Pizza is an art form.  

Making the perfect pie requires striking a balance between creativity and subtlety in flavor, like mixing oil paints for the perfect shade.  

Chubby’s and Pagliai’s have the best pizza in Charleston. They have that homemade feel and taste that almost no other place around does.  

Both have great pizza. They both do things better in their own right, but overall, Chubby’s is just better.   

To test, I had a regular cheese pizza from both places. 

A basic cheese pizza is the best way to judge places on. If you cannot do a good cheese pizza, no other pizza will be that good.  

Both looked visually appealing, but Chubby’s just looked better. The cheese at Chubby’s looked more cooked than Pagliai’s.  

Pagliai’s had a very bland look to it as if the cheese did not get fully cooked. It looked like one big light-colored slice that got put on it instead of the charred, melty goodness that I look for in a pizza. 

To me, that Mars look is a lot more appetizing, filled with craters and kind of orange. Pagliai’s looked a little undercooked, even if it was not.   

Pagliai’s cheese, though, did taste better. Pagliai’s just used a better cheese than Chubby’s. It had a more distinct flavor, like you could actually taste the cheese instead of it just being a part of the whole. 

For the sauce, the taste of Pagliai’s was a little bit better as there were more flavors within it. However, there was not much sauce there, and it was dry. Chubby’s had much more sauce and it paired with the cheese and pizza overall a lot better.  

The sauce brings up Chubby’s slightly worse cheese with it. The flavors combine well.  

Chubby’s sauce might not have been as flavorful but with more of it I could taste it more with the whole pizza. With Pagliai’s sauce, I could not get the full taste of the sauce as there was not enough of it for me to taste it with the pizza.   

The best crust was easily Chubby’s. It had a good taste and was not chewy at all. The end of the crust folded up like you expect pizza crust to do and had a good crunch that rounded out the pizza. I could really taste the seasonings. 

For Pagliai’s, the crust did not have any flavor and made for a very chewy bite. The crust did not fold up in the end and made the pizza fall flat.  

A good crust can make or break a pizza. For Pagliai’s, it broke it for me.  

The pizza as a whole had a lot of great flavors, but the crust being hard for me to chew and just not having a great taste left a bad impression for me.  

Even though Chubby’s pizza felt like it had lower quality ingredients the overall pizza was better.   

Chubby’s had a really good taste and just had more flavor than Pagliai’s, mostly due to the sauce and crust. Even though Pagliai’s cheese was a little bit better, the core of the pizza was a lot better in Chubby’s.  

Both pizzas are good and make a good pizza in their own regard.  

However, for me, the best pizza in Charleston has to be the art coming from Chubby’s. 

Patrick Schmitz can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].