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Just wondering, based on the pizza store robbery thread, what would people consider decent chain store pizza.

Being a Texan I thought Pizza Hut was decent but it was slammed on that thread so, whats good pizza from a non hole in the wall?

For the record Yaghhis in Austin - loved by teenage girls- hated by the rest of humanity.

I get my pizza from a local chain called Kings. Usually in my experience, any local chain owned and operated by first or second generation Italians has a good chance of being good.

As for national chains, I think Dominos has improved a great deal, and usually they have decent deals.

For national chains, I go Papa Johns, Fox's, or Dominos. Pizza Hut is bad and Little Caesar's is like eating cardboard with rubber cheese.

Borriello Brothers in Colorado was a local chain that was really good, if a bit pricey.

Well other than local hole in the wall pizza chains:

Papa Johns is the best.

Dominoe's Hand Tossed Deep Dish or whatever they call it is great. Otherwise everything else is acceptable (way better since they changed it)

Pizza Hut sucks. It is greasy and bland and not appealing at all. It is the only time I will say no to pizza.

Little Caesar's is good for what it is and its role in the pizza chain world, but if I plan ahead, Papa Johns is cheaper at lunch (5 dollars for a small, 6 with a soda) and dinner (carry out is 8 bucks for a large 1 topping)

sparkywtf wrote:
Little Caesar's is good for what it is and its role in the pizza chain world

I've yet to have this good Little Caesar's some people swear exists. It always tastes and feels like I'm eating the box(the box probably tastes better in all actuality).

When I was in high school I worked at a Jerry's Subs and Pizza. Its a chain, I'm not sure its national. We competed directly in the "2 discs of cardboard with gubment cheese" game with Little Caesars.

Both were dog-gak-nasty at the time (early-90s) but I wonder if either has improved.

Little Caesars Pizza used to be really good from what I remember. Back before the $5 pizza, like around 1995. My favorite pizza used to be called the bigfoot.

 conker249 wrote:
My favorite pizza used to be called the bigfoot.

That was Pizza Hut:



Back when Pizza Hut was good(or I was too young to notice it was crap). I used to get one and eat more than half of it by myself. I still can't believe I wasn't a fat kid, I definitely ate like one.

Costco carry out pizzas beat Pizzahut/Dominos/Papas/ceasars. If you have a costo membership, give it a try.

I don't mind jerry's sometimes.

Best pizza I ever had was Grottos and I do like a Ledo's pizza sometimes, but those are local. We got a Fox pizza in WV, and it was not to bad.

Costco is my new go-to for pizza. Did you know: If you have a costco cash card, even with nothing on it, you can walk in, browse for free and get a pizza with cash on the way out?

Ah, I remembered wrong, Bigfoot was pizza hut, what I remembered was BIG!BIG! from Little Caesars.Good pizza I had was a place in Valdez Alaska called No name pizza company. their biggest pizza was called the kitchen sink, because it had everything on it, Cost $50 for it with delivery though. Everything in Valdez was expensive
For central US I like Dimaggio's pizza. probably one of the biggest pizzas I have ever seen/eat.

I still wanna try Fox's Pizza's 36" diameter pie.

We have an family owned, old school Noble Roman's near here which is good for chainstore pizza.

me personally:
I liked Godfather's,but they went out of business.

Would you say Domino's is better than Pizza Hut or worse?

In my opinion, there are no "good" nationwide pizza chains. I think the process that makes a uniform pizza across a country also removes all the variables that make it a good pizza; they have traded consistency for quality. I'm not a food snob and I will enjoy Pizza hut, but I don't consider it to be in the same category of food as a local pizza, any more than I think my local mexican place is the same as Taco Bell or my local diner's burgers are the same as a Whopper. The same dishes, but different, I think. I am pretty sure that what I just wrote makes little sense, so let me just talk about what I do like.

I have some specific things I like a great deal at these places; even if I don't consider them to be the same as my local pizza place:

Little Caesars: Crazy Bread is the most incredible thing ever. I also think that their Parmesan garlic wings are unspeakably good. The actual pizza is pretty awful.

Pizza Hut: I love their breadsticks, and I find the pizza to be fairly decent. Probably the best chain pizza around here. I don't like their sausage - it's like little balls of flavorless fat - but their bacon is pretty good. I like the stuffed crust a great deal.

Papa Johns: I do not order this. My stepson will get it now and then, and I found it's adequate, at best, for about 120 seconds after it arrives. Any longer and it's cardboard. I have a hard time getting around their CEO's full-throated derp and hate the thought of subsidizing it even if the pizza wasn't garbage.

Dominos: I will occasionally get this but the pizza is not especially good. The bacon is decent if they don't burn it but they consistently burn it at my place. However, they do have two standout items: They have jalapeno bacon cheese bread that is to die for; and I am also very fond of their cinnamon sticks even though I am pretty sure they are literally the worst food on the planet for you.

Godfather's Pizza: disgusting. I literally can't find a single thing I like here and we have not gotten it in at least 10 years.

Happy Joes: this is not nationwide, but it's in a few states, so I will include it. I think it's pretty solid but really overpriced. We don't get it often because it's a poor value compared with our local actual pizza place, but when we do, I like it pretty good.

Pizza hut has stuffed crust . Dominos tastes better to me overall though. We just had Marco's open here recently. very good, some of the best chain pizza I have had.

 Frazzled wrote:
me personally:
I liked Godfather's,but they went out of business.

Would you say Domino's is better than Pizza Hut or worse?

Dominos is now well better than Pizza Hut. Try for yourself.

Now I want pizza for lunch, thanks guys.

 jasper76 wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:
me personally:
I liked Godfather's,but they went out of business.

Would you say Domino's is better than Pizza Hut or worse?

Dominos is now well better than Pizza Hut. Try for yourself.

It varies wildly based on the franchisee that you're buying from.

The local Domino's is crap compared to the local Pizza Hut.

I agree that it varies a lot. Dominos reformulated like 2 years ago or so (?) and they are leaps and bounds better than they historically have been, but my local dominos is not better than my local pizza hut; or worse. They're about even.

Mountain Mikes Is what I love, aswell as Round Table.

For national chains: Papa Murphy's

For local chains: Zeek's here in Seattle. Oh man.

As far as cheap takeout goes, I say Papa Johns. If your willing to pay way more you can get pizza that's infinitely better. There's a small pizza place where I live called NY Pie. They use only locally grown, fresh ingredients. It's sooo much better (even if it is 2.5x more expensive).

Personally, if I get delivery, I prefer either Papa Johns, or Dominos.

Papa Murphy's is pretty awesome for what it is.

But I've actually been missing Sbarro for some time now, I've not seen one in forever. (and really I only liked them for the fact that it reminded me of a mom/pop shop in the downtown of my hometown pizza shop called Straight From New York... it was also dirt cheap pizza by the slice)

There's something in Pappa Johns that my body literally rejects...

Makes me so sick that I'd have to sit on the commode for hours on end with a bucket between my knees.

I think pizza hut is okay. My issue with them is their prices not their food. Their food is fine but damn they charge a lot for it.

My favorite used to be Papa Johns, but I have to say the new Dominos is really hitting it for me

Never had Dominoes.
Hate Papa Johns.
Never had Little Caesars
Love Pizza Hut,
Love NY state chain called Mark's Pizzaria
Hate Jerry's
Love the frozen Pizza brand Djournoes (I think that's how it's spelled)

To elaborate: I've been blessed with a slightly stronger sense of taste than most people. I've been able to taste sour milk when others claim it to be fine. That kinda thing

Papa John's: Hate it. Can't stand that stuff. Tastes like cardboard
0/10

Pizza hut is great! I enjoy the taste and I LOVE the texture of the deepdish style pizza. I am vegetarian though so I only ever get Cheese.
Their breadsticks are wonderful, and the cinnamon ones are great when not overdone.
9/10

Mark's: Mark's is simple greasy delight. Taste is a bit better than Pizza hut, but they lack quality in texture.
7/10

As for Jerry's, their pizza is awful. But their fat fries aren't bad
4/10

Djournoes
Great taste, great texture, great pizza. Deteriorates quickly if even slightly burned
8/10

 Ouze wrote:
In my opinion, there are no "good" nationwide pizza chains. I think the process that makes a uniform pizza across a country also removes all the variables that make it a good pizza; they have traded consistency for quality. I'm not a food snob and I will enjoy Pizza hut, but I don't consider it to be in the same category of food as a local pizza, any more than I think my local mexican place is the same as Taco Bell or my local diner's burgers are the same as a Whopper. The same dishes, but different, I think. I am pretty sure that what I just wrote makes little sense, so let me just talk about what I do like.

This, exactly this.

I think being a big chain automatically means the quality of food decreases, since they quickly switch to mass produced factory stuff instead of the home made food they probably got popular with in the first place.

Hell, there's plenty of chains that go out of business because they either prematurely or just falsely try to expand into something they are not.

 whembly wrote:
There's something in Pappa Johns that my body literally rejects...

Makes me so sick that I'd have to sit on the commode for hours on end with a bucket between my knees.

Its the sauce. Tastes terrible and harsh on the system. I could handle it when I was younger and my stomach was still made of iron, but no longer.

I've worked for a "Mom & Pop" pizza place(a friend's family owned it) and a chain(Original Italian Pie). If you think that Mom and Pop stores are using home made stuff, I will gladly disabuse you of that notion.

Or rather, they're using the same amount of hand made that we used at the chain(the dough, sauce, and many other things at our chain were hand made, too).