Domino's Pizza Challenge

[tacohuman]

i had domino's for the first time in years last week. i'll admit, it was better, to an extent. the crust and sauce were miles better than they used to be, and the cheese and meat was of much higher quality. however, there was much less of it. each piece only had 2-3 pieces of topping on it, and the cheese was sparse. they even somehow managed to arrange it so that one piece of my pizza had nothing on it but sauce. that's right: no cheese, no meat, nothing.

[Dreamstalker]

I dislike Domino's on principle (plus there are better pizza places around here), but I had some last month at a friend's.

It's not bad. Not great (I prefer thin-crust for some reason), but not horrible; I'm a sucker for garlic so that made it edible.

[Jester]

I might consider Dominoes if they have a major sale or something, but Papa John's is my personal favorite...

I know when we ordered it, the pies were only something like five or six bucks each. Pretty sweet deal.

And I should clarify that, while I think Domino's is far better than it used to be, I still prefer Papa John's. I don't want anyone thinking that I think Domino's is great now....just better than it used to be, and no longer worthy of my sneering derision.

I am surprised though that several people here thought it tasted the same. I thought it was completely different, and definitely superior to what it was.

How about Coca Cola? Geek Squad? NBC? Heineken? The people behind those Scary/Disaser/Teen Movie-esque spoof movies? The DMV?

I like Coke products, even though I no longer drink caffeine. When I did drink caffeine, I did like Coke.
I have no experience positive or negative with Geek Squad.
NBC is not really a product in the same sense.
Heineken already has a permanent spot on my shit list, as I find it repulsive.
I like those spoof movies.
And the DMV, much like Heineken, was already on my shit list, though to be fair, the DMV offices down here in KW aren't so bad, probably because we have far less people living here than most places, so the lines usually aren't as bad.

So no, still a major void in my life when it comes to mocking things.

I would avoid Pizza Hut like the plague, because they didn't serve good pizza and they didn't serve good buffalo wings.

I actually like Pizza Hut pizza. Always have. Both before and after I worked for them for a year in high school.

Can't comment on their buffalo wings, though.

however, there was much less of it. each piece only had 2-3 pieces of topping on it, and the cheese was sparse. they even somehow managed to arrange it so that one piece of my pizza had nothing on it but sauce. that's right: no cheese, no meat, nothing.

Sounds more like a local issue, as in your local Domino's has some incompetents, rather than a company issue.

[trailerparkmedic]

The only difference in the crust is that they squeeze some of the garlic-butter stuff on the edge that used to go on breadsticks.

I think the sauce tastes only a tiny bit different, but I love the crust now. I mostly eat Dominos (because they run a lot of cheap specials) but I still prefer Papa Johns (especially their cheese bread).

[mikoyan29]

While I'm not a fan of Dominos, I will eat it on occasion. I actually liked the hand tossed crust they had. I ordered last week on the thin crust and it wasn't bad.

Pizza Hut is probably my favorite of the national chains.

Little Caesars is good for the $5 pizza but not much else.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I prefer Pizza Hut to Dominos. Not that Dominos is terrible or anything.

However, there's a local pizza place I like best.

[draftermatt]

We were Dominoes' customers before they made the change. It wasn't my favorite, but my wife liked it, and we were sick of Pizza Hut. (Other than local shops it was the only place around at our old house).

We tried the new crust/sauce. I liked it, but my wife didn't. She thought it had too much sauce, and that the crust shouldn't taste like their bread sticks.

Thankfully it seems the only pizza we can agree on is a shop in my hometown, and I don't mind making the trip out there once in a while for good pizza.

[Jester]

Since we are talking about good and bad pizza, I feel the need to share the story of perhaps the worst pizza I have ever had.

Back in the dorms in college, my buddy Steve and I ordered from a place in Tempe called Jonathan's. I am pretty sure they are long since out of business, and if they aren't, they damn well should be.

In any case, the pizza got to us, we opened up the box....and stared. Sort of the way you might stare at roadkill on the highway. You know, with horror, dread, and loathing. Because what lay before us resembled a pizza only in the most basic of ways. Sure, it had crust, sauce, and cheese....but it looked wretched. There was actually grease congealed on it. That's right, it wasn't just overly greasy, the grease had had plenty of time to hang out and get jiggy.

We may have been poor college students, but we still had standards, not to mention basic survival instincts. So we did the only logical thing. We called the place back up to complain.

Steve told them what we had gotten, how horrible it looked, etc. Apparently they offered to send us a brand new pizza to replace ours. And Steve brilliantly replied, "What? Are you trying to kill us?"

That was the last time we ever even thought about ordering from Jonathan's. That stuff was toxic. The worst pizza I ever got from Dominoes looked like high-end gourmet pizza by comparison. And word got out, and our dorm-mates followed suit. And I like to think that I helped contribute to the demise of that wretched business before they killed or intestinally hobbled too many of my fellow Sun Devils.

[tropicsgoddess]

I have a weakness for pizza and another, equally strong weakness...for chicken wings. I love chicken wings a WHOLE lot, just as I love pizza a WHOLE lot. However, I would avoid Pizza Hut like the plague, because they didn't serve good pizza and they didn't serve good buffalo wings.

But, given my weakness for delicious buffalo wings, I decided to try their new WingStreet Wings, and I was damn impressed. Juicy, spicy, large, and reasonably priced. I've gotten better wings at other places, but not as constantly and not as cheaply. Pizza Hut has gotten my money, and more than once.

The pizza still sucks, though.

I have to admit the Toscani pasta they have is good, but I still think Pizza Hut's pizza sucks. SO and I just tried the new Dominos pizza, it takes almost like Papa John's pizza (which I freakin' love but is expensive). I've always liked Dominos, but this is a nice improvement with their pizza.

[Becks]

Sometimes I think I'm the only person in the world who would rather starve to death than eat Papa John's pizza.

I like Pizza Hut. I have to try the new Domino's pizza.

Rocky Rococo's is the best, though.

[Android Kaeli]

If I eat any kind of pizza other then from Papa John's, I have to either sit down or lie down afterwards to let the pizza digest for twenty minutes. For some reason or another, I get sick to my stomach from the pizza that comes from Pizza Hut or Dominos. Doesn't mean that I won't eat it, my body just prefers to be happy with Papa Johns and it doesn't help that I could walk to the nearest Papa Johns. :P

I never thought that Dominos was all that bad to begin with, then again the last time I had any was probably a year ago. Haven't tried it since then.

[Jester]

Sometimes I think I'm the only person in the world who would rather starve to death than eat Papa John's pizza.

It's certainly a possibility.

Or maybe your local Papa John's just sucks, while the rest of them continue to put out tasty pizza. Just a thought.

[volatile]

Papa John's may have been really good at one point. But I'm not sure you guys realize how much they have sacrificed quality for money. I worked there during the transition from using great ingredients to bleh. Yet, they raised prices.

[Jack T. Chance]

Papa John's may have been really good at one point. But I'm not sure you guys realize how much they have sacrificed quality for money. I worked there during the transition from using great ingredients to bleh. Yet, they raised prices.

Papa John's is STILL great here in the Washington D.C. area, but then again, our local Papa John's is run by a really great franchisee that's been recognized as one of the best in the Papa John's "system". So maybe he's still using the QUALITY ingredients.

As for Domino's, I just got Domino's pizza the other day for the first time in probably a few months, at least. I got my favorite crust, their pan pizza crust. Their pan pizza is reasonably inexpensive, it's decent quality, and I can actually EAT it, unlike the crap at Pizza Slut, which actually made me VOMIT the last couple times I had it!

But did it taste any different this time? Not that I noticed. It had been awhile since I'd last had a Domino's pan pizza, but it didn't strike me as being any different. Just the same as always; a cheap, fairly decent pan pizza. Nothing more, nothing less.

My biggest complaint with them? The amount of cheese they put on the pizza. I ordered my pizza with "Extra Cheese", and what they call "Extra Cheese" is the amount of cheese that most pizza places put on the pizza as the REGULAR amount!

[MaggieTheCat]

I read this thread back when Jester originally posted it and told my husband we should try Domino's new pizza next time we wanted delivery, instead of our usual Papa John's. We did, and then I forgot to comment in this thread.

Anyway, like I said, we usually order Papa John's. We don't have a Papa John's back in my hometown in Wisconsin, so it was completely new to me when I moved down here. I like it quite a bit, for "fast food" delivery type pizza. And they have a couple of decent deals that make them not too much more expensive than Pizza Hut or Domino's.

I really liked the Domino's new pizza when we tried it. Husband and I ordered 2 medium pizzas from them a couple weeks ago, one thin crust (for me) and a regular crust. I had a bite of his and actually really liked the garlic/butter crust. But I'm also a sucker for thin crust pizzas, and at Papa John's you can only get thin crust in large. Since my husband and I have very different tastes in pizza toppings, we usually each get a medium with our own choice of toppings instead. I did think Domino's sauce was a little too sweet, though. I'm not a huge sauce person to begin with, so maybe next time we order from them (we'll probably alternate between them and Papa John's) I'll get mine with light sauce.