When it comes to great pizza, I’m pretty spoiled with choice. We can have a debate about whether New York City or Los Angeles makes the best pizza all day, I’ve had my fair share of pizza in New York and I’ve lived in Los Angeles all my life, and I can say that both cities are littered with amazing pizzerias that could be anyone’s favorite. And I’m willing to believe there’s great pizza wherever you live, too — as a wise sage once said, “Pizza is even pretty good when it’s bad.”
I’m not here to make the case that one city makes the definitive “best pizza” today (we’ll circle back to this in the future because I’ve got thoughts) but rather, to discuss the big chains. Yes, the enemies of the underdog — with their streamlined ordering systems and pre-frozen dough balls. And while we all know that the best pies come from local joints, chain pizza is often pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.
So who amongst the big pizza chains, makes the absolute best pizza? We set out to find out by ranking pizzas from as many of the big chains I had access to. But before we get to the ranking, let’s talk about…
What Makes A Good Pizza A Good Pizza
I’m not one of those, thin vs thick slice people. I have a personal preference, sure, but often whether I want a thick bready or a thin foldable slice comes down to what sort of mood I’m in. So it’s not the style of pizza that makes it good in my opinion, but rather, the quality of the dough.
I like my dough chewy with a bright sauce that isn’t too garlicky, sweet, or even complex, but rather elevates the flavors on top of the pie without totally overpowering them. And the cheese should have substance. This is mozzarella we’re dealing with so the flavor is going to be pretty mild but the best mozzarella is creamy-almost-nutty with a subtle fresh tang and a nice stretchy melt.
As we determine the best pizza, I’m going to be paying special attention to those three qualities (dough, sauce, cheese) and scoring them 1-5 for each entry. We won’t be focusing on toppings, since what you like on your pizza is your business, and we’re not about to try every topping from every pizza chain. If a pizza chain has multiple styles of crust, we’re going to defer to the original crust of each brand, so no thin-style, deep dish, or stuffed crusts on this list — unless that’s the brand’s flagship pizza.
That about covers it, let’s rank ‘em!
15. Chuck E. Cheese
Dough: 2
Sauce: 1
Cheese: 1
Total Score: 4
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
A punishing low score for Chuck E. Cheese, I’m sorry to the people who are nostalgic for this pizza but this stuff is terrible. The sauce almost tastes like ketchup, the dough is way too sweet and tastes like it was frozen for a significant amount of time, and the cheese smells like feet. Mozzarella shouldn’t smell like feet.
This is one of the few pizzas out there where the cornice (wrapping around the outside — most call it the “crust” but all the cooked dough is technically crust, anyway we’re getting in the weeds…) is totally throwaway too. If you make it mostly through this pizza but have to tap out at the bready edges, we get it.
The Bottom Line:
Skip Chuck E. Cheese. This is children’s pizza. And not even cool children.
14. 7-Eleven
Dough: 2
Sauce: 1
Cheese: 2
Total Score: 5
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
Here is the weird thing about 7-Eleven — the pizza doesn’t taste nearly as bad as you’d expect it to. Now, I’m not saying this pizza is delicious or anything but it’s serviceable. If someone picks up a pie from 7-Eleven, go ahead and take them up on that slice. It’s not going to change your world but it beats most frozen pizzas.
The sauce here is way too sweet and 7-Eleven lays it on too thick. The crust is stale and flavorless, and the cheese tastes like, well… cheap mozzarella cheese. So it gets at least 2 points for that.
The Bottom Line:
Better than you assume but by no means good.
13. Sbarro
Dough: 2
Sauce: 2
Cheese: 3
Total Score: 7
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
Everyone’s favorite mall/airport food court pizza… because it’s the only option. Somehow Sbarro has scored a monopoly on food courts and airports so its success is a result of a captive customer. I’ve never met anyone who truly loves Sbarro, people merely accept it.
The sauce here is thick and heavy, with a strong garlicky flavor and too much sugar. The dough is bready and thick (if that’s your jam), and the cheese is tasty, but a bit too salty.
Sbarro is also intensely greasy. It strikes me as New York-style pizza if created by an alien who has only heard a vague description of what NY pizza should be and came away with “greasy” as a big selling point and not a byproduct of other factors.
The Bottom Line:
When it’s the only option, it’s fine, but anyone who chooses to go to Sbarro on the regular has issues.
12. Round Table Pizza
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Dough: 2
Sauce: 2
Cheese: 3
Total Score: 8
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
Round Table is similar to Sbarro, but because it has its own restaurant space I’ll forgive people for choosing to go to Round Table — maybe they’re into the ambiance!
As for the quality of the pizza, it’s pretty average across the board. The sauce has this strange off-putting sour aftertaste, the dough has just the right amount of sweetness to be pleasing without becoming overwhelming, and the cheese is once again standard part-skim mozzarella.
The Bottom Line:
Not bad, but not particularly good either. If you have a gift card or were invited to someone’s pizza night and this is all they have, it’s fine pizza. But if you have a choice, why are you going here?
11. Hungry Howie’s
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Dough: 3
Sauce:2
Cheese:3
Total Score: 8
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
Some people swear by Hungry Howie and I think those people mostly live in the chain’s home state of Michigan because this pizza is pretty unremarkable. My guess is that Michiganders swear by the pizza because of state pride.
My issue with this pizza is that the sauce tastes heavy on the tomato paste. It overpowers the flavor of the cheese and whatever toppings you choose. As I mentioned earlier, I think pizza sauce should elevate not overpower a pie.
I will give an extra point to the crust here. While it is a flavorless blank canvas (Hungry Howie’s gimmick is flavored crusts, so it’s like this by design) it has a great texture to it. It’s crispy and crunchy but still has a nice chew to it.
The Bottom Line:
Pretty middling stuff. So no surprise that it’s landing in the middle of our ranking.
10. Cici’s
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Dough: 3
Sauce: 3
Cheese: 3
Total Score: 9
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
Cici’s is designed as an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet so its true strength is in the abundance of choice it offers. But like most buffets, there is a noticeable lack of character to this pizza. It doesn’t really have its own unique flavor — if you ate a slice and someone didn’t tell you where it was from, you’d never guess Cici’s. It merely tastes like some general idea of pizza.
That said, Cici’s general version is serviceable. It’s bread, with sauce, and cheese. You can’t go wrong. That’s why this pizza is getting all three across the board.
The Bottom Line:
It tastes like pizza, and pizza is good, so this pizza is good. It just doesn’t have any character or anything special that makes it noteworthy. This is as average as pizza can be.
9. Little Caesars
Dough: 4
Sauce: 2
Cheese: 3
Total Score: 9
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
Little Caesars has a bad reputation because of its “Hot N Ready” pizza but you know what? For the price (just over $6) this is pretty good pizza. The dough has this spongey pan-fried quality to it, the cheese is heavy and rich, and while the sauce is a bit too sweet, all together, it works.
If Little Caesars stepped up its sauce game, it would compete with the big three brands (Pizza Hut, Domino’s, and Papa John’s).
The Bottom Line:
Way better than it gets credit for.
8. Pizza Hut
Dough: 4
Sauce: 3
Cheese: 3
Total Score: 10
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
Pizza Hut is my least favorite of the aforementioned big three pizza chains but what it has going for it is that crust. The default style at Pizza Hut is pan crust, and it has this wonderful crunchy texture that stays crispy no matter how long the pizza has been sitting and reheats better than any other chain.
The weak point, like Little Caesars, is that sauce. It’s way too sweet and thick and dominates a little too strongly. If I were ordering Pizza Hut, I’d request light sauce.
The Bottom Line:
Pizza Hut’s unique crust makes it worth ordering.
7. Papa John’s
Dough: 4
Sauce: 3
Cheese: 4
Total Score: 11
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
Papa John’s has a lot going for it, the crust is hand-tossed to order, and the cheese is rich and creamy, but again, the sauce is just too damn sweet. It’s not as garlicky or heavy as Pizza Hut and Little Caesars, but there is a noticeable amount of sugar that I just find off-putting.
I love the crust here though, it has a touch of sweetness, it’s got lots of chew, and it’s thick and filling. Alas, when the best part of your pizza is the crust, something is wrong. Papa John’s is served with a side of Garlic Butter which is great for dipping the delicious crust into, but that’s not on the pizza, so we’re not going to factor it into our ranking.
The Bottom Line:
A good pizza that is held back by its sauce.
6. Blaze Pizza
Dough: 3
Sauce: 4
Cheese: 4
Total Score: 11
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
Blaze Pizza is a modern pizza concept restaurant where you can build your own pizza pie. All the ingredients you’d expect to be there are there, with a few extras like sea salt and fresh herbs to toss on the pizza. You walk through a line and add ingredient by ingredient… Just like Cosmo dreamed.
Conceptually, it’s great, but there is an off-putting soullessness about this pizza. While Blaze uses fresh dough, it’s not hand-tossed or slapped by a person, instead, it’s pressed in a machine, forming a perfect circle. It tastes like robot-made pizza, which I’m not down with. One of the best things about any good pizza is its imperfections — the weird air bubble, and the asymmetrical crust. This pizza has no heart to it, and you can taste it.
The sauce is great, it’s bright and tomato-forward. The dough has this charred flavor that I think kind of overpowers the other aspects. I like a wood-fired pizza as much as the next person, but this can sometimes taste a bit too burnt. The cheese is also a step up for everything ranked lower, but that soullessness permeates. It’s not that the pizza isn’t good, it’s that it should taste better than this, and for unexplainable reasons, it leaves me wanting.
The Bottom Line:
It looks great, and it’s a step above most pizza chains, but it’s missing something imperceptible.
5. Marco’s Pizza
Dough: 4
Sauce: 4
Cheese: 4
Total Score: 12
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
Marco’s is slept on. It’s not one of the big three, but it’s just as good, and in some cases better. The cheese is salty, buttery, and creamy, and they lay it on thick (no need to ask for extra cheese here) while the crust is dusted with garlic seasoning. The sauce tastes great — like someone opened up a can of San Marzano whole tomatoes, crushed them and sprinkled them with salt and a proper glug of olive oil.
The Bottom Line:
A delicious pizza that starts with a great crust, great sauce, and great cheese.
4. BJ’s Extreme Deep Dish Pizza
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Dough: 4
Sauce: 4
Cheese: 4
Totale Score: 12
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
Here is the thing about BJ’s — I won’t sit here and tell you that this pizza isn’t delicious. It is. It’s made to order and features a near-perfect combination of crust (crispy, thick, and chewy), sauce (rich and bright), and cheese (thick and rich), but at the end of the day this kind of strikes me as elevated Pizza Hut.
For the price (a large pie will cost you over $30) I expect so much more out of this. The best way to enjoy BJ’s pizza is to order a personal. So if you’re eating pizza for one and have money to burn, this is the play.
The Bottom Line:
Delicious, but for the price this pizza should taste a lot better.
3. Mod Pizza
Dough: 4
Sauce: 5
Cheese: 4
Totale Score: 13
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
Mod Pizza takes the Blaze Pizza build your own pie concept, and does it right. Unlike Blaze, this pizza has character and a flavor of its own.
The crust is comically thin, so this isn’t exactly a pizza you’re going to want to share, but what is there is great. It’s yeasty and crispy, the closest thing to a true sourdough crust that I’ve had at a pizza chain.
The real draw here is the sauce, it pops off the pie with an umami-rich naturally sweet tomato flavor. It has a strong enough flavor that it’s noticeable but isn’t so distracting that it overpowers the other ingredients. It perfectly complements the milky mozzarella cheese.
The Bottom Line:
Build-your-own-pizza done right.
2. California Pizza Kitchen
Dough: 5
Sauce: 5
Cheese: 4
Total Score: 14
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
If you haven’t gone to CPK in the last two years, you need to remedy that shit ASAP. The restaurant has revamped its entire pizza recipe (we reviewed every pizza here), and has made all the necessary changes to make this pizza truly great.
Instead of a pizza press, the dough here is slapped and stretched to order. The recipe has reduced the amount of sugar, turning it into the perfect canvas to build upon. The sauce is bright, natural tasting, and fresh, and the cheese is creamy and a bit nutty. The only real issue I have with CPK is that it’s impossible to come to a consensus about which pizza to order.
Here is a list of our five favorites: The Works, Carne Asada, Mushroom Pepperoni Sausage, Thai Chicken, and Original BBQ.
So as good as this pizza is, why doesn’t it get the number one spot? Because at the end of the day when someone says “pizza” I don’t think of CPK. I have to have a craving specifically for CPK to eat at this place, and for that, I can’t say it’s the best pizza chain in America.
The Bottom Line:
If you want adventurous builds, this is the best pizza place to order from.
1. Domino’s
Crust: 5
Sauce: 5
Cheese: 5
Totale Score: 15
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
Here it is, our number one pick. Is this pizza perfect? Despite it’s perfect score, no, it’s not. Even on its best day, Domino’s doesn’t have anything on a great pizzeria in your city. But for what it is — cheap, convenient, and easily accessible — it does everything right.
The dough is hand-stretched to order and has a great crispy texture thanks to a liberal dusting of cornmeal, the sauce is rich and flavorful without being overly sweet, and the cheese is perfectly spread across the pizza and has a wonderful salty-nutty-creamy flavor.
I can take or leave the garlic butter dusting on the crust, but people swear by it and I understand that viewpoint. This pizza simply has everything a great pizza should have and doesn’t have any real weak points. It’s the only super big national pizza chain that tastes the way pizza should taste.
The Bottom Line:
If you don’t have a local pizzeria that you love, your first and only choice for cheap and consistent delivery pizza should be Domino’s.
