Lea R.
Yelp
This is one of those love-it-or-hate-it places. I've certainly never had pizza quite like El Fredo anywhere else. They serve a thin, greasy pizza known largely for its sweet sauce that has a very light kick to it. (It's spicy enough that there's a mild sauce on offer, but I honestly never noticed any spice.) The locals swear by it, but it took me a few tries to warm up to it.
The sauce isn't the only unique element at play here. The restaurant itself is set up rather oddly: you place your order at the front of the restaurant, collect your order number, then go into the back of the restaurant to order beverages from the bar, at which point you can finally settle down at a table in one of two dining areas and wait to hear your order called so you can go back to the front and collect it. It's a tad confusing on a first visit.
If you want an appetizer, go with the garlic bread. It's pretty standard garlic bread, but it's warm and tasty with a good crispy texture, even better if you get it with the melted cheese on top. The side salad is a sad joke though -- it's just a bed of iceberg lettuce and a toothpick of olives, cheese, and pepperoni -- and I found the breadsticks might as well have been made of cardboard.
If you're after veggies, the pizza toppings include quite a few vegetables that not all pizza places bother with. Sauerkraut, artichoke, broccoli... If you're an adventurous eater or enjoy unusual pizzas, you can really go wild with your toppings.
The pizza is at its best when it's piping hot and fresh out of the oven, while the cheese is a tasty goo and the sauce might burn your mouth. After adjusting to the unusual taste, I've come around to really enjoy a pizza here. The toppings are plentiful and the crust is firm without turning too crunchy. My biggest problem is the grease. I don't expect pizzas to be dry, but the meaty pizzas here can be absurdly greasy. You'll need a small mountain of napkins to get through a few slices.
When it comes to leftovers, the pizza reheats okay in an oven, but I find it completely inedible if I nuke it in the microwave, so fair warning.
I'd probably give El Fredo four stars for its food, but I've got to dock another star for the location. The tables are a bit cramped and seating for parties of 5+ fill up fast. The intercom that calls your order is often muffled and hard to hear if the employee isn't good at enunciating. The parking lot is terrible to navigate when it's full. Most alarming of all, there are cramped doorways you'll have to pass through to grab your food, which often have children running underfoot near the arcade machines. I haven't seen any collisions yet, but I hold my breath when I see kids zooming around that area.
El Fredo is definitely one-of-a-kind. If its flavor is up your alley, you're not likely to find anything like it elsewhere.
