While the Wife was out of town a couple weeks ago, I was all ready to curl up and watch the Sunday football games.  What better way to enjoy the football games than with a with a nice warm pizza?  I thought about which pizza joint I should patronize.

A note on delivery pizza places:  If you’re not aware, pizza has about the highest markup of any “fast food” type cuisine.  I expect, along with this markup, that a pizza establishment support its products with quality customer service, to include prompt [on-time] delivery and friendly service on the phone regarding the order.  On a couple of occasions, I have felt that a couple establishments haven’t lived up to their end of the bargain, so I have put them on “the list.”  Once a company’s on “the list,” it generally takes 10 years to get off. 

Correlated with the above assertion, is that there are just too many pizza joints to be locked into a place that provides poor quality pizzas or crummy customer service.  Just in Charlotte, Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, Little Caesar’s, and Domino’s are the national brands, but there are regional brands like Donato’s and Hungry Howie’s, and local brands like Fuel. 

Enter Domino’s.  For years, I have looked at Domino’s as providing inferior quality pizza at only slightly cheaper prices than Papa John’s and Pizza Hut.  With the recent ad campaign about how Domino’s has reinvented its pizza, and with the two for $5.99/each deal, I figured I would give the new Domino’s a try.

I ordered two medium pizzas, each with two toppings.  The first was pepperoni and mushroom, which is probably my favorite topping combination.   

The second was a tomato and sausage pizza.

I was excited.  Football and pizza.  I just hoped the pizza lived up to the hype.

I was impressed.  Sorry to mix sports, but while the pizzas were not a home run, they certainly weren’t a strikeout.  I would place them as a double, probably.  The price was definitely right, too, and so long as the medium pizzas stay in the $8-$10 range, I will certainly consider them again in the future.  The ingredients were definitely fresher.  The crust was far more supple and complete, although lacked a little flavor. 

The tomatoes were big and chunky. 

Also, there was noticeably less grease than a Pizza Hut or Papa John’s pizza.  I wondered if the pizza was any less unhealthy than competitor’s.  When I looked up the nutritional information on the respective web sites, take a look (12”, pepperoni pizza, 1 slice).

So, I think, all in all, if you’ve turned away from Domino’s like I had, you should give it another try.  If you’re a pizza lover, I think between the cost, quality, and nutritional tradeoff, you’ll find yourself pleasantly surprised.