Over 37% Of People Agree That This Is The Best Frozen Pizza Brand
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Frozen pizza is one of those grocery staples that everyone loves to hate. Sure, frozen is unlikely to be as good as delivery pizza, much less the kind of pizza you get in a non-chain restaurant. If you've got the knack of making sure your pizza crust doesn't come out soggy (or you just cheat with this step and buy a pre-made crust), you can also probably turn out a pretty good homemade pizza as well, even if your humble abode doesn't run to a built-in wood-fired oven.
Still, though, there are going to be those times when you just get so darn hungry you want something to eat ASAP without the hassle of having to place an order, much less the extra expense that comes with delivery, tipping, etc. Also, DIY ethic be darned, sometimes you just want someone else — or at least something else (in this case, your oven) to do all the work for you. Frozen pizza is relatively inexpensive, requires zero effort other than pulling off the plastic wrap and remembering to pull it out of the oven in time, and there are even a few brands out there that taste like something you might actually look forward to eating, too.
In order to determine which frozen pizzas are decent and which ones are duds, Mashed turned to the vox populi, or at least the 656 citizens whose opinion we solicited via survey. The clear favorite, earning over 37 percent of the votes, was DiGiorno.
Why DiGiorno came out on top
While DiGiorno may not be as indistinguishable from Domino's as their "It's not delivery, it's DiGiorno" ads imply, it is actually pretty decent stuff for frozen pizza. Thrillist's reviewer praises its salty, stretchy cheese along with its slightly sweet but pleasantly peppery sauce and calls it "one of the most balanced and nuanced of all the options in your freezer" — pizza options, we presume, since that pint of Cherry Garcia has a subtle charm of its own.
Over on Amazon, where DiGiorno's pizzas can be ordered via grocery delivery service Fresh, their Pepperoni Garlic Bread pizza was rated 4.6 stars. Customer comments included, "I really like the flavor of this pizza. It's delicious," "Best boxed pizza you can buy. Period," and "It's DiGiorno Pizza, What's not to like?" General consensus admits that no, even DiGiorno's is really no rival for restaurant pizza, but as one surprised-yet-satisfied reviewer wrote, "It was really good. I always keep a couple in the freezer as a back up emergency meal!" Sounds like a good plan.
What were the non-preferred pizzas?
Coming in second with nearly 15 percent of the vote was California Pizza Kitchen's frozen offering, a pizza that Thrillist's reviewer liked (somewhat) for its crispy crust and the fact that its ingredients are just a touch fancier than standard frozen fare: diced tomatoes, smoked Gouda cheese, flecks of basil. Further back in third place was Snoopy's old nemesis, Red Baron, earning 12 percent of the votes (none of these from beagles). Easily-pleased Amazon reviewers gave Red Baron Classic Pepperoni 4.7 stars, with one satisfied customer saying, "this brand has very nice crust, a sauce that is very good, and even the pepperoni has a good flavor." Good, but not great: That's Red Baron in a nutshell.
Not so great, but still with a few fans (about 10 percent of those surveyed), is fourth-place finisher Tombstone. The brand was pretty hot stuff by 1980s frozen pizza standards, but they haven't kept up with the competition as well as they might have and are decidedly middle-of-the pack now. Taste of Home calls Tombstone "nothing special" and gave it 3.8 out of 10 stars (on the Amazon 5-star scale, that would equate to an ouch-worthy 1.9). Totino's, another contender for the not-so-coveted title of "most meh," got almost 9 percent of the votes for fifth place, while Jack's was sixth, with 6 percent. Rounding out the rear was Newman's Own, preferred by only about 4 percent of pollees. Sorry, Paul.
The always-entertaining also-rans
The most fun part of surveys like this is when respondents go rogue and vote for "Other" instead of any of the choices provided for them. A perhaps not-so-surprising number voted for a variety of generic pizzas: Walmart's, Kroger's, Safeway's, and one vote which simply read "store brand." There were a few write-in votes for major brands we didn't include in our list (Freshetta, Amy's), while seven people in all nominated Screamin' Sicilian. Quite a few name-checked lesser-known and regional frozen pizzas, including Home Run Inn, Brew City Pub, and Ellio's, while the expected amount turned up their noses at frozen pizza in general. We did have one vote for Stouffer's French bread variant on frozen pizza, which, as it turns out, is something you can now re-create at home, should you be inclined to put in the effort.
Shockingly, however, we had one vote we really weren't expecting to see. Yes, even Celeste, the pizza so bad you may not even be able to make it through a single slice, does have somebody out there who loves it. Kind of sweet, in a way. Guess there really is a person for every pizza.