transaction was as follows:
She: «That’s my favorite dessert. I could eat it everyday.»
Atif (nodding): «I’ll take one.»
She (after delivery and after we’d had a chance to sample): «How is it?»
Atif: «Excellent!»
She (under her breath but loud enough for me to hear): «Toldja.»
Ha!
The cake was very similar to tiramisu only instead of espresso-​soaked lady fingers, these were soaked with almond flavored something-​or-​other (maybe Amaretto). Instead of dusting with cocoa, this was topped with toasted almond slivers. Fantastico!
I’ll be back for the waitress… err… pizza and almond cake. Yum.

This review is for Fan #82
It’s the pinnacle of pizzerias. And as far as an Italian restaurant, also above most others. The all-​encompassing coal taste is unmatched by anything I’ve had. Salvatore Ganci uses what he thinks are the best ingredients available; this man has the utmost integrity. The staff is always friendly and like an Italian family (not Olive Garden), they’ll keep feeding you and feeding you. It’s obvious their generosity and passion. I could not ask for more.
Sal described the lore of the so-​called grandfathered-​in coal ovens, which he is has no family lineage. The part which makes it illegal is what comes out the flume. So if there is no coal spewing out, then it won’t be shut down. His half-​coal half-​gas oven, made with parts from NASA, keeps coal fumes inside the oven burning efficiently. No excess, no waste.
Themed from the turn of the century, when pizza was real. Everything feels clean, not hackneyed; a time capsule from 100 years ago. It’s not hackneyed though. Many of the little items around the restaurant are antique: fans from 1920, an old record player, Coca-​Cola signs, pull-​handle flushes for the toilet, tiled flooring and tin ceilings. The music is 50’s through 70’s and is appreciated.
The white pizza is ridiculous. It uses a cannoli-​like ricotta cheese. –1 for their drink selection. I’m a fountain guy and the entire selection is bottled and run of the mill. But this place already has a record breaking 7 stars, so the Unilocalometer is more than spilling out stars off the side already.

I would like to put the ratings here first before I am sober enough to write a coherent review of this place. I am still drunk from all the food I’ve gorged down since my last trip to Salvatore of Soho
Holy Sh*t!!! F*cking ay!!! y tu madre!!! It was that good!!!
And the Pasta, OMG THE PASTA!!! AHHH!
I want more!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!