It’s late, you’ve had an ugly day, the hunger pangs are coming, and no one feels like cooking…what to do?  Okay, everyone is up for pizza, but no one wants to go pick it up.  So you check your coupons and get on-line, but you still don’t know which to order.  Help is here!

Recently, seven of your neighbors rated pizza from three local chains -Pizza Hut, Domino’s and Papa John’s.  We ordered the same pepperoni & mushroom pizzas from each.  No one knew which they were eating.  Everyone rated each pizza on: overall appearance, crust, sauce, cheese, and toppings, compared to the best they had ever had.

Papa John’s looked the most appetizing in the box.  Everyone’s toppings were of top quality and had acceptable coverage although not always spread evenly.  None had enough sauce for our tastes - Papa John’s was sweetest and Pizza Hut was a bit spicier with noticeable herbs.  We could tell that each brand had its own blend of cheeses but they were all bland.  Papa John’s seemed more granular with a slight after-taste.  Sadly, each crust got soggy in the middle because of the long delivery time.

Domino’s scored the highest when each criteria was considered separately, but none of the pizzas were very exciting when compared to any decent dine-in version.  Just for fun, the next day we bought a frozen, 12-inch DiGiorno Self-Rising Pepperoni Pizza (six bucks), which Consumer Reports rated very highly.  Although the crust was more bread-like and a bit drier, the sauce, cheese and pepperoni were absolutely on par with the delivery pizzas.  Considering the quality, that it was 400 degrees hot on the table, and that the cost was a third of the delivery pizzas, we would choose the DiGiorno pizza over these three, every time – go figure! 

To be fair, this article reflects the personal observations of ONLY these seven people on ONLY this one evening.  Your experience could be different.  Our experience on any other night could be different.