It was a Friday of a very long and wearisome work week so I decided that I was due to treat myself. I've been holding off reviewing Papa Johns because it's my favorite chain pizza... a tried and true gustatory friend and after the last few duds I was ready for some goodness.
I had me a coupon for $8.99 for a large one topping. Wasn't it not that long ago that they had the same deal for $5.99 and even $4.99? With my old-guy memory it was probably 12-16 years ago but it doesn't seem that long. Anyway, because of the coupon code I decided to call it in. I found the phone number of the Papa Johns about half a mile away and called at 12:45. Then instead of someone picking up the phone there was a call tree. So I picked 3 to place an order. More phone tree? Alright. I picked 3 AGAIN to place an order (why did they make me do that twice? To make absolutely certain I was wanting to order a pizza instead of, say, schedule a haircut?). Then someone obviously from India picked up the phone. I tell him what I want and that I have a coupon code. He informs me that I'm ordering a pizza from the Maplecrest location, mumbles a bit, and then asks what I want. I tell him again and he tells it back to me, somehow taking a long time to do so. My pizza will be ready in fifteen to twenty minutes. Hogwash. It's 12:45. I'm not falling for THAT trick again!
I get to the store ten minutes later as they're pulling my pizza out of the oven. Ah! The peak of burn-the-roof-of-your-mouthiness! There are only two employees (and one follows me out the door after I pay... not stalking me, just leaving work) and neither are your traditional pizza story kids. I ask about the phone ordering process and am told that they can't even hire enough people to make pizzas corporate automated that. Gotta love the extra unemployment money! (And why did I switch to present tense?)
And here it is! It certainly LOOKs like an authentic Papa John's pizza. Seems a bit skimpy on the sausage, though.
However taste is where it's at and it's been a looong time since I've had a P John. That ever-important first bite is... just pretty good. More bites. More pretty good, but it's not like I've been welcomed home after a long journey away, which is what I was expecting. PJ must be off their game today!
The flavor is good but it's just not as good as almost every other PJ pizza I've had from this location, almost like it's a Chinese knock off. You might even be tempted to think that, being smaller, that the flavor would be more condensed, but no. The crust has a nice, slight crunch but there are a couple of bits that are absolutely doughy, like they didn't run the hole-puncher over that spot. The cheese and sauce and toppings taste about as expected... maybe they forgot to add enough salt? I dunno. I'm flummoxed.
I'm not saying it's bad, not even remotely, it's just that the Papa normally delivers a consistently solid pizza but this time, like my week, it just isn't up to snuff. Whatever the score below is should be a full point or more higher based on just about every other pizza I've had from this place. Still, not much of the pizza survived to the next day, so that says a lot.
Overall Score: 6.6
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