Domino’s Strikes Out
January 4th, 2010I was a Fool to Believe
Does it make sense to use the word “disappoint” when you’re referring to something that fulfilled your low expectations? Doesn’t disappointment necessarily include surprise?
Whatever. The Domino’s pizza I ordered was not good, and I guess I’m not disappointed, because I’m not surprised.
Here is the rundown.
1. Cheese. Seems like the old cheese to me. It was a lot like vinyl, and it was browned in many places, suggesting it’s too low in fat.
2. Crust. Still soft and flavorless, like Wonder Bread. But now it has a fishy-tasting, salty coating of grease on the edge. I can’t figure that out. The fishy taste suggests canola oil is involved; canola is naturally fishy-tasting. But maybe there was some kind of anchovy contamination at the local store.
3. Sauce. Can’t tell the difference between the new and the old.
I wanted to like it, but it’s just not good. They need to get real cheese with fat in it. They need a crust that has a little yeast flavor in it; the main reason people like pizza is that it tastes like fresh bread. They need a sauce you can taste. And that fishy grease has to go. I don’t even understand that stuff.
Maybe they were trying to imitate Pizza Hut’s spray-can butter. That’s a mistake. It does not take a genius to realize that butter was never meant to be an aerosol.
If you want to make pizza with very low risk of failure, use Grande or Costco cheese, Stanislaus Super Dolce sauce, and a simple crust made from flour, yeast, water, salt, pepper, and maybe a little olive oil. This business of hiring dubious chefs and rounding up focus groups is not the way to go.
I wonder why the pizza was so much better back in the Eighties. The new ingredients must be processed industrial waste from China. There has to be an explanation for a decline this steep.
January 4th, 2010 at 7:45 PM
Little Caesars Pizza.
Little Caesars Pizza is killing Dominos and Pizza Hut with an even worse $5 pizza, sausage or pepperoni.
Chain pizza WAS better twenty five years ago, and it didn’t cost $35+tip to get it delivered.
The older I get,the more inclined I am to prepare homemade meals and use organic ingredients.
The stuff they sell for human consumption isn’t fit for cattle feed.
January 4th, 2010 at 7:56 PM
I have been getting pizza from some folks that bought an old fast food building, a few bucks more than the chain stores but 10 times better and just as fast. I hope they last.
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You may need extra fat, I see temps in the thirties are forecast for the Miami area. I made bacon grease cornbread to go with left over ham. I could feel my arteries closing but could not stop myself from eating about twice what I needed.
January 4th, 2010 at 8:01 PM
The decline can be blamed on the trans-fat food police.
These jerks are to be blamed for the nastiness that has invaded the KFC. Let me tell you Harlan Sanders rolls over in his grave at the swill being served with his picture on it.
January 4th, 2010 at 8:06 PM
“I wonder why the pizza was so much better back in the Eighties.”
.
Back in the Eighties, Reagan was President and only washed-up hippie burnouts cared whether food was cooked in oil with “no trans fats.” Taking the fat out of pizza is like taking the Mona Lisa off of the canvas.
January 4th, 2010 at 8:41 PM
Re-post your pizza recipe?
January 4th, 2010 at 10:01 PM
Looks like a new pizza place has opened on the corner of US1 and Red Road in South Miami. I await your report.
January 4th, 2010 at 11:18 PM
Why can’t the food police allow people to choose for themselves! When they said eggs were poison – I continued to eat ’em, only to find out a decade later they actually were kinda good for you anyway. When they said to eat margarine instead of butter, ’cause it was SO much better for you – I kept on eating butter for the taste. Lo and behold – butter’s better, too.
I’d much rather have something with high fat and high sugar that tastes good occasionally, than eat police-state food all the time.
BTW – my husband was a Domino’s franchisee for years. His pizzas tasted great back then (he sold his company 10 years ago.) He always put on extra ingredients and made sure he got the best. He figured it was better to sell lots and lots of pizzas, even if your food costs were somewhat higher – than have low food cost and tiny sales ’cause your pizzas were crap.
January 5th, 2010 at 4:10 AM
Even buying ingredients in billion pound truck loads and paying minimum wage to idiots running around with little signs on their car roofs, there’s no way to make a decent pizza for the prices they charge.
I say the market is driven by a couple of generations of people who are now adult parents and even grandparents that were raised on this crap and think anything in a orange or yellow box at the grocery store (like “Lunchables”) is quality dining.
They just don’t know that “cheese stuffed crust” made of masonite dust smeared with genuine “tomato peel puree” and sprinkled with “processed cheese food product” isn’t REAL pizza.
January 5th, 2010 at 7:58 AM
1. My (and the neighborhood) kids prefer Dominoes.
2. Suspect brand loyalty.
3. Took a nibble of their latest offering.
4. Same as ever to my jaded and inept tongue.
5. Am happy as long as the food-Nazis leave my coffee alone.
V/R JWest
January 5th, 2010 at 8:38 AM
My ingredient cost for a 12″ cheese pizza is under two dollars. You would think Domino’s could manage to sell one for nine dollars (plus delivery charge) that isn’t made of sawdust and vinyl.
January 5th, 2010 at 9:49 AM
What’s the brand name (if any) on the mozz you like at Costco, Steve? I’ll keep an eye out for it next time I’m there. Of course, being 2 hours from the nearest Costco now, it’s a little hard to justify a trip just for that.
What am I saying? D&mn the icy roads, this is pizza we’re talking about!
January 5th, 2010 at 10:09 AM
It’s just Costco bagged mozzarella. It’s very strange. The label says it’s part-skim, but it cooks up more like whole-milk. You might want to cut it with something more flavorful, but it’s a great base.
January 5th, 2010 at 11:56 AM
Why on Earth would you ever eat a Domino’s pizza, anyway? Chain-store pizza was crap thirty-five years ago, and it’s still crap today. Worse crap, even.
I grew up in New York, where you could throw a rock at random and hit a decent pizza joint. And today, I’m lucky that we have a NY-style pizzeria within walking distance. Yes: here in the Atlanta ‘burbs. There’s no reason for me ever to buy a pizza from Domino’s, Pap John’s, Little Caesar’s, Pizza Hut, or any of those other wretched abominations on those rare days when I get a pizza jones.
January 5th, 2010 at 12:02 PM
Domino’s was WAY better in 1984. And I live in a pizza desert. I have to make my own or drive 15 minutes.
January 5th, 2010 at 12:41 PM
I did figure this would be how it turned out.
.
Being in Chicago does have its advantages – pizza is one of them, lot’s of great little family owned single locale (or small number of locations) places with good tasting stuff. A bit pricey, but like with beer, worth it over the mass produced crap.
January 5th, 2010 at 5:03 PM
I’ll take another look for the Costco stuff. The only mozz I’ve seen in Phoenix, Chicago, and Indy Costco so far was something like Bel Giaosso, and it wasn’t so good, IMO. Kind of space age polymerish.
Living 2 hours from a Costco now sucks, my Phoenix store used to be 5 minutes away.
January 5th, 2010 at 5:53 PM
There seems to be some confusion about trans-fats. Trans-fats are damaged vegetable oils. They are artificially hardened and made saturated with hydrogen. They are actually very bad for you and will if you eat enough of them, give you diabetes and other delights. Fats such as butter and olive oil are actually good for you, as is meat fat. The human body was made to use it for fuel and the construction of such things as cell walls and hormones. If you eat damaged fats those functions are damaged.
So don’t eat crisco or margarine or anything hydrogenated at all.
January 5th, 2010 at 5:54 PM
On the other hand, you should have the freedom to eat any crap you want to as long as it doesn’t cause you to shoot people and molest children.
January 5th, 2010 at 6:46 PM
The big problem with buying store brand cheese is that they may switch suppliers without telling anyone.