Pizza Chains That Use The Highest Quality Ingredients

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Pizza is a gastronomic gem. It can be a full meal in a slice, a filling snack that goes very well with craft beer, or even an indulgent, sweet dessert. The simple dish consists primarily of three ingredients: dough, sauce, and toppings. The latter includes cheese, a vital component, adding a rich and salty layer that binds the flavors of all the ingredients.

But as easy as it is to assemble a delicious pizza, not all pizza chains make them exceptional. Some chains are a standout among the rest because of premium ingredients and high-quality toppings they don't skimp on. Just as people know a mediocre pizza on the first bite, they can quickly tell a pizza is top-notch and worth ordering again.

You don't have to go store-hopping across the country to find the best-quality pizzas, because we're giving you a list of the pizza chains that use the highest-quality ingredients. We looked at how they make their doughs, sauces, and whether they have policies that ensure everything they put on their pies is fresh before they're fired up in the oven. Let's take a closer look at each one.

Marco's is a beloved pizzeria that started in Toledo, Ohio, and now has over 1,100 locations around the country and abroad. Known for its fresh ingredients and pizza dough made from scratch daily, Marco's pizzas have an undeniable quality you can taste with every bite. The pizzeria was voted America's Most Loved Pizza and Pizza Chain Brand of the Year by Harris Poll in 2019.

Founded by Pasquale Giammarco in 1978, Marco's encompasses a love for fresh, high-quality food. Giammarco was born in Sulmona, Italy, where people would buy meat from the butcher shop, cheese and milk from a dairy store, and poultry, vegetables, and herbs from local growers. He brought that preference for quality food into his pizza business, prioritizing sauces and doughs made from scratch instead of frozen, store-bought components.

Giammarco studied and tried various recipes to perfect the pizza doughs and sauces, on top of using quality ingredients and modernized kitchens. His efforts paid off. Today, Marco's pizza sauce is made with fresh Roma tomatoes and a generous three-cheese topping,ensuring customers get their pizzas hot and loaded with their favorite garnishes.

Blaze Pizza is committed to upholding high standards for food quality. In 2017, it launched a "Keepin' It Real" campaign and removed artificial flavorings, colorings, preservatives, nitrates, and high-fructose ingredients from its menu. Management was so committed to using high-quality, all-natural ingredients, from the flour to the toppings, that it spent 18 months looking for suppliers. 

The chain's former executive chef and renowned food scientist, Brad Kent, shares that the company ensures components like the brine used to soak olives are all-natural. "For visual appeal, olives are generally made black by putting them in brine containing a form of iron known as ferrous gluconate," Kent said to Orange Review. Blaze Pizza requested its suppliers to find natural alternatives instead. The crust is another testament to quality. The recipe is top-secret, but it is widely known that Blaze Pizza ferments its dough for at least 24 hours, and then lets it sit for another full day in the refrigerator to bring out a sharp flavor that can only come from fermentation. So although the Blaze Pizza dough is machine-pressed instead of hand-tossed, its texture and chewiness are similar to focaccia bread.

You can also judge the quality of the ingredients yourself. Its founders designed Blaze Pizza to be "the Chipotle of pizza," where customers can choose toppings and sauces displayed at the counter. You can see how fresh the veggies, cheeses, and meats are before your pizza is "fast-fire'd" in just three minutes. 

Jet's Pizza is a crowd favorite for those who love Detroit-style pizza, with its thick, rectangular, crispy-bottomed crust. Jet's crust is lighter (although a tad oilier) than others, and the contrast of the chewy bread and thin, crispy exterior adds to the satisfying flavors. Successfully operating for 45 years with locations in 23 states, Jet's proudly claims to make "the world's best Detroit-Style pizza."

Jet's makes two types of dough with a proprietary flour blend that are kneaded by hand daily. It gives them a dense yet light, chewy-centered crust that stays airy even when loaded with choice toppings. Speaking of loaded toppings, Jet's heaps shredded mozzarella cheese on its pizzas, starting at the edge, then moving to the center to create crispy edges. Jet's uses real, whole-milk premium mozzarella cheese that's hand-grated and noticeably better-tasting than other popular chains. The sauce is made with vine-ripened, fresh tomatoes flavored with Italian herbs. Then the pies are garnished with fresh toppings and served with a side of creamy, tangy ranch dressing.

Casey's is a beloved gas station general store in the Midwest. Although it's found in only 20 states, the company is now the third-biggest convenience store chain in the U.S. by size. Since it has yet to branch out to other states, many people are unaware that Casey's has been selling high-quality pizzas for 40 years now.

Casey's isn't technically just a pizza chain, but the pizzas are so good and loved that it ranks as the fifth-largest pizza chain in the country. All stores have a full-service kitchen where they make pizzas daily from scratch. The dough is freshly rolled every time, and 100% whole-milk mozzarella cheese, fresh veggies, and tasty meats make up the rest.

Casey's is committed to making quality food, and its widely-popular pizzas set a high standard for the rest of the menu. To prove this commitment, the general store chain has a culinary team that develops flavor combinations and perfects recipes before launching new pizzas across its stores.

Godfather's Pizza first opened in Nebraska in 1973 and has since established itself as a chain that makes "pizza the way pizza was meant to be." The chain has had several branding changes over the last 50+ years, but one thing stayed the same: It's quality-driven and always focused on providing the best pizza experience to customers.

Godfather's offers eight specialty pizzas and a Create Your Own Pizza where customers can pick a crust, sauce, cheese, and toppings. The chain uses 100% real cheese sourced from local farmers that browns nicely and adds mouthwatering saltiness in every bite. The dough is made fresh with high-quality ingredients and baked into a thick, flaky crust that's light and pillowy. Most locations still use the original recipe. The meat toppings are of the highest quality, and the veggies are fresh. As for the sauce, Godfather's signature tomato-puree sauce has real Italian spices (it is also available for purchase on Amazon).

Sadly, there are now fewer Godfather's Pizza locations nationwide, though many millennials may still remember going there as kids. The chain was once neck-in-neck with Domino's and Little Caesars, and many say the pizzas with the OG crust (thick yet light, flaky, and flavorful) were the best in the '80s. Godfather's still enjoys a good rep backed by nostalgia, but that may fade if many locations fail to live up to its legacy as "A Pizza You Can't Refuse®."

MOD Pizza is quite new in the realm of pizza chains, having been founded in 2008 in Seattle. Here, the owners place as much importance on people and community building as they do on the quality of the ingredients. For instance, the pizza chain carefully chooses the farmers and suppliers it works with, opting for partners who share its advocacy for fair labor practices and ethical farming. 

MOD buys from farms that produce high-quality produce and practice the Five Freedoms principle, where livestock are well cared for and grow healthily. These animals require less medicine and other interventions that impact the quality of farm-produced food. "We believe there's a direct connection between how food tastes and where it comes from," it says on MOD's website. The pizza chain's approach may seem inconvenient through a business lens, but these principles contribute to the consistency and quality of its well-loved pizzas.

The culmination of the pizza chain's careful sourcing of fresh, high-quality ingredients happens in-store. Customers can watch as their pizzas are assembled at the counter before they're cooked in a massive, gas-fired oven that can accommodate multiple pies at once. Thanks to these super hot, super large ovens, MOD can make pizzas "superfast" and ensure customers always get their pies piping hot. 

Papa Murphy's is famous for its Take 'n Bake pizzas, which customers who want to serve pizzeria-quality pizzas at home can depend on. Shana Walker, the Senior VP of Franchise Performance, said in a website press release, "Our pizzas are made-to-order using made-from-scratch dough, high-quality chopped vegetables, butcher-quality meats, and freshly grated mozzarella cheese — all made fresh in-store daily." 

To be clear, Papa Murphy's pizzas are sold uncooked, but they're not frozen. The pizzas are all assembled in-store, then wrapped with food-safe plastic to maintain their freshness. The pies are then delivered or picked up by the customers. The website's heating instructions say to bake the pizzas within 24 hours of purchase, to ensure the toppings remain fresh and the flavors intact. If the pizzas have to be refrigerated, they should be taken out of the fridge for at least 60 minutes before baking to let the crust rise.

Uno Pizzeria & Grill traces its origins back to the creators of the famous Pizzeria Uno in Chicago, which was opened in 1943 by Ike Sewell and Ric Riccardo. An employee at the restaurant, Rudy Malnati, later developed a new recipe and a radical way of making pizzas: adding a layer of cheese first, then covering it with the sauce and toppings to prevent it from burning. He used a deep, round pan to hold everything together, innovating what we now know as Chicago-style deep-dish pizza.

Since day one, Pizzeria Uno has prioritized quality and quantity for its pizza toppings. The restaurant uses prime-quality meats, spices, cheeses, and fresh vegetables. All locations make the pizza dough in-house every morning and source the freshest produce, 100% fresh mozzarella, and vine-ripened tomatoes for the sauces and toppings. Uno Pizzeria has become a culinary institution that's widely acknowledged for serving excellent food, so much so thatcelebrities, Popes, and presidents have visited the famous spot. This commitment to quality is also a driver of the franchised brand, Uno Pizzeria & Grill. With 100 locations in 20 states and abroad, it carries on the legacy of the chain's first Chicago pizzeria. 

Lou Malnati's was founded by the son of Rudy Malnati from Uno Pizzeria. At one point, Malnati Jr. co-managed Pizzeria Uno with his father. After the latter passed away, he left to open his own restaurant, Lou Malnati's Pizzeria, in 1971. The restaurant was an immediate success, and it became another Chicagoan institution for deep-dish pizzas.

The pizza chain also prioritizes quality and freshness for its ingredients. Lou Malnati's developed a signature Buttercrust that was thinner and less dense with a flaky texture. It had butter instead of oil, which is traditionally used for deep-dish pies. The sausages are a special blend exclusive to the pizza chain, while the creamy, buttery mozzarella cheese is from a dairy farm in Wisconsin that's been a partner for over 50 years. 

The sauce is another proprietary recipe that gives Lou Malnati's a unique flavor. Every year, the company sends a team to California, where they meet with the local tomato growers they've partnered with. Truckloads of vine-ripened tomatoes are harvested, made into a special blend exclusively for the pizza chain, then canned for distribution. Canning preserves the freshness, flavor, and sweetness of the California tomatoes, and a single harvest supplies Lou Malnati's with tomatoes for a year. These methods ensure the flavor and quality of its pizzas are consistent across all locations. 

Gino's East is yet another pizza chain with links to Uno Pizzeria. It was founded by two taxi drivers, Sam Levine and Fred Bartoli, in 1966. They then hired Alice Mae Redmond, a former pizza chef at Uno Pizzeria. Redmond created the special dough recipe that helped make Gino's East an institution of its own. As the second-oldest deep-dish pizzeria in Chicago, Gino's has established itself as one of the go-to pizzerias for anyone craving a warm, hearty deep-dish pizza with prime-quality ingredients.

Gino's East proudly says on its website that its "commitment to the freshest, best quality ingredients and their customers' appreciation for delicious food, keeps Gino's on top." The chain favors a sweet and chunky marinara sauce, flavorful Italian sausage (crumbled and spread evenly, of course), and lots of Wisconsin cheese. Every time you lift a slice, you can expect a delightfully long cheese pull on the pie. As for the crust, the dough is made fresh daily with a secret conditioner that makes it look yellow, like cornbread, while keeping it soft and not very dense.

Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana is a tiny pizza chain compared to the others on this list, but it is one of the oldest pizzerias in the country. Italian immigrant Frank Pepe opened his first shop in 1925 in Connecticut, serving what is now known as New Haven-style "apizza." The family-owned business was managed by three generations of Pepes, all of them upholding the pizzeria's legacy of delicious pizzas made with quality ingredients.

Freshness and quality are crucial for bringing out the flavors of Frank Pepe's pizzas, because the recipes are on the simpler side. The crust is made with fermented dough, resulting in a ciabatta-style bread that's thin and airy, but with a crispy exterior. The chain uses crushed and canned tomatoes hand-picked from Naples in the sauce. 

For the toppings, Frank Pepe's uses fresh white clams harvested from the Long Island Sound and Massachusetts. It imports olive oil made especially for Frank Pepe and Pecorino cheese from the island of Sardinia. For the meats, the chain uses quality bacon that crisps nicely, oven-roasted chicken, and other varieties of prime meats.

Zpizza is the smallest pizza chain in this list, with only 11 locations, all in California. It's pretty well known along the coast, with branches in Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, and Newport Beach. However, it merits a special mention as a pizza chain that uses high-quality ingredients because of its reputation and largely positive customer reviews.

Zpizzas are made with non-GMO wheat flour, with the dough hand-thrown and made from scratch every day. Then, the kitchen uses organic tomato sauce and part-skim mozzarella from Wisconsin. For the toppings, the chain sticks to all-natural, no-additive sausages, pepperoni, and the freshest veggies. Zpizza also offers some less common gourmet toppings, like pine nuts, truffle oil, and roasted eggplant. And as expected of a California pizza joint, there are vegan and gluten-free alternatives for the crust, cheeses, and meats.

The chain also sells Take N Bake pizzas, custom, ready-to-bake pizzas that are loaded with fresh toppings before being packed off for delivery or pickup. Zpizza's Take N Bakes aren't frozen and need to be consumed within 24 hours, so customers can be sure of their freshness.

Since it opened in 1985, California Pizza Kitchen has carved a niche in the fast-casual pizza market by creating gourmet California-style pizzas. The chain's ethos is to make food that's "better-for-you." And for CPK, that means giving customers pizzas that are reflective of California cuisine, which tends to be nutrition-forward, globally-inspired, and utilizes fresh, seasonal ingredients. 

CPK has a deep commitment to ensuring food quality. According to its website, pizza toppings and other menu ingredients are all prepared fresh daily. Its most famous pizza and the flavor that CPK invented, the Original BBQ Chicken, is also cooked from scratch. The sauce is prepared separately, and the chicken is marinated in that same sauce, then grilled and sliced in-store.  

CPK is just as mindful about the quality of its frozen pizzas. Its "100% Real Ingredient Promise" is a commitment to giving customers a true taste of the original cuisines that inspired the flavors. As such, CPK frozen pizzas are made with 100% real cheese, fresh ingredients, and do not contain preservatives or artificial flavors. This high regard for freshness and quality, and a menu filled with creative and foreign cuisine-inspired flavors, gives CPK pizzas an artisanal touch that other chains don't have.