Cici's Pizza

The Facts:

Pizza: Cici’s Pizza

Business Category: National Chain

Website: http://www.cicispizza.com/

Location: 3190 Atlanta Highway in Athens, GA (beside the Honda dealership)

Date of Review Visit: December 16, 2012

What I Ordered: Endless buffet and drink

Price: $7.15

The Micro:

Crust: When I eat at Cici’s, I typically cut off the crusts and dispose of them as scraps.  Cici’s is the only pizza with which I do this; that’s all you need to know.  Score: 1/10.

Sauce: This may be the most undersauced pizza I have ever eaten.  Oddly enough, what little sauce there is does little to add to the flavor, so it is not really missed.  Score: 1/10.

Cheese: The cheese is low quality with little taste, but it is not severely undercheesed like many of its competitors.  The cheese on the ham and cheddar pizza, my favorite at Cici’s, is actually quite good.  Score: 4/10.

Toppings: This area is hard to score because so many toppings are available.  Most of the pizzas have sufficient quantity of toppings (the aforementioned ham and cheddar might be an exception).  The meats are low quality and high fat meats, but they taste at least decent.  There is some good and some bad here, so I decided to score right in the middle.  Score: 5/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The pizza looks like the cheap pizza that it is.  The atmosphere is similar to Chuck E Cheese complete with game room and kids running around all over the restaurant.  The service is fairly good, but flagging down someone behind the counter to place a special order can be a hassle.  Score: 4/10.

Value: Like most “cheap” pizzas, this is where Cici’s really shines.  You can get as much of any kind of pizza as you want with a drink for around $7; ‘nuff said.  Score: 10/10

Taste: Again, this area is hard to score because it varies greatly from pizza to pizza.  The taste of the specialty pizzas (ham and cheddar, all pork, and barbeque in particular) is quite good save for the awful crust.  They are the reasons I come to Cici’s with any frequency.  As for the non-specialty pizzas, the phrase “if you can’t say anything good...” comes to mind.  Score: 8/20

The Final Judgment:

For a family with many kids or the mandatory occasional self-gourding via pizza, Cici’s is a passable option.  If all pizza tasted like this, I would never have started this blog.  Score: 33/80