My Favorite Philly Pizzeria Tinkers With Their Crust

It was in the fall of 2024 that I proclaimed the New York cheese pizza at Pizzeria Salvy to be my favorite pie in Philadelphia. I’ve been back there a couple times since then and that judgement has held firm. 

So it was a bit of a jolt to check out Salvy’s current menu and see that it no longer includes the New York style pie. In place of it, they’ve added a South Philly cheese pizza. While the description that accompanies it led me to believe it could be the same pie under a different name, a visit to be sure was in order. The arrangements were made with my pizza crew – Nancy, Francisco and Craig – and the four of us met there for lunch on a recent weekday afternoon.

As a reminder, Pizzeria Salvy is situated in Pennsylvania’s tallest building – the Comcast Technology Center, which is in Philly’s Center City. Its open layout always reminds me of an airport restaurant.

Aside from pizza, the menu includes a nice selection of appetizers and salads along with a couple calzones, appropriately renamed, “Salzones.” Although tempted to try the cheesesteak Salzone, I instead opted to keep my focus on the pizza, especially the South Philly cheese pie. 

At the first opportunity, I asked our server whether it is the same pizza as their former New York cheese pie and was disappointed when he informed us that it’s instead a cross between the New York pie and their Neapolitan-style pizza.

In any event, we ordered three of them – one plain and one each with pepperoni and sausage. The pizzas at Salvy are a smallish 12-inches, so that’s not as much food as you may think it is. 

Nancy also requested a chopped salad for the table.

My three companions all seemed to enjoy the chopped salad very much, but I’m not due to eat another salad for several months and didn’t partake. 

That left me hungry and raring to dig in when our three pizzas were brought out. Given our past experiences at Salvy, it was hardly surprising that they were things of beauty. 

It was tough to tell just by looking if there was any major difference between these pizzas and the New York style pies we had previously eaten there. Here is a photo of one of those from a previous visit.

The true test was, of course, how it tasted and felt in our mouths from a textural standpoint.

Nancy, who shared my lofty view of the New York pie, and I both noticed a bit of a difference. While still very good, the crust for the new South Philly cheese pie is not as crunchy as the New York pie’s crust. We both prefer having that crunch and, therefore, have a slight preference for the New York pie. 

Having said that, I believe the blend of cheeses, sauce and seasoning that comes on top of that crust is the same for both styles of pizza. 

They use three different types of cheese – I believe two styles of Mozzarella and Parmigiano Reggiano – and the combination is absolute perfection. When mixed with the extremely flavorful sauce, basil and whatever else they put on there, it’s hard to conceive of a pizza that would taste much better. 

If we had a complaint – aside from the less crunchy, but still outstanding crust – it was that they were a little stingy with their extremely good toppings, especially the sausage. 

Even with the slight disappointment in the change to the crust between the New York and South Philly style pies, this is still the best tasting pizza I’ve had in Philadelphia. I can’t recommend this place highly enough to pizza lovers. But don’t go on a weekend, as they’re only open Monday-Friday. The building in which they’re located is closed to the public Saturdays and Sundays.