Frozen Pizza Review #1

This is Frozen Pizza Review #1! Venturing away from restaurants for today, I'm going to talk about something else related to food. I like pizza, but when you venture into the world of supermarket frozen pizza, things could get scary. In this post, I'm going to discuss three frozen supermarket pizzas that I've tried.

Pizza #1: Winn Dixie Crispy Thin Crust White Pizza

My least favorite of the three pizzas I'm going to write about today. The pizza was extremely salty. The majority of the cheese was all on one side of the pizza, as was the chopped spinach. I wouldn't waste my time with this one again...


Pizza #2: Kashi Roasted Vegetable
This pizza didn't look too appetizing once out of the box and cooked, but it was actually pretty tasty. Has a nice spicy sauce and a crispy, cracker-like crust. The vegetables consisted of tiny pieces of broccoli, roasted peppers, and roasted onions. I've made a repeat purchase out of this one, although I've found the crust can either be nice and crispy or cardboard-like and soggy depending on how these pies are cooked.


Pizza #3: Archer Farms Vegetable Pizza

This self-rising crust pizza came from a Super Target. The vegetable pizza had broccoli, yellow & red peppers, red onion, and black olives. This pizza was pretty tasty. I liked the spicy sauce and the frozen vegetables resembled vegetables a bit more than what came on the Kashi pizza. The problem with this frozen pizza was the self-rising crust. Following the instructions on the box, this pie went directly onto the oven rack. Instead of only rising, the dough expanded in all directions and baked itself around the metal bars of the oven rack. I don't think I'd get this one again even though it was pretty tasty, just because it's not fun to cut off the bottom of a frozen pizza that's baked into part of my oven.


Out of the three frozen pizzas, I pick the Kashi Roasted Vegetable as the winner. It tasted okay, and also cooks properly (most of the time). Still I tend to avoid supermarket frozen pizza since their is no comparison to a good, freshly made, NY style pie. If you're going down the frozen pizza route though, good luck making a good choice!

Papa Joe's Pizza (Lake Mary, FL)

Papa Joes used to be a local chain of really popular Italian restaurants in the Central Florida area. Their Altamonte Springs and Lake Mary Blvd locations almost always had a wait, and then they started to expand. As they opened up more and more restaurants in the area, their food and service became worse and worse. After a while the restaurants weren't worth eating at anymore. Eventually other people must have gotten the same feeling because the restaurants seemed to no longer have waits to eat, and Papa Joes closed all of their restaurants except for two in Lake Mary and one in Altamonte Springs.

I went to the Papa Joes in the Colonial Town Center in Lake Mary, FL for the first time in years. I had garlic bread and a cheese pizza. The garlic bread was disappointing and was nothing more than a roll topped with that garlic butter stuff and some parmesan cheese. I don't think there was any actual garlic.

Papa Joe's pizza seemed to go into a downward spiral back when I used to eat at the restaurants more often until it wasn't worth ordering anymore. When I ordered the pizza on this visit, I was surprised with the result. The pizza was actually pretty good. My only complaint was about the sauce. I found it to be way too sweet, but other than that the pie was pretty good. It didn't come close to King Umbertos standards (best pizza ever), but was definitely a few steps above many other local pizzas.

Digino's Pizza

Someone recommended that I give Digino's Pizza in Lake Mary, FL a try. I did and it was an okay pizza experience.

When I first picked up the cheese pie, I didn't think it looked too attractive when I opened the box. It appeared that there was way too much cheese on the pie, with a small puddle of sauce showing through in the center. Looks can sometimes be deceiving though, because I was pleasantly surprised when I got home and tasted the pizza.

The cheese and sauce were well proportioned, with just the right amount of each. My only two complaints was that I found the sauce to be a little too sweet, and the crust could have been a little bit thinner to get more like true New York Style Pizza as advertised in the restaurants window. Otherwise, it was an okay pizza. It was far from the best pizza I have eaten, but I have had many far worse pizzas as well.

On my second slice, I decided to add some toppings that hardly anyone else will eat. I put about three cloves of fresh chopped garlic and almost half of a can of anchovies on the slice. I have discussed the my thoughts on anchovies in the past, and I will restate that they are one of the most unappreciated pizza toppings out there. The slice was stinky, but it was good!

King Umbertos & Italian Pastries

I ate dinner from King Umbertos in Elmont, NY for a second time. Their pizza is still the best ever, and had improved from the last visit where the selection of pizza choices was somewhat slim. Tonight there were plenty of different pies to choose from.

I took home the slices of pizza from King Umbertos rather than eating in the restaurant. I can't name all of the slices, but the square slice is called Grandma's Pizza. Next to Grandmas, there is a stuffed vegetable slice. The slice next to that consists of a spinach crust topped with cheese, basil, plum tomatoes, and more. There is a cheese slice next to that, followed by a slice topped with fresh mozzarella, and then another slice on the spinach crust.



Out of all of those slices, I had the stuffed vegetable slice and one of the spinach crust slices.


They were both really good. It's hard to decide which was better...



I ate some dessert from Ramona Lee Italian Pastries in Franklin Square, NY. Cream puffs, pignolis, chocolate mousse, and more. It was good a good dessert!