Sam & Louie's Pizzeria

Restaurant: Sam & Louie's Pizzeria
Address: 7641 Cass St
Website: http://www.samandlouiesnyp.com/
Genres: Italian, Pizza, Pasta
Check Constraints: Short order.
Chain: Yes.| More Omaha Locations: Yes.

==NinjaDebugger==
Ordered:

• Cheese Bread (5.49)
• Cheese Tortellini Alfredo (10.99) w/Chicken (2.49)
• Soda (1.99)

I'm gonna get right down to the nitty gritty on this one. The cheese bread here is solid middle-of-the-road cheese bread. There is cheese, there is butter, there is bread. It's nothing adventurous, nothing worth raving over, not terrible, but also not really worth the price.

The alfredo was a real surprise, though. It seems to be a recurring theme in our lunches that I find the best alfredo at places that specialize in other things. Usually pizza, strangely enough. I'm going to try hard not to think about that. Anyway, I went with tortellini because there is no such thing as too much cheese, and this didn't disappoint at all. Properly cooked tortellini with an alfredo whose only sin was being just a touch too salty.

Unfortunately, the prices here leave a lot to be desired, even if I was ordering off the dinner menu with the appropriate portions. I could have had food just as good, if not better, at Lansky's, for half the cost, or double the portion.

==Chamelaeon==
Ordered:

• 8 pc Cheese Bread ($5.49)
• 2 Slices Specialty Pizza Meal ($7.99)
  
• Buffalo Jack Pizza
• Drink

It should be noted that we had in mind a different pizza joint for the review, but it apparently isn't open for lunch, which is a distressing development. Regardless, we were all primed for pizza, so we headed to Sam & Louie's. I don't much like reviewing chains, for reasons I've stated before - on top of those, it somehow doesn't feel fair to pit something so supremely generic against something with flavor and character. But I'll do it anyhow.

The operating word here is "adequate". The cheese bread? Adequate. The price? Perhaps a bit on the high side, but generally adequate. The pizza in general? Adequate. The pizza I got, however, should be avoided; for something that was supposed to be spicy, it was basically a more tasteless version of a barbecue chicken pizza, sans even the barbecue flavor. According to the descriptions there was Frank's Red Hot involved somewhere in the construction of this pie, but they have to have been adding it by the cubic centimeter - I couldn't taste it at all. The red peppers and onions were diced into oblivion, and I wound up dipping the slices in the marinara from the cheese bread to get some well-needed flavor into it. Honestly, if I'd just had some pepperoni or something on the cheese bread I'd probably have had a better meal. I suppose it's fair to mention that it's likely that the pizza had been sitting out for a bit, and you would probably wind up with better quality if you ordered a whole pie. Not worth the risk in my opinion, though.

If you stick to standard pizza formats you'll probably find something decent to eat here. Sandwiches might work as well - they had a sampler for their stromboli under a heat lamp, and after accounting for that maltreatment it was pretty decent.

==Mecha==
Ordered:

• Salad ($1.99)
  
• 2 Slices Specialty Pizza Meal ($7.99)
  
• Thai Pie
  
• Drink

This place is a fairly common stop for a certain group of people at the company, so I guess I knew the place most. I usually get the 3 slices of 1 topping, because 6 bucks for a lunch's worth of pizza and a drink is fine. I wanted to try one of their specialties this time, and boy, it was special.

The garlic cheese bread was indeed adequate, but better than some places. The salad was also fine, not wilted or anything. The pizza... exactly as advertised. The sauce base was, of all things, peanut, instead of tomato or BBQ. Then cheese, chicken, red peppers, broccoli... it had a little heat and good flavor. I really think they did a good job putting thai flavor into a pizza format, and that's really enjoyable to me. Also not something that's done often.

The pizza seems to be more or less on par with prices to me, although a little expensive for specials by the slice. I would never really go out of the way for the place, given how close there's other options for me, but it's pretty fast and convenient. The other pizza options in the immediate area that are equivalent or better for lunch tend to be a heck of a lot more busy (and just as expensive.) But the Lansky's or Roman Coin treks (slower, but better) tends to favor them for anything but a solid quick lunch.

==Moogle==
Ordered:

• Salad ($1.99)
  
• 2 Slices Specialty Pizza Meal ($7.99)
  
• Hawaiian Luau
  
• Drink

Most has already been said. The salad was simple, and the poppy seed dressing pretty good. Sweet and not too strong/heavy. I thought the cheese bread was decent. For the pizza, I picked the Hawaiian style specialty pizza. Ham and pineapple has been one of my favorite pizzas for a long time, but I rarely get a chance to order it these days. This one had a little bit extra with ham, pineapple, bacon, and red peppers. However, the bacon tended to drown out the other items, with those items being a lot less flavorful.

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't really what I was looking for. It was also a bit lightweight for $10. It may have been better value to go with the single-topping special.