Places like Papa Johns and Little Caesars are for people in the Po - any of us who live in places with significant Italian-American populations can get good access to better pizza.
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The closest Wendy’s is about 3/4 mile away. I refuse to go there because on more than 1/2 the times I went there (and I didn’t go often so probably over a 6 month period) they messed up the order and most of the time we didn’t figure that out until we got home and were taking the food out at the table. I will go to others though, including one that is another 3/4 mile past the close one.
One thing I am annoyed with is when you get to the drive up window and they ask you to pull forward to wait for your food when there is no one else in the drive thru lane. I argued with the person once for about 2 minutes that there was no reason for me to pull forward as it was not inconveniencing anyone behind me. That if someone pulled up behind me and they had still not brought my food, I would then pull forward to the waiting area. They said it had something to do with their order tracking system and they got penalized if they had someone waiting at the window for too long. But I guess they don’t get penalized regardless of how long they make you wait when sitting in the pull forward area. So stupid.
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Oh… maybe that is who I’m thinking of. You could be right.
I don’t really order from either place. I get Papa John’s or one of several local places. All of which I prefer to either Dominoes or Little Caesars.
This is exactly correct… and undermines the very purpose of the tracking system IMO.
They have tracked, for decades, how long a car is at the window. I worked at Wendy’s in 1991 and they tracked it then.
When I lived in Taiwan the whole island had a boil order. One of the dishes we loved to get during the hot summer days was shaved ice over fresh fruit. I don’t remember how long I had been there when I found out there was only one shop on the half of the island I was assigned to that was OK’d by our leaders to be able to go to because they had been checked out and it had been determined that their water used for ice had either been boiled or filtered in a way it was deemed safe. That did not stop us from going to what ever place we passed to get our shaved ice over fruit topped with sweetened condensed milk. We got food poisoning more often than we did in the US but not often enough to turn us off to any particular places to eat.
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True. Also, I can choose to starve for a an hour or two rather than accept shitty food.
TAN: can higher food prices help fix our National Obesity Issues? Or do people simply turn to shittier food, cuz quantity is needed for satiety?
I could understand it if there were others behind me that I would be holding up and contributing to their slow service stats. But when no one was behind me, did they really get away with me not counting against their time to deliver an order whether I was at the window or at the waiting station and someone had to walk the food out of the restaurant to me?
I am criticizing Wendy’s… not you!
If you had to wait 10 minutes for your food when they are not busy then that 10 minutes should drag down their average. It’s deserved.
It should drag down their average even if they ARE busy but then I’d be a bit more sympathetic to those in line behind me.
It’s been a long time since I’ve eaten there.
I’m getting better at making pizza from scratch. Pizza is one of the ordering food out categories that I’ve ruined for Jaspess. (Although for those occasional times when we just don’t feel like making anything, Little Caesars rectangle pizza meets minimum requirements.)
Their hot and ready makes them much closer to fast food than I would normally consider any pizza joint, even Papa Murphy’s take and bake. Those new 1000 degree places (or like that) are pretty close to fast food but normal places that take 15-30 minutes to take your order, make your pizza and then bake it don’t qualify as fast food to me.
Agree on Domino’s, by national chain standards I think it’s solid now. Pizza Hut is passable for me, I’m with @ArthurItas that Papa John’s is too sweet.
But normally I go for the bougie pizza places near me. Or, on the off chance I just want cheap, greasy pizza, we have a local place for that. It’s super cheap and surprisingly good.
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I used to love Chipotle so much. I still kind of like it but at the prices they charge I only go once or twice a year for the sentimental factor. I’ll just go to one of my many, many local options for Mexican.
Chipotle is a decent option for road trips where you just want to know what you’re in for.
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I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: In-N-Out. That was a “once in a lifetime” experience.
Heh, I left Wendy’s for a local pizzeria.
Mondays through Thursdays we had a 14 minute guarantee (“under 15 minutes or it’s free!”)
So I was working the front counter (they quickly figured out that I was both honest and good at math and the drawer was never short if I was working it). This guy pops in for a pickup order that’s pretty unique: half anchovy / half pineapple on the least popular crust or something like that. He saw the pizza go in the oven and could be reasonably certain that was HIS pizza. (He was correct.)
So let’s say he placed his order at 5:02. It’s guaranteed by 5:16. He walks in at 5:07 as his pizza is going in the oven and decides he’s not going to pay because obviously we’re going to miss the 14 minute cutoff.
Me: Oh we’ll make it sir, our pizzas take 5 minutes and 35 seconds to bake. And it only takes like a minute to slice and box it. It’ll probably be out a minute or two early!
Him: No they don’t; pizza takes 20 minutes to bake.
Me: Well our ovens get really hot and they actually do cook the pizza in just 5 minutes and 35 seconds.
Him: Pizza takes 20 minutes to bake.
Me: You think that we offer a 14 minute guarantee on pizza that takes 20 minutes to bake?!?!?!
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One of my best friends (to this day) was working and told me I should have run the pizza through the conveyor belt oven 4 times for him.
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That’s a good point. One of such Italian-American family lives a few houses down from me and owns 2 pizza restaurants in my area. I like to speculate they have mafia ties since I don’t think their restaurants could generate enough income for them to afford their house. Also, one location is nearby, while the others is in a rougher part of town that saw local BLM related riots in the past decade. That location was untouched, and according to my uncle who grew up in that neighborhood, it was the mafia ties that protected them through the riots.
The place I worked had the conveyor set for 6:10 @475F. It was a large convection oven, so it worked pretty quickly. Also, the pizza is not frozen, so duh, it’s going to be done a lot quicker.
Fresh pizza made at home takes about 7 minutes @475F on the pizza stone.
Oh a fast food thread. I need to weigh in.
Pizza - Dominos and Pizza Hut are passible. Very different but both okay for fast food. Papa Johns is bad. Little Caesar’s regular pizza is horrible but their Detroit style is the best of any fast food pizza option. So Little Caesar’s gets the win if you enjoy that style. (As a pizza snob none of these places hold a candle to local pizzerias but even bad pizza is usually good)
I like Chick Fila a lot. Popeyes can be great but I’ve had very mixed results.
McDonalds and Burger King big yuck these days. Wendys is decent.
Sonic is wonderful. Love the drinks.
Arbys roast beef has a special place in my heart.
I like trying places I’m not too familiar with when traveling. Culver’s is pretty good. Braum’s is the GOAT of fast food ice cream / milkshakes. In N Out stinks big time. Church’s Chicken was meh.
I was really excited to try In-N-Out, so much hype around the chain. And… it’s fine. I don’t get it I guess, I’d eat there again but it didn’t strike me as being special. Same with Whataburger.
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