Torino's Pizza

Aldrin Capulong

You see them sitting in grocery-store strip malls, beckoning the desirous and the ravenous with their colorful facades, persuasive pitches and promises of satisfaction. Many of us have fallen victim to these two-bit temptresses, yet we return, time and again, unable to resist their cheesy charms.

I speak, of course, of the neighborhood pizza joint. The latest in this long line of purveyors of the quick fix – Torino's Pizza – is positioned in a newish Oviedo strip mall anchored by a Publix. Throngs of UCF students can be seen downing Torino's brand of decent hand-tossed New York-style pizza ($1.99 per slice) and thoroughly average wings ($6.99 for 10) on any given night. Some Tuskawillians seem to have taken a shine to their baked ravioli ($10.99), but the sweetish red sauce polarized our palates.

On the good side, the meatball sandwich ($6.50) elicited unanimous votes in favor of the hot hero, but the eggplant rollatini ($10.99) delivered the knockout blow. Neither the cannoli ($3.25) nor the tiramisu ($3.50) is fashioned in-house – which is a shame, considering the least I expected was a happy ending.