What is Your Favorite Pizza Chain?

[jpanimation]

I'm drowned in pizza places all within 20mins of my house. There's Pizza Hut Italian Bistro, Art's Pizza, Gionino's Pizzeria, Zeppe's Pizzeria, Domino's Pizza, Marco's Pizza, Pizza Pan, Angelina's Pizza, CiCi's Pizza Buffet, East Of Chicago, Pony Express Pizza, Altieri's Pizza‎, Luigi's Restaurant, Papa John's Pizza, Bellacino's Pizza, Hungry Howie's Pizza, Little Caesars Pizza, Donatos Pizza, San Francisco Oven, and lastly the token Sbarros at the mall.

Of all of them, we probably use East Of Chicago the most (can't beat 2 large Pizza's with anything on them for $10) and their pizza is pretty good (the one by Cedar Point is a buffet). CiCi's Pizza Buffet is probably the best buffet and cheapest ($3 buffet with water, score). I really like the taste of Donatos Pizza, love the Hawaiian, but the thin crust doesn't fill me. Bellacino's Pizza, on the other hand, always leaves me feeling bloated. I'm stuffed after just 2 slices of their stuff.

Bellacino's Pizza, Luigi's Restaurant and San Francisco Oven are probably the nicest ones, as far a being fancy (silverware for pizza), but are a little expensive.

When I went downs to Kings Island, LaRosa's Pizzeria and Pizza Tower were pretty good. Pizza Planet at MGM was alright (albeit expensive), but lets face it, you're paying for the Toy Story themed atmosphere.

[PixarFan2006]

I like many different pizza chains, but one in particular that I like is DeLuca's. They have great pizza and I always look forward to getting it whenever we do.

[blackcauldron85]

CiCi's Pizza Buffet is probably the best buffet and cheapest ($3 buffet with water, score).

Your CiCi's is still $3?!? Ours is now up to, I think, $5.

[jpanimation]

CiCi's Pizza Buffet is probably the best buffet and cheapest ($3 buffet with water, score).

Your CiCi's is still $3?!? Ours is now up to, I think, $5.

It's week days only, 2-4PM. Must be a slow time for them but perfect for me

[IagoZazu]

Well, I think I'll settle with Papa John's for now. Their pizza just explodes with sauce and the crust is so chewy and good. Pizza Hut is good too, but they can get pretty greasy sometimes. Domino's was a favorite of mine before, but I've heard of people saying it sucks. Why would that be? I think their good, especially with their new recipe. I wish there was a Little Caesar's where I live, but the nearest one is an hour away.

Theme park pizzas are delicious too. The pizza at King's Island that jpanimation mentioned is phenomenal!

I'm not surprised that Other got some votes. I'm sure there's some wonderful pizza places out there. I would have included Papa Murphy's and Cici's in the poll, but I didn't think there were so many around. Do you all eat at the restaurant or order delivery?

[blackcauldron85]

Do you all eat at the restaurant or order delivery?

I don't have pizza all that often, but lately (meaning the last year or year and a half or so), we've been getting take-out more, thanks to Little Ceasar's and their $5 ready-to-go pizzas. But as for Pizza Hut (I've never gotten pizza from Domino's or Papa John's myself), maybe we get take out 65% of the time, and the other 35% of the time, we eat there...?

[ajmrowland]

On occasion we'll get Little Ceasar's or Papa Murphy's.

[Elladorine]

I forgot all about Papa Murphy's as I don't think we have them in this area. I tried it several times and actually didn't care much for the crust, plus I figured if I was gonna pay that much for pizza, it should already be baked. The ready-to-bake pizzas they have in the delis of Wal-marts actually remind me a lot of them.

Oh, how I miss those PH cinnamon rolls! We also used to make stuffed personal pans for ourselves, stuffed cheese logs (made from the mozzarella sticks, pan dough, and the "butter"), and Chicago-style pizza. We also used to make apple and cherry dessert pizzas, but no type of cookie dessert in sight (sounds good though). I miss the appetizers we used to have at my old one, they don't have poppers, chicken nuggets, mozzarella sticks, or the old veggie pasta out here, and some of the restaurants don't even have the same type of breadsticks and cheesesticks.

We rarely eat out if we're having pizza. Little Caesar's doesn't have any dine-in areas and of course they don't deliver; other than that we just get delivery unless we're going to CPK. It seems most of the PH's we have around here are just delcos anyway, but I know of a couple of dine-ins.

Oh wait, we do dine in at Red Brick's every so often. I think of it as a poor man's CPK but it's actually pretty good.

[David S.]

Theme park pizzas are delicious too. The pizza at King's Island that jpanimation mentioned is phenomenal!

Yes, when I posted my list I forgot about the La Rosa's pizza served inside Kings Island that I experienced when I went up to do the Ohio parks a few years ago (including the late, great, Geauga Lake). La Rosa's was indeed delicious.

Of course, riding the Beast, Son of Beast, and Racer over and over again on a nice cool night with little to no wait because most people were in line for the Halloween haunted houses was pretty awesome, too!

[slave2moonlight]

Man, I totally forgot Little Caesar's! I remember, way back when, when Little Caesar's whole concept was buy one, get one free. "Pizza, pizza!" Remember?! And they were usually square. Do they still make them square? Anyway, we didn't get them much, because my parents were stuck on Pizza Hut, but I remember those square pizzas were really good! Anyways, We get Little Caesar's once in a while, and usually, if you eat it while they're still hot, they're pretty good, but still, everything seems to pale in comparison to Papa John's and the RIGHT selections from Pizza Hut.

Oh, and to talk about the worst pizzas I've ever had (ignoring some of the frozen stuff, though some of that is still decent), I'd have to say the pizzas we had in London. We ordered one from Room Service and one in a restaurant, and we discovered that when London kitchens are really busy, they don't cook their pizzas well. It was pretty awful.

Oh, in regards to the "school pizzas" or French bread pizzas I mentioned before, yes, I've seen some French bread ones in the frozen food sections, but never just the right ones. One key thing to note was that those school pepperoni pizzas had the little cubes of pepperoni, which I've seen on frozen pizzas, but not the French bread ones. Ha, a friend once suggested to me that someone should open a School Cafeteria themed restaurant. That the nostalgia, and even the food, would bring in a lot of people. I personally would only be interested in those pizzas, but I'd be there a lot for that. In High School, they switched to selling "Pan Pizzas", which were round pizzas that tasted nothing like the boat shaped ones and cost more (as they weren't part of the daily menu but part of the "snack bar" that had them available every day/ the good pizzas still popped up in the daily menu now and then I think). It was very sad.

Oh, and talking about dine in or delivery, we usually do carry out to save money. Hardly ever dine in. I do like to dine in at Pizza Hut, but I miss the old school Pizza Hut with the jukebox, the darkness, all the red, ha. Now, our dine in ones are wing stop inspired, with the usual sports them, which I hate, ha.

[Elladorine]

I do like to dine in at Pizza Hut, but I miss the old school Pizza Hut with the jukebox, the darkness, all the red, ha. Now, our dine in ones are wing stop inspired, with the usual sports them, which I hate, ha.

My old PH was still like that last time I was there (granted, it's been about 5 years). It was a little upsetting when the red glasses were replaced with clear ones. At least one of the local ones is still like that too . . . I hope they never change, lol.

I haven't stopped in at any of the Wing Stop ones yet but I've seen them around. I'm not really big on wings anyway.

[pap64]

Man, I totally forgot Little Caesar's! I remember, way back when, when Little Caesar's whole concept was buy one, get one free. "Pizza, pizza!" Remember?! And they were usually square. Do they still make them square?

Back in the day we used to hit Little Caesars a lot and bought many of their deals. Nowadays, we just go for their calzones (hahaha ). They are quite delicious. But I believe they still do square pizza.

The one I remember the most was this very, very long pizza that was priced under ten bucks.

[Elladorine]

Man, I totally forgot Little Caesar's! I remember, way back when, when Little Caesar's whole concept was buy one, get one free. "Pizza, pizza!" Remember?! And they were usually square. Do they still make them square?

Back in the day we used to hit Little Caesars a lot and bought many of their deals. Nowadays, we just go for their calzones (hahaha ). They are quite delicious. But I believe they still do square pizza.

The one I remember the most was this very, very long pizza that was priced under ten bucks.

I don't know about elsewhere, but our Little Caesar's only seem to have round pizzas now.

Anyone remember the Bigfoot pizza? I never actually had one but I remember the commercials.

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[blackcauldron85]

Ha, a friend once suggested to me that someone should open a School Cafeteria themed restaurant. That the nostalgia, and even the food, would bring in a lot of people.

That's an amazing idea- I'd love that!

[IagoZazu]

Yes, when I posted my list I forgot about the La Rosa's pizza served inside Kings Island that I experienced when I went up to do the Ohio parks a few years ago (including the late, great, Geauga Lake). La Rosa's was indeed delicious.

Of course, riding the Beast, Son of Beast, and Racer over and over again on a nice cool night with little to no wait because most people were in line for the Halloween haunted houses was pretty awesome, too!

Yeah, that pizza was just so good. Eating it before riding Racer, Vortex (which gave me a headache for a minute), and Diamondback made for an awesome day!

The worst pizza I've ever ate was at a restaurant over at Mount Rushmore. It was a small pan pizza, but it had too many spices and the crust below the pizza felt gritty and gross. I'm not too fond of school pizzas either, at least the ones at mine.

The Pizza Hut where I live still has a jukebox, small buffet, and TVs just like it did. The only difference is that there's no more arcade, but it's still a great place to eat and relax. Me and my dad sometimes go there to eat and talk.

Here's a weird pizza delivery story. One night not too long ago, me and my family ordered Papa John's. Several minutes later, the power goes out. So we're standing around with candles lit and waiting for the pizza man when we see a Papa John's car coming. It comes and misses us because we're so dark. Later when he comes back and sees us, he finally gets in and brings us the pizza. It was an old pizza man who reminded me of Fflewddur from The Black Cauldron for reasons I don't know.

So he gives us the pizza and stands chatting with dad. We open the pizza and find that it had mushrooms and sausage instead of just cheese. Another Pizza man comes in and tells the old pizza man he gave us the wrong pizzas. We found out that someone on the same road as us ordered Papa John's pizza at the same time we did! So we switched pizzas and the old pizza man had some trouble getting out of our driveway since it's hard to back out of. It finally ended with eating some great Papa John's pizza. It's a wonder delivery problems don't happen more often.

[slave2moonlight]

I forgot to comment on the places like Chuck E. Cheese. Man, we used to have the coolest Chuck E. Cheese when I was really little! It didn't stay long though, unfortunately. We got a lot of cool stuff back then that didn't stay long. Then, we hit a boom period, and this area is still growing like crazy. Some things about make it a good place to live, but it lacks opportunities for artistic careers and there's not enough diversity in the dating pool for single people either. But, I digress. What I was going to say was, I remember the pizza at Chuck E. Cheese being delicious when I was a kid. Last time I went, it tasted totally different, all the games were for very little kids, and (oh, by the way, this was a different, more modern location) the whole place was much less interestingly designed. I miss the animatronic shows and all that. I remember the one we originally had was extremely well themed with a major animatronic show, not limited to just a few characters in a band on stage like Funtime Pizza or something. And Funtime, or Peter Piper either, were weak versions of the old Chuck E. Cheese. The pizza was okay, but I don't remember the flavor or anything. Chuck E. Cheese I vaguely can. Of course, we're still not talking the real "meal" type pizza like you get at Papa John's and Pizza Hut.

[jpanimation]

Anyone remember Discovery Zone? Every kid on the block had their birthday there. Can't remember what their pizza was like but they were our version of Chuck E. Cheese. They had Nickelodeon tie-ins all the time, still have an activity book. I remember the year the Power Ranger movie came out they had some tie-in. They even had a Men in Black The Series themed laser tag right before they closed (I for some reason remember a Godzilla The Series laser tag too, but the show came out after they supposedly closed).

Our closest Chuck E. Cheese was about 35mins away. I only went to it once, when I was older, but it still had the animatronic show when I went. Probably would've loved it as a kid but Discovery Zone filled that gap.

[ajmrowland]

Why does the Zone ring a bell?

[blackcauldron85]

Why does the Zone ring a bell?

I was wondering the same thing. Then I looked up the commercial and I remembered! I've never been, but I do remember the commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33QpqR-fN0c

[SWillie!]

Where is all the love for Hungry Howie's?!?!?!

I've worked there for three years now, and they're still my favorite pizza place.

And a close second is Jet's. No one has mentioned that either!!!!!