May 28, 2014

Review: Papa John's - Greek Pizza

Papa John's new Greek Pizza features a hand-tossed pizza topped with the standard mozzarella and pizza sauce, plus basil pesto, black olives, Roma tomatoes, pepperoni, Feta cheese, and banana peppers.

I picked up a large for $12.

While the Greek Pizza seemed like it would be at least okay on paper, that idea fell apart under an overriding current of tanginess.

While not quite as heavy handed as all the pickles on the Double Cheeseburger Pizza, the most abundant topping on the Greek Pizza was the banana peppers, which are pickled... add to that the lesser tang of fresh tomatoes and the funky tang of Feta cheese, and it becomes hard to pick out the other flavors.

The basil pesto was pretty nice and added a nice accent to the general tanginess. I think if they just did a basil pesto, onion, and pepperoni pizza, it would have been pretty nice.

There were maybe two or three slices of olives and they were mostly wasted; I could hardly taste them against the other ingredients. Even the pepperoni didn't do too much here. Your best bet is to just pick them off and eat them.

The pizza's saving grace was when I got to the end crust and ate it with their buttery garlic sauce.

Overall, Papa John's new Greek Pizza was another miss for me. It had me wanting just a plain old classic pepperoni pizza. You might like it if you prefer a mostly tangy pizza with an underlying bit of herby pesto. If you get it, I recommend nixing the banana peppers for some mushrooms, bell peppers, or onions. In short, banana peppers should never be the #1 topping on a pizza.

Nutritional Info - Papa John's Large Greek Pizza
Serving Size - 1 slice (152g)
Calories - 330 (from Fat - 130)
Fat - 14g (Saturated Fat - 6g)
Sodium - 950mg
Carbs - 39g (Sugar - 5g)
Protein - 12g

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