We found ourselves at Clay Terrace the other day and I saw there was a place we hadn’t tried there yet, and I always of course feel it is my duty to try them all (well, usually anyway). We had our son with us, so pizza seemed a good option. And I don’t think hubby would ever turn down pizza.
The place was pretty empty when we got there on a Saturday for lunch—it is pretty large inside. Our server was really nice and very attentive. We ordered the garlic rotoli to start ($5). This is a bowl of 8 garlic rolls. They are basically like dinner rolls that are sitting in a basil flavored olive oil and topped with parmesan cheese and fresh basil. The menu described them as coming with a “basil dipping sauce” but what they mean is the oil in the bottom of the bowl, not a separate dipping sauce (we asked). They serve them with marinara and nacho cheese sauce. I guess I was sort of hoping for a garlic knot experience, but these are much softer and we were missing the garlic butter with them. They were ok, but nothing special. Not sure you really need a dipping sauce, but the ones we got were pretty average. And if you got too much of the oil, well, they were just oily.
I like that this place states that they don’t freeze, fry or microwave anything, and that they make their marinara daily, and I was excited to try the pizza which is cooked in a 1000 degree coal fired oven. According to the menu, cooking the pizza this way gives it a unique flavor, but honestly, I didn’t really get much of a high heat flavor—the crust was not singed or blackened at all. We ordered a small (12 inch) pizza with our classic-- mushrooms and red onion on top ($13.50). This is a good sized pizza for a small I thought. The crust, while not really apparent that it had been cooked in any unique way, wasn’t bad—it was chewy and crispy at the same time. But honestly, there was nothing about the rest of the pie that made me have any desire to want to go back. The mushrooms are supposedly roasted, but came across with a slightly slimy texture, like the canned type. And I would think roasting would add some extra flavor, but the mushrooms just didn’t seem to have a lot. The onion was fine, nicely sliced very thin, but the cheese (which the menu says is a mix of mozzarella and Romano cheese) didn’t have a lot of flavor, and was super stringy and a bit rubbery.
So this was not a repeatable place for us-- there was about this place that stood out in a good way. I’m curious if you guys have been here, and what you thought about it.
Tony Sacco’s
Clay Terrace Blvd, Suite 150
Carmel, IN 46032
317/574-3473
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