What is Your Favorite Pizza Chain?

[SillySymphony]

Anyone remember Discovery Zone? Every kid on the block had their birthday there.

This was my favorite birthday place! The mazes & obstacle courses were so much fun. I was so sad when they all closed down.
Did you know that Chuck E Cheese's bought most of their locations? Proves who's the top mouse in this category. (He thinks he can challenge Mickey.)

Staying on topic, my favorite delivery pizza is Great Alaska Pizza Company. Favorite take & bake pizza: Papa Murphy's. They pile on the toppings!

[IagoZazu]

I remember Chuck E. Cheese for their games and not so much the pizza. It was a good place to go when I was a kid, but I've stopped going ever since I got older. The jungle gyms and ticket collecting to get prizes were my fondest memories there.

[UmbrellaFish]

Okay, first, my general pizza rules- Pizza had to be fresh, hot, everything. After that point, the pizza just sucks.

Number one for me- Papa John's! I just love the pizza, the extras, everything. I think its a tad sweet (although I'm really bad for putting the garlic butter on the pizza), so I sometimes get sick after eating it.

Second is Pizza Hut. It's okay, a bit too greasy for me. I'm not wild about there pizza or anything.

Haven't had Dominos in years- but want to try the new recipe!

Ooooo, Little Caesar's is awful. At least here. Cheap, nasty, gross. It's sort of, when someone says they ordered pizza, it doesn't count if it's Little Caesar's. I do like their breadsticks, though.

[The_Iceflash]

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.

I loved Chuck E. Cheese. I'm probably showing my age but I remember going to Totally Tubular as a kid as well.

[slave2moonlight]

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/phDAyOf6j1A&hl ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/phDAyOf6j1A&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

Wasn't that what's his name, the kid from "The Sixth Sense", in that commercial? Ha. I believe it was. And, I remember this commercial, ha, though I don't remember if I ever tried the Bigfoot pizza.

[Disney Guru]

My favorite used to be Dominos, but it has started to happen that they have the ultimate rudest drivers. I am not racist at all but they have a lot of drivers who are of Oriental Extractions and they are so rude. I personally don't believe in giving tips when they are rude, have had one who used to come almost all the time when i would take an order. I have a heavy glass door in front of my front door and when I was balancing my food going in he noticed i didn't write a tip on the credit card statement. And slammed the door on me. He has done it on multiple occasions. So now when I want something from them I go to the store in person. Which is a bit inconvenient as it is a 10 minute drive but rather that than deal with their crappy delivery guys.

[pinkrenata]

Papa John's aaaaalll the way. (Although Pizza Hut's deep dish crust is to die for on those days when I really want something greasy...) I particularly like Papa John's garlic dipping sauce AND the jalapeño pepper which I always get to eat.

More locally, this place is fabulous:

http://www.punchpizza.com/

Not to mention, Meryl Streep raved about it after filming A Prairie Home Companion in the Minneapolis area.

[dvdjunkie]

I still maintain that Papa Murphys is the best take-and-bake, and if you don't like the crust, it's because you either cooked it too long, or not long enough. It is hard to not like Papa Murphy's because the price is definitely right, and they have so many toppings to choose from.

Just recently we were on our way home from Target, and stopped at Papa Murphy's, it was about 10 minutes before closing. I went in and ordered the usual "perfect" pizza (half pepperoni and half hawaiian) and the gentleman behind the counter wanted to know if I would like a second one 'free'? Not being a fool, I said sure, and he made my order fresh and then brought out a 'perfect pizza' and said it had been made for a phone order and not picked up, and asked if I wanted any addiitonal toppings, on the house. I told him that green peppers and black olives would be nice, and so for the humongous price of $7.99 I got two pizzas to take home and they were perfect for our little family dinner that night.

Also here in Wichita we have a nice 'eat in' or take out, called "Knolla's Pizza" that is really fabulous. Nice atmosphere while eating your pizza there, or you can just pick one up and take it home with you. ALWAYS a large three topping Pizza for the medium price of $11.99. And it is the only pizza I will eat cold, most of the others mentioned in this thread are pretty yucky when they get cold!!!

[ajmrowland]

Wasn't that what's his name, the kid from "The Sixth Sense", in that commercial? Ha. I believe it was. And, I remember this commercial, ha, though I don't remember if I ever tried the Bigfoot pizza.

You mean Haley-Joel Osment?

[Elladorine]

I still maintain that Papa Murphys is the best take-and-bake, and if you don't like the crust, it's because you either cooked it too long, or not long enough.

Um, no. Of course you're entitled to your opinion that it's the best but not everyone is going to like the same thing. In my case, it had little to do with how long it was baked (I did work in a pizza restaurant for several years so I think it would be fair to say I know when a pizza is done to my liking), it's just a personal opinion as I didn't care for the texture.

Wasn't that what's his name, the kid from "The Sixth Sense", in that commercial? Ha. I believe it was. And, I remember this commercial, ha, though I don't remember if I ever tried the Bigfoot pizza.

You mean Haley-Joel Osment?

Good catch! According to Wikipedia: "Osment's acting career began at the age of four, when his mother took him to a new Ikea store; a talent scout was there looking for new actors, and Osment put his name down. He got called back for an audition, and was asked to describe the biggest thing he had ever seen; Osment described an IMAX theater screen, and won the part in a Pizza Hut TV commercial, advertising their "Big Foot" pizza. The commercial launched his career; later that year he starred in the ABC TV sitcom Thunder Alley, his first role in series television."

[slave2moonlight]

Incidentally, fun fact, I worked at a Mr. Gattis pizza for a while during college. It relocated and became a much bigger place shortly after I left, with the big game room and ticket deal and all. When I was there, it was a simple pizza buffet with a big projection screen that showed the same cartoon tape over and over, and later Little Rascals. Of course, now they have multiple rooms, one showing the Disney Channel (last time I was there), and the other likely showing sports. At least there is an option. I hate sports, so I hate that most places that have TVs only show them.

[Elladorine]

I had a couple of birthday parties at Showbiz Pizza as a kid, which eventually bought out Chuck E. Cheese after they filed for bankruptcy. They ran as separate entities for a while but they decided to "unify" the brand and changed all the Showbiz restaurants into Chuck E.'s.

I used to love their animatronics show and preferred them over Chuck E's. Amazingly enough, people are creating new shows with the old characters . . . this has to be one of the most bizarre videos I've ever seen.

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QBhuBrWlmeA&hl ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QBhuBrWlmeA&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

The same characters I grew up with, but they're doing a Shakira song. "Uh yeah, Rolfe . . . why don't you put them moves away, we've still got little kids out here watching the show."

I went to a friend's niece's birthday party at a mall Chuck E.'s a few years back, and the lack of animatronics and arcade games was disappointing but they had a somewhat amusing flash cartoon of a rat playing on a screen . . . it sure is a lot different than it was in the 80's. Surprisingly enough though, the pizza wasn't half-bad.

But the most surprising thing was that they serve beer. I guess it has to be fun for the parents too?

[slave2moonlight]

Ha, crazy video! Yeah, they had most of those characters at the Funtime Pizza in my town too. I remember they also had "The King", the lion version of Elvis, which I previously used to love at our Chuck E. Cheese for the brief time that we had it.

I think I remember them serving beer at Chuck E. Cheese when I was a kid and being surprised back then, ha. Last time I went to one, the pizza was terrible, but I remember it being so good as a kid, and ours was so elaborate that it blew away even the Funtime Pizza band (featured in the video above). It was a huge place, as I remember it, and had several rooms (sort of like the Gatti's we currently have, but with better theming and animatronics). The game room was the video game forest, or something like that, and made to look like a forest, 2 dimensionally at least. And in the front area, there was a room on the right that was specifically for watching "The King". Beyond the videogame forest was a the huge eating area with the main animatronic show, and it not only had the main characters, but like at Country Bear Jamboree, there were characters on the sides as well. They really had a well established cast. I had a calendar for many years that was full of cartoon pics of the cast members. I also remember there was a little room under the stage that you could go in for like 50 cents, but I was too scared to try it. I don't know what it did, but it was like a little box of a space that shook or did a strobe light or both, or something, ha. Another thing I remember loving as a kid was that you could go through the regular door (to enter the restaurant) or through a mouse shaped door for little kids, ha. And, of course, the whole place was kinda darkly lit, like a proper pizza place/arcade in the '80's.