Papa Johns Pizza, Epic Pepperoni-Stuffed Crust

The Facts:

Pizza: Papa Johns Pizza
Business Category: National Chain
Website: https://www.papajohns.com/
Location: 3014 N. Main Street in Anderson, SC
Date of Review Visit: August 2022
What I Ordered: large (14") Epic Pepperoni-Stuffed Crust pizza
Price: $15.25 (food only; includes tax)

The Micro:

Crust: My usual view of Papa Johns' crust is a mixture of good and bad: I like the fresh bready taste, but I find the crust too bulky.  Enter the pepperoni-stuffed crust.  As the name suggests, they bake both pepperoni and cheese into the crust.  The cheese blends better with the crust than with Pizza Hut's stuffed crust, and I really like this combination.  Score: 10/10.

Sauce: Papa Johns is well-known for using sauce that is way too sweet.  It even tastes too sweet to me, and I like sweet sauces.  Aside from the sweetness, the quantity and texture are quite appealing.  Score: 7/10.

Cheese: Like the crust, the cheese also has a rather bland taste, but this pizza does not suffer from severe undercheesing or greasy poor quality cheese, the two things that make for bad cheese.  Thus, this area grades out fairly high.  Score: 8/10.

Toppings: The only topping is the pepperoni, which of course appears both in the crust and atop the pizza.  The pepperoni is not overly spicy, and it blends nicely with the sweetness of the sauce.  The pepperoni appears in high quantity.  Score: 8/10.

 

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The ample cheese and toppings give this pizza an appealing appearance.  The large crust is a bit unappetizing, but knowing there is cheese and pepperoni inside helps.  I have always thrown out the infamous peppers and garlic sauce that come with every Papa Johns pizza.  That fact does not directly impact the appearance of the pizza, but I needed to mention it somewhere.  Like most Papa Johns locations, this location does not offer dine-in, and therefore atmosphere is not applicable.  The service was fine on my visit.  Score: 7/10.

Value: Granted I got this pizza while it was on a promotional special, but this pizza has above average quality for a pretty low price.  Therefore, the value is quite high. Score: 8/10.

Taste: Everything works together rather well here.  The overall taste seemed a little on the salty side to me.  I could not tell if the saltiness was from the cheese, the pepperoni, or both.  Score: 16/20.

 

The Final Judgment:

Papa Johns is my favorite national pizza chain, and they delivered a nice pizza here.  You should try this one while it is still on promotional special.  Score: 64/80.