Pizza, it makes the world go around. When it's good, pizza can transform an absolutely terrible day into an above average one. I love pizza. I love it more than some humans. After 3 years of college, I've consumed an ungodly number of slices of delicious pizza pie. But, in my 20 years of life, I've also eaten some really nasty excuses for pizza. It's grown obvious to me that not all pizza is created equal, and some places are better than others. So for my fellow Rider students, over the past few weeks I have taken it upon myself to try a slice from some of the local pizza joints, and I am reviewing them here, so next time you are craving some 'za you know where to go. Ya'll can thank me later.

How I'm Ranking the Pies:

First: My rank is pretty basic. For a good slice I'm judging the cheese, sauce, sauce to cheese ratio, crust, appearance, greasiness, price and location. I didn't go to chain locations. No Dominos, Pizza Hut, etc. If you only order it at 2 a.m., you probably don't really care about the taste. Only local, hand-made joints.

Also: At each place I got one slice of plain, cheese pizza. This is simply because cheese pizza is base for almost all the other flavors.

Sidenote: Just because I think the pizza is a zero, doesn't mean the place is gross. It could have banging calzones, sandwiches or salads, the pizza just isn't great.

My Rating System: Pepperoni's. In lieu of stars I'm using pepperoni's, five pepperoni's is the best, 1 the worst.

1. Fedelos Family Pizzeria

Location: 1241 Lawrenceville Road, Lawrenceville, N.J (2.5 Miles from Rider's campus, 8 minute drive)

Price for a slice of plain: $1.75

Delivery: Yes

If you're hungry for a piece of pizza and on a budget, I see the appeal. It's quick, the staff seem friendly enough, and the 'za was decent. Also, it delivers until like 2 a.m., which is a huge plus. It is a step up from what I like to call a utility pizza. Utility pizza is the kind they serve at high school club events. The kind that is a just edible. Probably made with bagged mozzarella cheese from the supermarket. That is utility pizza. This is not utility pizza, but it really isn't so much better. What brought this down was the sauce to cheese ration, for a plain cheese pizza there was way to much sauce. A huge plus for this slice was that it was remarkably ungreasy. You expect some amount of grease when you eat pizza but this had almost none, which was really great.

Rating:

Three pepperonis because it's a just an above average slice.

2. TJ's Pizzeria & Pasta

Location: 2661 Main St, Lawrence Township, ( Right across from Lawrenceville Prep School, 2.2 miles away from Rider's campus, 7 minute drive)

Price for a slice of plain: $1.85

Delivery: Yes

Let me just start off by saying I've been at Rider for three years now, living only 2 miles away from this place, and I have never gone in until last week. Before going to a new place I always check out the Yelp reviews, and after reading the mixed reviews about TJ's I was a bit hesitant to try it. But it's the hot place for the students from Lawrenceville Prep, so if it's pizza good enough for rich kids I figured it's gonna be good enough for me. Let me tell you: this pizza was pretty darn good. I'm not sure about those bad reviews, but I really enjoyed my slice. It was big, but not a giant monster pizza slice. Easily, this is my new favorite pizza place in the area, and I'm a bit confused why it took me three years to try it in the first place. While the slice was good, it wasn't amazing. It was a tad bit too greasy, and a bit too cheesy. I could barely taste the sauce.

Rating:

A solid 4 'ronis. Something I would definitely eat again, at any time of the day.

3. Varsity Pizza & Subs

Location: 1296 Lawrenceville Rd, Lawrence Township, NJ 08648 (2.3 miles away from Rider's campus, 7 minute drive)

Price for a slice of Plain: $2.01

Delivery: Yes

As a Rider student, Varsity's was literally the first pizza I had when I came to school. It's like Rider's lifeblood. When I asked my friends and sisters 'where do you normally order pizza from?' they all answered 'Varsity's'. Rider students loooove Varsity's, they order it every club meeting, my sorority orders it every other Friday, and teachers order it for parties. So it pains me to say that this pizza really disappointed me. I know a majority of students at Rider love this pizza, but I'm telling everyone right now: we can do better! It's overpriced and mediocre. I know many of my friends like Varsity's for its variety of speciality pizzas, which I have no doubt might be fine, but as I said in the beginning - a plain slice is the foundation for all the other flavors. The slice looked orange, which is totally unnatural, and it dripped a fluorescent orange colored grease. Also the crust was kind of like eating cardboard - It was flavorless and hard and depressing to eat. It's sad to say that this was worse for me than utility pizza. We can do better guys!

Rating:

One and a half pepperonis, maybe it could have been more but with the price over $2 I have to say this place was only worth the one and a half 'ronis.

4. Dominic's Pizza & Ristorante

Location: 1961 Brunswick Pike, Lawrence Township (2.9 miles from Rider's campus, 10 minute drive)

Price for a slice of plain: $1.85

Delivery: yes

By this point in my pizza adventures, I started dragging people along with me. Like my boyfriend. Who also loves pizza.

Together we stumbled upon Dominic's, a pizza place located not to far away from campus that was new to both of us. I really enjoyed this place. The slices were huge, and came out of the oven pipping hot. Like I'm pretty sure I have a minor burn because of the cheese dripping on top my hand. A big plus was that the cheese looked like real mozzarella cheese, not that weird orange cheese. The sauce tasted fresh there was a great sauce to cheese ratio. The only problem I could see with this pizza is the greasyness. It required several dab with with a napkin. My boyfriend wasn't the biggest fan of this pizza, but he's a picky pie eater. I found this pizza to be pretty tasty.

Rating:

Three and a half 'ronis because this place was pretty darn tasty.

5. Nino's Trattoria & Pizzeria

Location:111 Lawrence Rd, Lawrenceville, NJ (3.1 Miles away from Rider's Campus, 12 minute drive)

Price for a slice of plain: $2.25

Delivery: yes

I don't know anyone who has been here or even gotten pizza here, but I was getting gas at the QuickCheck so I thought hey, why not. It was a $2.25 I should have spent elsewhere. The pizza was really pricy for one slice, and it didn't reflect in the ingredients as one would assume. The cheese was the fake, orangey color and the grease level was outta control. The crust was pretty tasty, but the cheese way over powered the sauce. Also the sauce was totes not fresh. You could hardly taste any hunk of tomato. The sauce could have been ketchup for all I know. The pizza was just pretty average.

Rating:

I would give this place more pepperoni's if it wasn't for the high price. The pizza wasn't really bad but it def was not worth the price, which was ridiculous.

Mentions:

During my pizza hunt, I found some dope places such as Piccolo's Trattoria and Candelas that had some delicious pizza but didn't make sense to mention. 1. Piccolo's doesn't deliver to Rider, so unless you are dedicated to pizza and willing to drive to it, you may never try this delicious treat. 2. Candelas only had pies, not slices. So you're kinda locked into a big commitment when you order from there, but a pretty good commitment cause it's pizza.