Domino's Pizza

Domino’s Pizza

2128 Rock Rd.
Desoto, MO

http://www.dominos.com/

First: Why you shouldn’t always trust Wikipedia:

***

 

  We decided on this earlier in the week. There was a commercial on TV and we talked about how long it had been since any of us had a Domino’s Pizza.

I suggested that we give the place a best-shot test.

Rather than just order a couple of compromise pizzas as we usually do, I suggested, insisted that we would each order a pizza for ourselves.

A compromise pizza is when I agree to have whatever Angel wants rather than be picky about my own quaint, irrelevant, superfluous, personal preferences.

Angel likes lots of toppings on a thin crust.

Adam only likes a couple of toppings on a standard crust.

I like lots of toppings on a standard crust.

So the compromise is that we usually order Angel’s preference and Adam’s preference and I have some of each. I wanted my own pizza for this test.

The Place:

Located on Rock Road in Desoto, just a literal stone’s throw from Pizza Hut. Unlike PH, Domino’s does not have a dining area, it’s strictly a delivery/takeout place. We’ve never dined in at PH, but we have picked up pizzas there several times. Why we never thought to pick up at Domino’s is simply a mystery. The fact that they pretty much share the same parking lot plays a big role in our overall evaluation.

We are not in the delivery area, so pickup is the only option. We chose to live rural, so we do not begrudge the lack of delivery.

The Food:

Angel: A ‘Deluxe’ a thin crust with sausage, pepperoni, bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, olives.

Adam: A three-topping ‘hand-tossed’ with pepperoni, bacon and olives.

Me: A Deluxe, hand-tossed, minus the mushrooms, added roasted red peppers and fetta cheese.

Mine

I like mushrooms okay, just not a lot of them. I had recently ordered a burger at Hardee's, and thought I’d ordered the single-best fast food burger in existence, the Frisco Thickburger. But I ordered a #3 combo instead of a # 5 and got the mushroom Swiss. They put too many mushrooms on the things, it’s pretty much all you can taste. SO I wasn’t in the mood for more mushrooms.

Angel called in the order, adding some cheesy bread sticks.  She has a nice, sultry phone voice and usually gets treated well on the phone. I on the other hand am told I come across as arrogant, angry, rude or dismissive, and get hung up on a lot. We complement each other well this way. She ordered, I delivered.  She was told our order would be ready in fifteen to twenty minutes, roughly the time it takes to get there from our compound.

On the way to Desoto I stopped at Queen’s, the grocery store in Hillsboro, to pick up some drinks. Angel wanted Diet Dr. Pepper, Adam wanted Pepsi. I scanned the aisles and saw RC Cola, which is my own preference, but compromised by splitting the Pepsi with Adam, I didn’t want very much. I also picked up a box of wine since we were running about a quart low at the house.

Adam's

When I turned onto Rock Road I saw Domino’s, but it was so close to the corner that I had to pass it and pull in to the Pizza Hut parking lot and double back down the lot.

I walked in, the place was nothing but a counter in front of a pizza kitchen. Several assembly stations, bins of toppings, stacked ovens in the back, piles of pizza boxes everywhere. The place was packed floor to ceiling, like a submarine preparing to leave port.

Our order was ready, I paid up, took the boxes, set them in the front passenger seat of my disappointing and unimpressive chevy coupe. (Sounds better than ‘Cavalier’) The drive back to the house was heavenly. The aroma of pizza and the lilting voice of Emmylou Harris (she was the guest on Prairie Home Companion) and the fair weather made it not unpleasant at all.

I harked back. I’ve delivered pizzas professionally. In Rantoul Illinois back in the late 70’s, I was stationed at the now-closed Chanute AFB for a few months for training. We needed $450 cash to pay the court costs to adopt my beautiful and beloved daughter Leslye. My military pay kept us clothed, fed and housed, but $450 cash was quite a tall order. I only attended class till the early afternoon so I had plenty of time to take on a part time job at ‘Garcia’s Pizza in a Pan’

They needed drivers,  I fit the bill very well. Not only was I over 21, which meant I could serve beer inside the restaurant, unlike the High-school aged drivers, but I also had a car with the proper stickers to get me onto the base without having to stop at the gate and get a pass.

So for three bitterly cold and windy months, November-January, I delivered pizzas in my ’75 ‘Lemon Yellow’ Pinto Station Wagon. I delivered just long enough to raise the cash. The aroma of warm pizza in the car would last two more years. Not such a bad thing, and this is what I was harking back to.

Angel's

As for the other time I delivered pizzas, I’ll not speak of that time here. Suffice it to say that the memories and reasons were not as sweet and pleasant as the Rantoul affair.

So we laid the boxes out side by side. Angel and Adam stood by impatiently as I photographed them, with my good camera. Then the carnage began in earnest. I don’t care for cheesy bread , so I passed on that. I poured myself some Pepsi and yanked out two slices of my own pie. I grabbed the bag of generic potato chips, since I like a crunch to accompany pizza.

It was quiet for a while, I was reading Michael Connelly’s ‘The Fifth Witness’ (Highly recommended!) while Angel and Adam sat in the living room and ate while watching Sponge Bob or something equally awful. It’s how we dine.

After we ate I polled the family for their thoughts. Something immediately became clear, there would be no bubbly positive review. I heard the words ‘bland’ and missing something’. Adam mentioned ‘garlic-y’ but followed up by saying ‘not in a bad way’, meaning that the taste of garlic was what he tasted most, but he wasn't sickened by it.

Angel was puzzled, trying to figure out what was missing from hers. She finally hit upon it. “The sauce, I didn’t taste any sauce.”

Cheesy Bread

And that was it. Upon that revelation, we all agreed there was no slightly sweet, slightly bright acidic bite to the pies. They all appeared to have sauce on them, but whatever was there did not stand out as a separate taste sensation.
  Oddly enough Angel and Adam also mentioned that they were quite happy with the cheesy bread, which is essentially pizza without the sauce. Hmmm.
Once the criticism session started, I re-checked my pie and noticed something else I had suspected when I was eating. Look at the pictures. The toppings were very poorly distributed. On each one of them were clumps/clusters of toppings rather than an even spread. This is especially noticeable with the olives, but was true with the peppers as well.

We agreed that we’d all had worse pizzas, and in fact these were not really too bad, just missing something.

Summary:

And that something is the rub. Sure it was a relatively minor thing. For the most part, the crust, the toppings were all fresh and tasty and cooked perfectly.

A couple of years back Domino’s announced, after actually admitting lackluster product, that they were going to rebuild their pizzas from the ground up. Sauce, crust, quality of toppings. In our opinion they were only partially successful. The toppings, like I said, were fresh and tasty, but the sauce pretty much disappeared on the palate.

They had announced that they were making the changes to correct years of sacrificing quality for speed. As can be shown in the posted photographic evidence, speed is apparently still a problem. These pies were too hurriedly assembled. In my day (Caution: Old man rant about the good ‘ol days!) We took time to make sure each pie was assembled proportionally, evenly. It’s not really a small thing. We eat first with our eyes, and a tiny taste of olive is great, but a tight cluster, not so much. Sloppy, just plain sloppy.

The price was about as expected, three 14 inch (large) pies and the bread sticks came in at around forty four dollars. Not bad considering that they lasted us three entire meals. (mmm, breakfast pizza!)

The consensus of the family was, especially considering the fact that in order to pick up the pizzas in Desoto, that we have to drive right in front of Pizza Hut’s door, and that PH’s pizzas  are pretty good, there is simply no reason for us to order from Domino’s, they bring nothing unique or extra to the table.

Certainly better than a cheap freezer-pizza, and definitely less rich than Imo’s or other St. Louis style pizzas, it’s just not great, or even just a little better than that which is available elsewhere, right next door.

______________________________

 

Finally, another reason to not put complete trust in Wikipedia: ***

*** Quite coincidentally, these acts of Wikipedia 'vandalism' appeared in the Domino's entry only for a day or two on or about the time I was doing some background research on the franchise. Since these corruptions are usually removed quickly I decided to screen-capture the offending entries. Sure enough they were corrected/removed by Monday night. But here they are saved for posterity.
It's a Wikipedia thing. After all, if you actually give an infinite number of keyboards to an infinite number of chimps, you think it's Shakespeare that they'll come up with?

Pizza Hut

2090 Rock Road
Desoto, Mo
www.pizzahut.com

I was still recovering from a nasty cold. No big appetite, taste buds clogged up and non-responsive. Wheezing sniffling, snorting, groggy, fuzzy-headed. Enjoying the bliss of self medication. (Thanks Nyquil!)
Angel offered to just go pick something up, I said "Sure, whatever." She picked up two pizzas and some wings.
It hit the spot.
More recovery-napping predicted in my immediate future.

#52 !!! Celebrate!

Welcome to the fifty-second issue of Eat and Critique! Yes fans, that’s right, we’ve published a blog per week, almost without exception, for an entire year.
First and foremost I’d like to thank all you fans, especially those that have shared or forwarded the link to others. Second I’d like to thank Angel and Adam, without whom there would be no comedy in these things. I mean that as a compliment.

How does one celebrate a year of restaurant reviews?
I gave this a lot of thought. We could go to a favorite place, Trattoria Giuseppe (TG) or Bandanas, or Kim’s Café, or we could find a new place to kick off a new year. By Saturday, I was still drawing a blank. Adam had planted the notion of pizza earlier in the week. Pretty easy I first thought, TG serves pizza. I looked them up on the interwebs and discovered that they only serve pizza two nights per week, both during the week. Disappointed!
Next I looked for pizza buffets. Nada.
The problem with pizza joints is that you go in and order a pizza or two, and you get pizza, not much for sides except for those that taste just like pizza. And if you order a pizza or two, all your taste buds get is a pizza or two. It's like getting a burger with a side order of burger. Some Pizza Huts have lunch buffets, but not any nearby.
By Saturday afternoon, I still had no idea. To make matters worse, I wasn’t feeling very well. Angel and Adam had travelled to Springfield during the week and brought back some wontons and eggrolls, and also a disease. Angel’s niece Witney has a flock of lovely babies, and was apparently the source of this disease. Severe congestion, body aches, swollen, raspy throat, and a complete zapping of energy. Angel succumbed on Thursday and as usual I tried with all my might to avoid contact with her. Somehow though I caught it as well and by Saturday afternoon I was reviewing my will. I napped, which only made me more tired. Thanks a bunch Witney.
By the time she got home from a dog event around three, Adam was just getting up from his nap and they inquired as to our evening’s plans.
“I don’t feel well.” I answered.
“Oh no, you’ve got it too?” She asked, pretending to be concerned.
“Much worse, ten times worse than your trivial little bout of sniffles.”
“I told you” Adam whispered to his mother.
“Told you what?” I delicately inquired.
“Adam said he hoped you didn’t catch this thing because you always exaggerate how bad it is and then lie around and whine about it.” She answered. Adam chuckled.
“So you don’t feel like going out?” She asked.
“I wouldn’t want to make a scene by dropping dead on you in a public place.”
“That’s very sweet of you, how about I just order a couple of pizzas?”
“Sweet!” Adam cheered.
“Sure, whatever, what a glorious last meal.” I whined.

The Place:
Pizza Hut, DeSoto MO.
Of all the pizzas, of all the places, Pizza Hut is our default. Located in DeSoto, just ten or fifteen minutes from the house, it looks and feels exactly like the billion other Pizza Huts in the world. PH is a part of the Louisville Ky. based ‘Yum! Brands’ which also owns KFC, Taco Bell, A&W and Long John Silver. In addition Yum! owns ‘Dong Fang Ji Bai’ in China, which serves, believe it or not, Chinese food.
As a mega-chain Pizza Hut is rather generic. Unlike local or regional pizza places, the recipes at PH are pretty tame and homogenized. PH is to pizza what Taco Bell is to Mexican food. Hardly 'authentic' of anything, it’s pretty good, and it’s consistent.
We’ve never dined inside this PH, we just call in our order and go pick it up. That way we can have sides as we please and eat at our own pace. Angel called in the predictable order, Adam mounted up and headed out to pick it up. Angel then left me alone to suffer while she tended to the dogs. I lay moaning and suffering, watching Mythbuster reruns until she was out of sight, then switched back to the Lingerie Football League game on MTV2. I was suffering, sure, but these ladies play full contact football in their underpants!

The Food:
We ordered two large pizzas, a thin crust with everything, and a hand-tossed with pepperoni and black olives. We have to order two because Angel and I like lots of toppings, Adam does not. We get the thin crust for ours since Angel does the ordering and doesn’t really care about my preference, which is hand-tossed. She also ordered some bread sticks which seemed redundant, and an order of hot wings. I don’t care for hot wings, anybody’s. I find hot wings to be a gastronomic abomination. It’s just a small boney piece of chicken slathered in hot sauce. There’s typically so much hot sauce that the food item holding it is actually irrelevant. It's a one note tune and that note is loud and shrill.
Our pizza order is lopsided. Angel and I are to share the thin-everything, Adam gets the thicker, blandly topped one. I usually compromise/cheat and have equal portions of each, Adam’s for the crust cravings and ours for the toppings.
This night, feeling as bad as I did, I held back. I just had one slice of each along with a redundant, yet satisfying bread stick.
I heard Angel heading back up the steps just as the game was ending and Adam pulled into the driveway. I switched back to Mythbusters just in case the post-game show played highlights. (I usually enjoy the highlights since it usually involves the players adjusting their equipment.)
Angel and Adam lapped up some hot wings and piled their plates with pizza, I chowed down on my measly portions and read a book. I had made tea, so that was excellent. What can I say, I like Pizza Hut pizza. I like other pizza as well, but PH is simple, good, and consistent. Nothing fancy, nothing wild, just simply predictable and good.

Summary:
The price is reasonable, the food is quite good, but it lacks variety. The breadsticks were essentially pizza dough without sauce or toppings. If you order their pasta, you’ll notice that the red sauce tastes a LOT like their pizza sauce. PH is like Taco Bell in another way, it’s basically a fixed set of ingredients with various combinations of those same ingredients used to imitate a variety of selections.
I wasn’t very hungry so I didn’t eat much. By the end of dinner there was about half of each pizza leftover, perfect for a Sunday morning breakfast.

So that's how we celebrated a full year of Eat and Critique. Again, we appreciate your taking time to read and hopefully enjoy the effort, and we promise to keep digging, keep exploring. We'll keep eating out so you don't have to.