The comparative review series is a set of reviews that I'll be publishing from now on, every time I have the chance. Whenever I want to enjoy food delivered to me with my friends and family, I'll be ordering the same item from three to four different places for a constructive comparison...
Today, let's enjoy dinner and eat some American pizza!
Ordering the pizzas:
- Domino's staff were borderline rude. Murmuring on the phone it was hard to hear the person taking the order until another one grabbed the phone and shouted asking for the address.
- Tomatomatic has a professional ordering team but a driver who's new to the region and miss-called twice to find me. Tomatomatic's offers are all over the net but were not proposed to us.
- Pizza Hut is the only one that proposed an offer; their staff are professional and attentive.
- Pizza Pie. It seemed like the owner or manager answered, guiding us through the order professionally... but knowing the price of the pizza without browsing the menu is a must for next time.
Domino's arrived first, followed by the other three who shared the same elevator... It was fun!
Receiving the pizzas:
- Domino's: 26 minutes delivery time, 33 centimeters, LBP17,500. No delivery charge.
- Tomatomatic: 36 minutes delivery time, 41 centimeters, LBP27,000. Including LBP2,000 delivery charge.
- Pizza Hut: 30 minutes delivery time, 30 centimeters, 2 pizzas offer, LBP27,000. Including LBP2,000 delivery charge.
- Pizza Pie: 26 minutes delivery time, 30 centimeters, LBP16,000. No delivery charge.
Prices: Pizza Hut is the most expensive - if it weren't for the offer - at LBP27,000 .
Packaging: They're all closely the same.
Temperature: All received fresh and hot.
Tasting the pizza:
- Domino's: looking at it from the top, the pizza is dry. Only a little tomato sauce, chewy crust and not enough ingredients on it. Black olives, green pepper, cheese, onions and fresh mushrooms. It offers a thin crust that's chewy...unpleasantly chewy, an after-note of spiciness and a bizarre sweet flavor. I personally never had a positive experience at Domino's... nothing has changed since they first opened... Not my kind of pizza.
- Tomatomatic was the biggest of all and the freshest looking of all. Zucchini, red onions, fresh mushrooms and tomato sauce. The dough is tender, enough tomato sauce, intensely flavorful black olives, but lacking in overall taste. The dough is loaded with flour that sticks to your fingers. The dough felt undercooked, a bit chewy. It needed at least 3 more minutes of cooking, at least to toast the crust. Tomatomatic serves its pizza with two sauces which provide more flavor.
- Pizza Hut's large is as big as Tomatomatic's medium pizza. The dough is extremely chewy and sticky. The pizza contains more onions than anything else, along with tomatoes, green pepper, black olives and fresh mushrooms. The chunks of white onions are very unpleasant to smell or eat. The crust is dry like old bread. Unfortunately, this is a low quality pizza.
- Pizza Pie is the thinnest of all but with lots of ingredients. Freshly cooked vegetables; mushrooms, broccoli, zucchini a load of cheese. The main problem is that the vegetables are too big for a pizza this size. The pizza on the other hand is fresh enough and flavorful. I'd reconsider the dough's thickness though. PS: with a deep dish pizza as good as the one they have, it should have been proposed when ordering.
That was it for the American pizza delivery in Metn.
Unusually, this is the first time I finish dinner unimpressed. I'll surely never order Domino's or Pizza Hut again... Tomatomatic is a good party choice, if only they would cook the dough a bit more. Pizza Pie is different, it's a better pizza compared to international style ones... but again, I am not impressed.
Grades:
- Ordering and Delivery /10: Domino's 3, Tomatomatic 5, Pizza Hut 8, Pizza Pie 7
- Delivery time /10: Domino's 9, Tomatomatic 9, Pizza Hut 9, Pizza Pie 9
- Pizza look and shape /10: Domino's 6, Tomatomatic 9, Pizza Hut 6, Pizza Pie 5
- Quality of the ingredients /10: Domino's 7, Tomatomatic 8, Pizza Hut 6, Pizza Pie 9
- Value for Money /10: Domino's 5, Tomatomatic 7, Pizza Hut 7, Pizza Pie 8
- Taste /50: Domino's 12, Tomatomatic 30, Pizza Hut 8, Pizza Pie 26
Total /100: "Domino's" 42 ,"Tomatomatic" 68, "Pizza Hut" 44, "Pizza Pie" 64
Winner: Tomatomatic!
Notes: Not impressed is the verdict, a dinner I won't be repeating anytime soon. Tomatomatic wins over the international names... Happy to have a Lebanese version of the American pizzas - better, fresher and richer than the American franchises. As for Pizza Pie, I'll add it to another comparison next time with local pizzas.
Ordering Pizza for delivery... now you know what to do.
