The Great Pizza Adventure #3 - Hungry Howies

Despite it being around for years I've never had a pizza from Hungry Howie's so I was, well, excited isn't quite the word.  I mean, it's just pizza.  How about "I was hopefully curious"?

Ordering via online was pretty straightforward, except that once it seems to skip back and I had to reclick on the cart icon to finish my order.  The pie was ready in the stated 20 minutes and there was no problem with me getting the pizza despite me not wearing the required mask.  The employee, I should note, WAS wearing a mask and we were separated by a piece of virus-killing plexiglass, so all is right with the world.

My pizza of choice was the $7.99 ($8.63 with tax) single topping carry out special with half pepperoni and half sausage. And here it is!

13 pepperonies and 44 of what looks like burnt rat turds.  That exceeds the mediocre Dominoes.  It weighed in at 37 ounces and spanned a mighty 13.5 inches across, or 143 square inches of lunch.  The proof is below:

Hungry Howie's "thing" is their flavored crust topping.  I picked herbed garlic and it was indeed a nice addition... quite flavorful!  The cheese didn't seem cheap and there was plenty of it.  The meats had a mild flavor with a tiny extra ZING of flavor on the tail end of the sausage but neither were anything to text home about.  The crust without the seasoning was just okay.  It wasn't soggy or crispy, just seemingly there to hold the toppings.  And the sauce was in good proportions, although it gave me slight heartburn both on the day I bought the pizza and on the following day when I had the leftovers... but that's probably just because I'm staring 50 in the face.

Overall it was better than Dominoes but still a fairly average pizza.  It didn't have any kind of magic crack seasonings that had me pushing aside old people to reach for another piece. 

 

So how about those stats?

Weight: 37 oz

Diameter: 13.5" 

Cost: $8.63

Service:6

Crust:7 (would be a 5 but the ridge crust flavoring saved it)

Sauce:5

Toppings: 6 (quantity) + 4 (flavor) / 2 = 5

Value: 7 (23 cents per ounce) / 6.0 cents per square inch

                  Overall Score:6.2

                   Flavor Score: 5.3

At least I'm on the upswing with this pizza adventure!  Who knows what 2021 has in store?  Wait!  Er, after 2020 I'm not sure I want to know.

Note: I've seen coupons that would take this down to $6.99 plus tax, which would make it an amazing deal.  If I can overcome the heartburn dilemma I'll definitely patronize Hungry Howie's again.