TKN Pizza Reviews (Review)

The editorial staff of TKN took on reviewing the Urbana pizza restaurants over the past six weeks in order to give the Urbana University community a sense of what kinds of pizzas there are to get in Urbana. Every Friday, we would bring the pizza in for the beginning of class to taste test as a group. All of these reviews were done on a square-cut, pepperoni pizza, and were graded on a scale of one to five stars. They were graded on qualities such as blending of flavors, amount of toppings, spiciness of pepperoni, texture of crust, amount of grease, and value.

Jack n Do’s (811 Scioto St.)

The pizza that we tested from Jack and Do’s was an 18 inch, hand-tossed, pepperoni pizza. If you like your pizza with a lot of cheese, this is the place for you. But if you prefer your pizza to have a lighter amount of cheese, you will probably want to order from elsewhere. There is more cheese on Jack and Do’s pizza than any other ingredient. From the top of the pizza to the bottom, the cheese takes up about half of the space.

            The amount of sauce on this pizza was lighter than most pizzas. We said that in comparison to the cheese, the sauce plays a supporting role.

            The pepperonis on this pizza were not very spicy and they were evenly distributed. We found this to be a positive quality because of the fact that you did not have to take multiple bites of the pizza without pepperoni before you finally get to a bite with pepperoni again.

            The crust on this pizza was on the thinner side. It was not extremely thin, but there is not a ton of crust. The crust was well cooked. It was not overcooked to the point that there was a crunch, but it was also not under-cooked so that the dough was soggy.

            One negative aspect we found to this pizza was that it was very greasy. You will want a lot of napkins nearby whenever you are planning on eating this pizza.

            Another negative aspect is that there is no way to order online. The only options of ordering are on the phone or in the store.

            The value of this pizza was a 4.5 out of 5 stars. We found that for the size of the pizza for the price of $16.50, this was a good deal.

            For an overall rating, we awarded Jack and Do’s a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Sparky’s & Freddie’s Pizzeria (644 Scioto St.)

The pizza our class reviewed from Sparky’s & Freddie’s Pizzeria was an 18 inch, hand-tossed, pepperoni pizza.

            We found that the toppings of this pizza were well-blended. There was not one ingredient that overpowered the others. All of them combined to give the pizza a good taste.

            The crust was well-cooked so that it was not chewy, but not crispy. It was cooked to a nice golden-brown color.

            There was not a lot of grease to this pizza. There was a little grease, as you can expect with most pizzas, but there was a lot less grease than the pizza we had from Jack n Do’s.

            There is also no way to order your pizza online from this store, which we found to be a negative aspect.

We found that the pizza was a decent value for the size (18”) and the price ($18.28). We awarded it with a 4 out of 5 stars for the value.

For an overall rating, we awarded Sparky’s & Freddie’s Pizzeria a 4 out of 5 stars.

Cassano’s Pizza King (154 S Jefferson St.)

            The pizza our class reviewed from Cassano’s Pizza King was a 16 inch, thin crust, pepperoni pizza.

            This pizza was very thin. The crust and toppings of this pizza were not thick at all, making it a lighter pizza.

            We found that this pizza could have used more sauce, as there was much more cheese and pepperoni than sauce.

            This pizza also has salt on the bottom of the crust. Most of our class did not care for this, but if you like most of your foods to have a salty kick, this might be the pizza for you.

            One plus we did find about this pizza restaurant was that it has an online ordering option.

            The value of this pizza was a 2.5 out of 5 stars. The thinness of the pizza made it less filling, so you had to eat more pizza than your typical hand-tossed pizza to get the same amount. We found that for the size and thin make of this pizza for the price of $16.85, this was not a very good deal.

            For an overall rating, we awarded Cassano’s Pizza King a 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Domino’s (766 Scioto St.)

            The pizzas our class reviewed from Domino’s were three 12 inch, hand-tossed, pepperoni pizzas.

            We found these pizzas to have a good taste. There was garlic on the crust, which was a positive factor to all of the testers in our group.

            These pizzas had a good blend of toppings. There was a good amount of cheese and a good amount of pepperonis. There was also a good amount of sauce, that combined with the cheese and pepperonis, made a good blend.

            We found these pizzas to be very filling. Between the thickness of the crust and the amount of toppings, it would not take very long to feel full.

            Another positive aspect about this pizza was that the store has an online ordering option. This online ordering gives you the ability to place an order for as soon as possible, place an order to be ready later on in the day or week, use online coupons, pay online, and collect reward points. Domino’s online ordering is exemplary.

            The value of these pizzas was excellent. With the online coupon we used, we got three medium (12 inch) pizzas for a total of $16.65. This was by far the best value of any of the pizzas we tried. We awarded Domino’s value with this coupon a 5 out of 5 stars.

            For an overall rating, we awarded Domino’s a 4 out of 5 stars.

Pizza Hut (726 Scioto St.)

The pizzas our class reviewed from Pizza Hut were two 14 inch, hand-tossed, pepperoni pizzas.    

We found that this pizza had a lot of pepperonis. There was rarely ever a bite without them. The pepperonis were also very spicy.

This pizza did not have a lot of sauce. It was dry compared to most of the other pizzas we tested. There also was not a lot of cheese to this pizza. Other than the pepperonis, there was not a lot to this pizza.

We found that this pizza was very soggy. It was described by one of our testers as “sopping in grease.”

The crust on this pizza was very soggy and chewy. This sogginess could be due to all of the grease, but it still caused the crust to have a sogginess that we did not care for.

This restaurant also has a convenient online ordering option that is very similar to Domino’s. This is a factor that makes the experience more favorable to us.

We found that these pizzas were a good value. We ordered the $19.99 special which included two 14 inch pizzas and an order of breadsticks. We awarded Pizza Hut with a 4.5 out 5 stars for value.

For an overall rating, we awarded Pizza Hut a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Summary

            After reviewing all of the pizzas, our panel of reviewers gave their favorites and the least favorites of the pizzas we tested.

Reviewer	Favorite	Least Favorite
Shane Black	Jack n Do’s	Cassano’s
Taylor Bodey	Jack n Do’s/Domino’s	Cassano’s
Taylor Clark	Domino’s	Cassano’s
Mason Dail	Domino’s	Cassano’s
Derrick Givens	Pizza Hut	Jack n Do’s
Professor Garrison	Jack n Do’s	Cassano’s
Jackie Smith	Pizza Hut/Domino’s	Sparky’s
Robert Young	Cassano’s	Sparky’s

           The most liked pizza among our panel was Domino’s after receiving four votes. The least liked pizza of our reviews was Cassano’s after receiving five votes.

           - Apr. 24, 2016