A Tale of Two Pizzas
Buckle up, Buckaroo. I'm about to tell a little story. So back in the late 90's, Papa Johns was my after school job. I swear, it was so good back then, with their cheese sticks and all those dipping sauces. I must have eaten a thousand pizzas from there. In fact, for that very reason I haven't eaten Papa Johns more than probably a dozen times or so since the Dawn of the 21st century. That being said, a couple of weeks ago we got a coupon for a free pizza, and I was hell bent on making that free pizza the first meal Kat and I ate in our new house.
Yesterday was a huge day....homeowners, finally!! We did all the exciting couple things, walking through and coming up with ideas, meeting neighbors, all the fun stuff. We decided to use our free papa Johns coupon to make them our first meal in the new house. I was quite excited about a free meal after purchasing a house in todays market, after all.
We attempted a couple of times to use their mobile app, but to no avail. Every time we'd enter the coupon code, it would kick us back to the beginning. We were starting to get really hungry, so we ordered the old school way, by calling the store. I placed my order and they accepted my coupon, which was great. The wheels fell off this thing once I got to the store, however.
So from jump street, I'll say it was refreshing to see a store with half a dozen smiling, cheerful employees. That is rare in this day and age, and the two stars from this review are all theirs. The loss of three stars belongs to the food quality. So to start it off, my coupon was not applied by the call taker, which apparently is overseas now, and my total for a large pepperoni pizza with a 2 liter of soda was more than $17. A quick explanation and the gentleman at the register reapplied my coupon and I was good to go.
Got the pizza home, and it was just not great. The quality isn't there anymore. The pizza is very doughy, with way too much crust. The cheese had this weird, under-done quality that I can't really describe, but it was not good. The toppings were sufficient in amount, but the garlic sauce, always my favorite part, has changed in its composition at some point in the past 20 years, which was a bummer. All in all, I'd have been very upset if I had paid full price for this. We didn't let it ruin our first meal in the house, but it is what it is.
So the next day.....
I had been at the new house, working on our kitchen remodel that i am undertaking on my own, and Kat was on her way over after work, and she brought a frozen pizza from Aldi to throw into the oven. This was a 16 inch thin crust "all the meats" pizza, which cost about $6. No hassle, no mess, just threw it in the oven for less than 15 minutes and we had a huge, crunchy, tasty pizza covered in toppings. This house is empty so I ended up cutting it with a putty knife, since we didn't have a pizza cutter. Between that and three beers, this was the dinner we should have had last night. It was perfection, and I have included a photo to prove it.
I knew this would be better, because we have not ordered a delivery pizza from anyone ins three years, ever since we found out about Aldi's six dollar pizzas. You can't beat the price, or the quality, in my opinion.
Thanks to inflation, delivery charges and varying quality from store to store, it is safe to say in 2022 delivery pizza is doomed. There is no reason to spend $20 or more on delivery when you can get a better product from Aldi for almost a quarter of the prize. Y'all pray for me, this kitchen remodel is no joke. read more