Domino’s Pizza: Pan Pizza

The Facts:

Pizza: Domino’s Pizza

Number of Locations: many nationwide

Location Reviewed: 1006 N. Main Street in Anderson, SC

Website: http://www.dominos.com/

Date of Review Visit: February 2013

What I Ordered: Medium (12”) pan pizza with sausage and pepperoni, plus a side of stuffed cheesy bread

Price: $14.96 (pizza only, no drinks)

Photos:

Summary Review: 3 stars (out of 5)

Detailed Review:

Crust: Domino’s offers 4 choices of crust, everything from pan to thin.  As will be no surprise to regular readers of this blog, I chose pan.  The pan crust was crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside as it should be.  In an effort to improve quality, Domino’s drastically changed its pizza recipe a few years ago.  I liked their old pan crust, and this one is slightly better.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: The taste and consistency of the sauce are quite good but not stellar.  My only complaint here is that the pizza is slightly undersauced.  Score: 7/10.

Cheese: The cheese on the pizza appears in plenty of quantity, but I found it to be quite greasy.  Also, the cheese is all mozzarella, so it has a bland flavor.  The cheese blend on/in the stuffed cheesy bread is much better.  I wonder if there is any way to order the cheesy bread cheese on the pizza.  Score: 7/10.

Toppings: Toppings have always been a weakness of Domino’s pizza.  I still remember getting one piece of sausage per slice in the old days.  The new recipe is better than the old one, but the toppings still lack taste.  Also, they still only appear in average quantity.   Score: 4/10

Overall Taste: The taste is rather palatable, and it is significantly better than it was a few years ago.  Only the grease drags this score down somewhat.  Score: 7.5/10

Pizza Appearance: This pizza has a nice symmetrical appearance.  Domino’s may have gone to a new recipe, but they still use the odd-shaped hexagon box.  Also, I miss the classic blue and red domino logo on the box.

Dining Atmosphere: (not applicable due to no dining room)

Customer Service: Recent improvement have made the customer service at Domino's quick and accurate.

Value: Somewhat unusual for a national chain, the quality/cost balance does not grade out well here.  The quality is decent, but the cheesy bread costs $6, and the pizza is only a medium 12” pizza. There is much better value to be had elsewhere.

The Final Judgment:

Did Domino’s new recipe improve the quality of their pizza?  To at least some degree, yes.  Is this the best quality pizza or the best value for your dollar?  Certainly not.  Score: 73/100