This Charming Oklahoma City Pizzeria Is Serving the Best Neapolitan Pies You’ve Never Heard Of

There’s a particular kind of restaurant that earns its reputation the hard way — not through a flashy grand opening or a prime location on a busy boulevard, but one slice at a time, from the window of a food truck, on street corners, at festivals, in parking lots.

People chase those trucks. They follow them on social media. They plan lunch breaks around a schedule that changes week to week.

That’s how The Saucee Sicilian built its following in Oklahoma City.

For years, OKC locals tracked down this wood-fired pizza truck with the devotion usually reserved for sports teams. Then, in 2022, the truck became a restaurant. And the people who had been chasing it across the city finally had a place to sit down.

The line hasn’t shortened since.

From a Food Truck to a Midtown Gem

Before The Saucee Sicilian had a brick-and-mortar address, it had accolades.

Named Best Food Truck in OKC four years running by the Oklahoma City Gazette. Rated among the top pizza food trucks in the nation by Mobile-Cuisine Magazine, year after year, from 2014 through 2019. Featured on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Listed in Where to Eat Pizza — an international expert’s guide to the best pizza places on the planet.

Also voted Best New Restaurant in OKC by 405 Magazine in 2023, shortly after making the jump from truck to table.

Not bad for a truck.

The restaurant that grew out of all that is located at 1807 N. Classen Blvd. in Oklahoma City’s Midtown neighborhood, inside a building that dates back to 1928.

The space is compact and honest — rustic brick walls, warm lighting, and the kind of lived-in character that no designer can manufacture. The wood-burning oven anchors the room and fills the air with a low wood smoke that signals, before a single bite, that something real is happening here.

The food truck still runs on a rotating schedule for those who want the original experience. Check their social media for locations. But if you want a seat, a full menu, a glass of Chianti, and the luxury of eating slowly, the Midtown restaurant is where you want to be.

The Recipe Behind It All: Grandma Lena

The owner is Gannon Mendez, and the story behind the food is personal.

The recipes at The Saucee Sicilian trace back to great-grandmother Lena — the original Nonna — who cooked from scratch using the old-world ingredients she grew up with. Flour and tomatoes are imported. The mozzarella is made in-house. The meatballs, sausage, and sauces follow her original methods, handed down through generations.

The restaurant’s own website puts it simply: “Our recipes are made from scratch the way our great-grandma Lena did, and with fresh, old-world ingredients.”

That commitment shows in every corner of the kitchen. The freezers here are notably small — not the walk-in industrial units most restaurants rely on, but something closer to what you’d find in a home kitchen. That’s intentional. Fresh ingredients don’t wait around.

That’s not marketing copy. That’s the reason people drive from across the state.

As one reviewer with Sicilian heritage put it: “As an Italian, this is the best place you can go if you want to eat proper Italian food. Everything is made with love and passion for the culture.”

Another, who spent a summer in Italy, wrote that the pizza here transported her back in a way no other restaurant has managed.

That is the standard Grandma Lena set. The kitchen has kept it.

The Pizza Bar — The Best Seat in the House

When people ask where to sit at The Saucee Sicilian, regulars give the same answer without hesitation: the bar seats around the pizza oven.

From there, you can watch the whole process. Dough hand-tossed and stretched, topped, slid onto the peel, turned in the fire. The blistering crust, the molten cheese, the char pattern that tells you exactly how this pie was made.

It’s the kind of kitchen theater that makes waiting feel like part of the meal.

The oven uses real firewood, and the kitchen takes the burning seriously enough that when one reviewer complimented the quality of the wood, the owner replied by name: “I’ll be sure and tell Brittany you like the firewood.”

That attention to detail, all the way down to who tends the fire, says something about this place.

One more thing: if you’re celebrating something, ask about sitting at the bar. Watching your pizza go into the fire and come back out transformed makes even an ordinary Tuesday feel like an occasion.

Sauce and Balls First — Always

Every great Italian meal has an opening act, and at The Saucee Sicilian, it’s the Sauce and Balls.

Three of Nonna’s meatballs arrive in a pool of meat sauce, finished with Parmesan. They are dense, tender, and seasoned with the kind of confidence that comes from a recipe that has never needed adjusting.

Reviewers have called them the kind of meatballs you didn’t know you were missing. One wrote: “Holy cow. Meatball is a must-have; do not leave without getting one.”

Another said it was the first time in five years of living in Oklahoma that he’d had real sauce and meatballs outside his own kitchen.

The only complaint you’ll occasionally see: the order comes with three. Most people wish there were four.

If you want something to go with them, the Focaccia Bread is the move — rosemary, sea salt, and olive oil on a crust that comes out of the oven airy, golden, and impossible to stop eating. The Spinach Artichoke Dip, served with house-made oven-roasted focaccia flatbread, is another table favorite that disappears quickly.

A Menu Named Like a Map of Sicily

Every pizza on the menu carries the name of a Sicilian city or region. It’s a small detail, but it tells you how seriously this kitchen takes its roots.

The Margherita ($12) is where to start if you want to understand the kitchen. Red sauce, mozzarella, basil, sea salt, olive oil. The crust is the thing — airy, chewy, with a char pattern that shows real fire management. One reviewer, a self-described pizza snob who had tried pies across the country, called this one of the top three he’d ever eaten.

The Tusa ($14) is for those who want heat. Red sauce with chili oil, mozzarella, hot capicola, hot sopressata, Nonna’s Italian sausage, and mushroom. It’s bold without losing its structure.

The Ragusa ($16) is the full commitment — every meat on the menu, stacked on red sauce with mozzarella. It’s the kind of pizza that draws a crowd when it comes out of the oven.

The Capizzi ($13) is a white pizza with mozzarella, ricotta, roasted red peppers, roasted garlic, and pesto. Reviewers consistently call it one of the best white pies they’ve ever had.

The Trapani ($16) might be the most surprising combination on the menu: ricotta, mozzarella, roasted garlic, sliced figs, prosciutto, and maple balsamic reduction. It’s the pizza that was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and it earns every second of that spotlight.

Every pizza is 10 inches — a personal size that encourages ordering two and sharing, which is exactly what the kitchen intends.

Don’t Skip the Pasta

Pizza brings people in. The pasta makes them regulars.

The Spaghetti & Balls ($19) is a full event: spaghetti, two of Nonna’s meatballs, meat sauce, and the whole thing served inside an oven-baked focaccia bread bowl. Multiple reviewers have mentioned ordering it and then staring at the bread bowl, genuinely surprised by how much they wanted to eat the container.

The Fettuccine Alfredo ($18) with rosemary roasted chicken is creamy, satisfying, and consistently praised. The Pesto Alfredo ($18) with sweet peppers is the kind of dish that earns a dedicated following — reviewers mention craving it by name when they’re out of state.

On Friday and Saturday nights after 5 PM, the kitchen runs a Weekend Pasta Special ($20) that rotates weekly. Past specials have included short rib ragu with house-made pappardelle, hand-rolled gnocchi, and other pasta preparations that aren’t available any other time.

If you can time a visit for a weekend evening, do it.

The Panuozzi: A Sandwich Worth Knowing

Hidden near the bottom of the menu, the panuozzi are sandwiches built on pizza dough folded like a taco — crunchy outside, soft inside, and filled with the same quality ingredients that go on the pies.

The Veneto ($14) layers prosciutto di Parma, cherry tomato, burrata, pesto, arugula, salt, and pepper. The Campania ($14) is a Caesar salad with rosemary roasted chicken, wrapped in dough.

One reviewer described the “sub” as a taco made from pizza crust and instructed people not to sleep on it. She was right.

Finish With Cannoli

The dessert menu is short, which is the right call when every item is this good.

Angelina’s Cannoli ($5) comes in three flavors: chocolate chip, lemon zest, and pistachio. The shell snaps. The filling is cool and measured in its sweetness. For five dollars, it is one of the best deals on the menu.

Nicole’s Cheesecake ($8) arrives in several variations — plain, lemon curd, raspberry coulis, chocolate ganache, or Italian wild cherry. Reviewers who mention it tend to write in a way that suggests it will be their last thought before sleep.

The Buona Vita ($8) is a s’mores calzone with Ghirardelli chocolate chips, marshmallows, and powdered sugar. It sounds playful. It is.

Don’t Forget the Drinks

The bar at The Saucee Sicilian is a genuine pleasure.

The Limoncello Mule — Tito’s vodka, ginger beer, and Caravella Limoncello — gets mentioned by name in reviews almost as often as the Margherita does. The Aperol Spritz is exactly right for an Italian-leaning meal. The Espresso Coffee Cream Martini is the kind of dessert cocktail that makes ordering both a drink and a cannoli feel not just justified, but necessary.

The wine list is thoughtfully chosen and reasonably priced. A glass of Ruffino Chianti Classico alongside a Tusa pizza is one of those pairings that feels obvious in retrospect.

For non-drinkers, the imported Sicilian sodas in blood orange and lemon are worth ordering. So are the Italian cream sodas — strawberry, cherry, vanilla, or orange, with extra syrup shots available. One reviewer specifically called out the strawberry vanilla cream soda as a highlight of the meal, which feels right for a place that puts this much care into every detail.

The restaurant also offers a rotating selection of local Oklahoma craft beers on draft, including offerings from Lively Beerworks and Iron Monk.

The Atmosphere and the Owner

The Saucee Sicilian is a small restaurant, and Gannon Mendez is the kind of owner who knows it.

He walks the floor. He checks on tables. He stops to talk to first-timers, offers suggestions, and sends things out when he wants someone to try something new. Reviewers mention him by name more than almost any other detail about the place.

“The owner went out of his way to talk to multiple customers to make sure their experience was good,” one guest wrote. Another described him as “genuine and humble.” A third, visiting from out of state, said meeting Gannon was “such an unexpected treat.”

Beyond the daily service, the restaurant hosts occasional events that extend its community feel well past mealtimes. Once a month on Tuesday evenings, the kitchen opens up for a pizza-making class — a hands-on date night experience where guests learn to stretch, top, and fire their own pies.

Reviewers who’ve done it call it one of the best evenings they’ve spent in OKC. The staff are passionate teachers, and the food, naturally, is excellent.

The restaurant also caters events and offers a private room for larger groups. The food truck is still available for events as well.

The staff reflects that same warmth that starts at the top. Servers like Sierra, Blue, Karli, and Grant appear by name across hundreds of reviews — a sign that the front-of-house culture runs as deep as the kitchen.

The music is usually something classic — old Italian pop, mid-century American standards, or whatever fits the mood of the room. One reviewer mentioned the “old school music” specifically and said it made the place feel authentic.

It does.

A Few Things Worth Knowing Before You Go

The restaurant is small, and it fills up. Reservations are accepted for parties of seven or more. Tables are held for 90-minute windows, so the evening moves along with a gentle efficiency.

Parking can look tight at a glance. There are a handful of spots directly in front of the restaurant, and they cycle quickly. Overflow parking is available in the Classen School lot a half block away.

Lunch service runs Wednesday through Friday from 11 AM to 2 PM, and the $12 lunch special — a personal pizza, house salad, and fountain drink — is one of the best values in Oklahoma City.

Dinner runs Wednesday through Thursday from 5 to 9 PM, Friday from 5 to 10 PM, Saturday from 11 AM to 10 PM, and Sunday from 11 AM to 8 PM.

The patio is pet-friendly and comes with water bowls.

If you want the Weekend Pasta Special, you have to show up on a Friday or Saturday night after 5 PM. It sells out. Plan accordingly.

Getting There

The Saucee Sicilian is located at 1807 N. Classen Blvd. in Oklahoma City’s Midtown neighborhood. The food truck still operates on a rotating schedule — check their social media for locations and hours.

Phone: (405) 493-9023

The building has been standing since 1928. The family recipe is older than that. And the line out front on a Saturday evening is proof that Oklahoma City has figured out exactly what it has here.

Some restaurants are worth a detour. This one is worth a road trip.

Go find out for yourself.