Di Noko's

I really wanted to like this place. We loved Ginelli's (formerly at this location) and we live in a bit of a pizza dead-zone where only the "big chains" deliver and there are generally few vegetarian topping options.

The pros: The staff are really very nice. They're a small, family-owned operation. Also, they have a wide range of toppings available (again, as a vegetarian who doesn't believe green peppers and onions are actually vegetables, I appreciate this. ;)

The cons: Soooooo sugary and greasy. We selected a thin crust pizza. The toppings were...ok. Not great, not the freshest most flavorful in taste, but they were OK and it's winter in MN so I'll cut them a little slack. The crust was also passable. A little flavorless and sweetish for my taste, but a reasonable foundation.

The biggest problem was the sauce: their red sauce is very bland and, as others have mentioned, far, far too sweet. I don't know what "zip" or "pop" certain posters found in it. ...to be perfectly blunt, it tasted like overly sweet ketchup. After eating a square or two of pizza, I could eat no more because the taste was so cloying and off-putting. Also, as another poster mentioned, the cheese was an issue. Normally I like cheese and plenty of it, but the cheese seemed to have been largely applied over the other toppings (maybe that's why they seemed so greasy and not fresh? Or maybe the cheese was applied first but in excess, it took over?) and somehow seemed to be a little heavy for what the taste of the rest of the pizza could support. One of the toppings we had was feta. Unfortunately the "feta" was also not  a particularly pleasing one and it was burried in the mounds of pizza cheese.

Sadly,we probably won't be back anytime soon. Still, I'll keep an eye out on reviews and such. If they end up re-evaluating the sauce situation, perhaps we'll give them a try down the road. As I said, the people are very nice and I like supporting small, local businesses, I just didn't care for the food.

Was really hoping to like this place, but the pizza fell far short.

I ordered a deep dish with sausage, pepperoni, and green peppers on one half and artichokes, mushrooms and green olives on the other in addition to some hot buffalo wings.

Sauce: very sweet. Almost like Ragu or something. I mean, if you like Ragu, it's probably right up your alley.

Pepperoni: flavorless

Cheese: there is a TON of cheese on this pizza. Normally I'd probably like that, but with the overly sweet sauce and flavorless pepperoni, it was all just too much

Crust: not very tasty but not horrible

Wings: very meaty compared to wings elsewhere and I did really like the sauce, though "hot buffalo" was more like "sweet buffalo". Pretty pricey, though, about $1/wing.

Above average pizza, great service.