Now, I'll admit right off the bat that I don't eat a lot of frozen pizza. I'll get one for my daughter now and then, she thinks they're quite a treat (she's five). But if my wife and I have a hankerin' for pizza, I'll make it myself, or order from a local pizza shop if the budget allows.
The first thing I noticed is that it felt HEAVY - and it is. One pound, 14.6 ounces worth of heavy. I'm hoping that's a good sign.
As I'm taking it out of the box, I'm thinking so far, so good. For starters, it looks just like the picture on the box. That's a good thing, no bait-and-switch going on here. It's a square pizza, and the toppings are reasonably well distributed over the top. I could smell the oregano as soon as I removed the plastic wrapper - another good sign.
So into the 400 degree oven it goes! I checked after 15 minutes - it looked not quite done, so I ended up leaving it in for another 2-3 minutes. Checked again - it looked fine, so out it comes.
Let's slice it up, I'm hungry!
First, the good:
- They sure didn't skimp on the toppings! Plenty of real cheese, and the meats stretch coast-to-coast. The pepperoni is nice and spicy, and the sprinkling of oregano is a nice touch.
Unfortunately, the good pretty much stops there. Here's the not-so-good:
- The sauce is exactly the same stuff you would find on the 99¢ frozen pizzas, there's just more of it - and it's bland and doesn't really taste like tomato sauce.
- The crust has the consistency and flavor of thick cardboard. It's labeled on the box as "rising-crust". This crust didn't rise at ALL. It just laid there.
- The ham had practically no flavor - the sausage was marginal at best, and I never tasted any bacon or "beef pizza topping" at all.
Well, I expected at least a LITTLE more than what I got. It never ceases to amaze me that we've been able to send a man to the moon, and yet we still can't manufacture a frozen pizza crust that doesn't taste like cardboard. But this is a complaint I have about all frozen pizzas though, not just this one...
And in a nutshell, that's why I don't often buy frozen pizza - from ALDI, or anywhere else. If I don't have the time to make a proper pizza, I'll just make something else. This one might be okay for the kids, but for anyone with a more developed palate, I don't think so.
So, what did you think? Did you pick up one of these too? Let me know if your opinion is any different than mine...
-Jeff the ALDI Shopper
I've tried two of their pizzas and I'm convinced they are a form of medieval torture.
ReplyDeleteMost of our other posts are right on.
Where is your local Aldi?
The wines are very hit or miss.
Chips, cheeze, crackers, regular flour and sugar are probably the best items. Their kettle chips and baked bbq chips are very good quality.
The canned tuna is sketchy.
I'm not a fan of the tuna either - I can get much better for the same price or even lower at the other grocery store I shop at (I'm in NJ). They don't stock beer or wine at the stores here, so I can't comment on the wines.
ReplyDeleteMy 6-yr-old likes the frozen cheese pizzas, but I can't say I've liked any that I've tried so far, so I'll usually leave them alone...
-Jeff
I also noticed that the pizza felt REALLY heavy when I carried it. I had purchased the Mama Cozzi deluxe refrigerated pizza. It weighed a lot and most of it was a lot of very dense bread... After chewing through the crust (like a dog gnawing a bone), I got to the sauce. It was mild and flavorless - the whole thing tasted like a Totinos pizza on steroids.
ReplyDeleteThe toppings were pretty to look at and added a lot of astheics to an uninspiring pizza. I added a little blue cheese for flavor, a lot of parmasean, and dipped the leftover crust in a butter/garlic salt combination. It helped. Otherwise I would have had to use the crust in the carboard recyling container.
I'm not sure if I would buy this again but it was a decent value. The only reason I might now is the heavy crust. Being diabetic, I prefer something thinner.
My best advice would be to keep garlic salt (or powder) and some parmesean cheese handy. Bribe the kids or guests with something for dipping such as garlic butter, honey better, etc. It's doable. For the $6.99 price, I can't complain too loudly. Dad liked it.
Bradford
vantrekker.blogspot.com
I noticed in the sale flyer for next week that they'll be offering 2 thin-crust frozen pizzas - a Sicilian style, and BBQ chicken. The box in the illustration looks like it's styled after the California Pizza Kitchen frozen pizzas. I like those (but never by them anymore since they cost so darn much), so I have high hopes. I'll have to try at least one - they're only $2.99!
ReplyDeleteSounds good - I will try one or two as well. I had some more of the leftover pizza for an evening meal and the pizza tasted BETTER cold than hot!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the head's up on the thin pizzas. It's a lot better for the blood sugar not to mention that I like thin better 'cause I can taste the cheese better.