Donato's

[radioartisan]

I'm not sure if this post belongs here or perhaps in the reviews area as it's as much a question as a review.  I'm a relative newbie to pizza making compared to many on this forum.  Recently I had Donatos pizza on a business trip.  I thought Pizza Hut and Papa John's had bad pizza, but Donato's has taken the lowest spot on my list with thin featureless crust and just bland sauce and cheese.  It made frozen pizza seem like a gourmet treat.  I'm at a loss finding bad adjectives to describe this pizza, and I just can't believe this is offered as a product.

The newbie question I have is do they use a parbaked crust?  It sure seemed like there was no "connection" or marriage between the crust and the ingredients on it.  The upper surface of the crust seemed as if it had a sort of skin on it.

[Chicago Bob]

Sorry I can't answer your question radioartisan. I just wanted to comment that this is a brand new item at a local grocery store here. They are over by the deli counter(not frozen)and appear to be par baked. They cost several dollars more than most of the "take an bake" type of pizza's that I normally see.
I was just going to ask here if anyone had ever had a Donnato's and then I saw your post...thanks.
Bob

[The Dough Doctor]

I can't sat too much about it but it is a ready made (pre-sheeted) frozen crust that is received from their commissary then slacked out at the store and used as a fresh dough would be.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

[Pete-zza]

radioartisan,

What Tom Lehmann says about the Donatos dough and pizza is correct. However, considerable effort was put into coming up with a reverse-engineered and cloned Donatos dough and pizza. See, for example, http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,2711.0.html, http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5977.0.html and http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,9203.msg79540.html#msg79540. As is often the case, things don't stand still so the most recent iterations of the Donatos pizzas are likely to be different than the previous versions as reflected in the above threads.

Peter

[IndyRob]

I share a poor opinion of Donatos but my wife likes it so I guess, as they say, there's no accounting for taste.

In addition to the bland crust, IMHO they have topping issues.  They have a pepperoni pizza where the pepperoni just smothers the entire pie.  I guess some people like this, but to me, it's just evil - a blatant admission of the lack of regard they give to the 'whole'.  Oh well, I guess that's part of the reason we have so many specialized pizza style forums here.

But a frozen pre-sheeted dough needn't be bad.  I've had some good pizzas that started the same way.  The thawing and proofing process was pretty meticulous in the example I am thinking of.