Is it Just Me...or has Pizza..???

Anyone remember Shakey's Pizza from many many years ago? Each shop had a player piano. And the pizza was GOOD.

Modern Shakey's is not even a shell of what it once was.

One of the better pizzas I have eaten was at a mom & pop place in, of all places, Erick Oklahoma, near the Texas border. It's the hometown of Roger Miller, btw.

+1 on small locals.
Pizza Hut too tart for my taste.

I read somewhere a lot of companies use the same canned sauce

a reply to: TheTruthRocks

Remember going to Shakey's back in the 60s into the early 70s. They had a Louisiana Gulf shrimp pizza that was so good, I sometimes still think about it.

I dont buy from major pizza chains anymore. I stick to local chains or local mom and pop type places.

Outside of crust thickness, there are 2 main things that differentiate a pizza..

Cheese quality
and
Sauce Flavor/thickness/chunkiness

I grew up in a pizza shop. My uncle owned and ran one in Cleveland, it was a mom and pop shop, he even ended up opening up a second store. I was making pizzas from 3 years old and on.

I prefer Midwest style pizza (Thicker crust, sweeter sauce, and super stretchy cheese)

Not a fan of NY thin crust style really but Ill eat it, I love deep dish though too

originally posted by: KTemplar
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk


If you ever get a chance, try NYPD pizza. Living in AZ I couldn’t find good pizza anywhere, til I found that place. It’s like going back in time. They have them in PA, Orlando, not sure where you are!

Im in Phoenix too! Ive lived here now for 4 years (originally from Cleveland).

I occasionally go to the NYPD in Scottsdale near Shea and Scottsdale Rd. its close to work and I get a discount. Their Sicilian is pretty good.

So far since being here in Phoenix (im a pizza connoisseur) my favorite so far are:
1. IL Primos (Super cheap, but somehow still incredibly delicious) www.ilprimoaz.com...
2. Spinatos (when you're feeling classy, theirs is incredibly flavorful with a rich twist of sweet and earthy, but expensive) spinatospizzeria.com...
3. Barros (Standard, but really well done with a biting sauce, and tangy pepperonis)

Im a fan of MOD Pizza

modpizza.com...

Yes it's a chain which doesn't inherently mean it's less noble or enjoyable then an individual store.

If I'm going chain, I'm either going for Mod Pizza or Pie 5. They both have the same concept which is basically like the Chipotle of pizza.

But if you really want good pizza, you're looking around for the mom & pop indy join that has one or maybe two little places they run.

Little Caesars USED to be good? What the actual F, no they didn't, they used to be greasy, limp cardboard buried under bland sauce and tasteless cheese when I was a kid. They're much better now, they revamped the recipes at some point. I honestly prefer 'em over the other chains. Pizza Hut and Jet's are god awful grease pits, Domino's is about equal in flavor to Caesars, IMO (but they do have more pie variety) I can't stand Papa John's, and Hungry Howie's....has seen better days. They went downhill after they got rid of the taco pizza, that was THE shiz. At least in FL, everyone loved that one down there in it's heyday.

Never tried Papa Murphy's (I'm not paying that much to cook it myself, I'll pay $6 for an Aldi deli pizza to cook instead) I've been told Marco's isn't half bad, but that was from the same people that conned us into buying from Jet's. Nasty, nasty s# Jet's pizza is

Ultimately, we stick to the mom & pop shop in the neighborhood. One of the big jokes around here is you can always tell someone new moved in somewhere when a chain delivery driver shows up -- new folks don't know any better yet. NOBODY we know in the neighborhood order from anywhere but the little guys, if you want a good pizza fix, they're who you get it from.
Hubs' work even has them cater lunches for employee pizza parties a few times a year (they used to alternate between Jet's, Domino's and Pizza Hut before) Not anymore. That place makes a mint off them when they order.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

It all went down hill when some fool put pineapple on a pizza.

Ain't nothing wrong with a spicy Hawaiian pizza. Add some good ham & jalapenos or habeneros and I'm there. Any other fruit on a pizza can DIAF. So can Supremes, I fekking HATE those. Mushrooms & olives do NOT belong on a pizza, those textures are all kinds of wrong. JMO, other people love supreme pizzas, but I think they're overdone and gross.

a reply to: Nyiah

Whatever you just described isn't pizza.
Its stuff on a ruined pizza crust..

originally posted by: CriticalStinker
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

It's estimated that 85% of pizza in the US use the same mozzarella cheese brand. Many times this comes pre shredded with an anti caking agent sprinkled on the strands. When it comes to cheese, freshly shredded is a very important aspect when melting comes into play. The quality of the cheese is an obvious variable as well.

I'm not a big cheese eater (how funny is that living in Wisconsin) but I have a heightened sense of smell. That gives me a heightened sense of taste.

I can tell you straight up pizza cheese is terrible these days. It is more of a dough than a cheese and has almost zero flavor.
So now you have dough, terrible sauce and a cheese that is more of dough. That equals a cheap but poor tasting pizza.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Yea, it's definitely lacking on both flavor and texture. The texture should have some elasticity to it, and a little bit of push back on the bite, (pizza) cheese nowadays is weak when it comes to that.

Favor wise, mozzarella is a mild cheese but should have some flavor. On a pizza though, I do like a little bit of smoked provolone mixed in. It helps with texture and flavor.

Little Ceasar's commercials only shows me a loaf of bread with a little flavoring smeared on top.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: Nyiah

Whatever you just described isn't pizza.
Its stuff on a ruined pizza crust..

Po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe, whatever floats one's boat, etc. Either way, we're no where close stateside to authentic pizza Italians IN Italy eat, so it doesn't make much difference what someone calls a pizza in the US. No self-respecting Italian would call American pizza NOT baked in a wood oven pizza at all, and no stubborn American would call bianca a legit pizza variety, for example

originally posted by: ElGoobero
+1 on small locals.
Pizza Hut too tart for my taste.

I read somewhere a lot of companies use the same canned sauce

Pizza hut pizza ranks near the very bottom as far as taste, but I will tell you this.
It was by far one of the cleanest restaurants. I worked there during college. I actually couldn't believe
how clean it was and I'm a clean freak! Too bad their pizzas are terrible!

originally posted by: JAGStorm

originally posted by: ElGoobero
+1 on small locals.
Pizza Hut too tart for my taste.

I read somewhere a lot of companies use the same canned sauce

Pizza hut pizza ranks near the very bottom as far as taste, but I will tell you this.
It was by far one of the cleanest restaurants. I worked there during college. I actually couldn't believe
how clean it was and I'm a clean freak! Too bad their pizzas are terrible!

I worked there during high school and the first two years of college (three different stores) and it was filthy.

My god was it disgusting, especially this one store. We pulled out the make table to clean one time and there was a nasty sludge on the floor filled with toppings that had dropped to the floor...and maggots were squirming around in that filth.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Good take out, or delivery, pizza is hard to find, but it's also hard to find decent fast food in general, too.

I used to like PH, but now I can't stand it, the quality has declined so much. I never liked Dominoes, and never really ate LC. Papa Johns is decent, at least the one near where I live, and being the *only* place that will deliver to where I live, it's good to get something delivered hot ever so often. Marcos sucks. I haven't heard of some of the ones mentioned in this thread, so they must be region specific.

For other joints, Mellow Mushroom is good for what it is. There's a local Italian restaurant here that has really good pizza and calzones, dough and toppings are all good, and a few other places around Atlanta that have pretty good pies (Antico's, Fellini's). Johnny's is decent, too.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: butcherguy

Exactly, nobody knows how to properly cook a crust. And even fewer still can make the dough. Almost always under cooked.

A friend who works at little Caesars says they now just use the value brand Bisquick for crust

a reply to: Lucidparadox


I forgot about Barros. They were ok, but I was so glad to have found NYPD back then.

Now, Chinese food. Forget about it in AZ! Awful!

a reply to: shawmanfromny

Salvatores, Pontillos, Guidas. 🍕👌