Fast and fresh
Sauce offers tasty, affordable pizza and pasta, with friendly service
Restaurants that serve pasta don’t always serve the best pizza, and pizzerias don’t always serve the best pasta.
I learned this on a recent visit to Sauce Pizza & Wine, the hip new pizzeria outside Winrock Center that’s part of a Phoenix-based chain. Diners order at the counter and take a number to a table. Fast service makes it a decent spot for a business lunch, so don’t expect fancy cuisine.
The interior is clean and bright and welcoming. The high ceilings with exposed fixtures and the fire-enginered chairs would be more charming if the food were a little more authentic or original.
On my first visit, the pasta with chicken, broccoli and cheese sauce ($8.75) caught my eye, so I ordered it with a bowl of homemade Tuscan tomato soup ($2.50). The meal came quickly and was steaming-hot. The cup of soup was small, though fair for the price. It was so rich it tasted more like pizza sauce than soup. Bits of fresh herbs mixed with chunks of Parmesan cheese in a creamy paste that would have made a great pasta sauce. A tiny, cold roll was served on the side.
For 2½ bucks, though, it’s not a bad deal.
The pasta with chicken, broccoli and
cheese sauce tasted about like it sounds: bland and indistinct. The cheese is more Alfredo than nacho cheese, thankfully, but it wasn’t very flavorful. The sauce was mostly heavy cream with chunks of what looked like frozen broccoli tossed in. Another small roll came on the side. The chicken was thinly sliced, like for pizza topping, but it wasn’t very flavorful either. The pasta was firm, corkscrew tubes that tasted slightly undercooked. Overall, though the portion was large, the dish was disappointing.
On a separate visit, the pepperoni pizza ($9), made up for the pasta before. The hand-tossed crust was delicious and perfectly toasted, with little black bubbles on one side — crispy and firm. The regular-sized pizza is 12 inches, so it’s good for sharing or leftovers. It’s more than enough for a full meal, and it’s not overly greasy or filling. Sauce’s pizza sauce is thin but tasty, with a distinct fresh-herb flavor, and the crust is fantastic. With freshly grated Parmesan and a few freshly grated red-pepper flakes, Sauce’s pepperoni pizza was incredibly tasty and very affordable.
A great pizza served fast for under $10 isn’t a bad deal, and its location and parking situation make it an ideal spot for dinner after a day of shopping.
A few bright more spots: there’s a pretty affordable menu for kids (pizza and pastas are $5 each), they serve local beer on tap and have a respectable list of wines, and parking will never be a problem. Sauce has other redeeming features, too: it’s large enough for a big group. It also does catering. Service is friendly and quick, so it’s a fine lunch spot. It offers vegetarian and gluten-free options for diners with allergies. And green chiledependent diners will find local chile on the menu.
But don’t expect outstanding Italian food. And don’t expect authenticity — this is Arizona’s idea of Italian cooking, interpreted for an Albuquerque audience. It’s still worth a try, though, for its good pizza at great prices and the classy, relaxing vibe.