Anyone ever snarf other peoples pizza at Chuck E Cheese?

[Torn Mind]

If the place has the belt driven pizza oven, then the pizza is very likely going to be undercooked or have skimpy toppings. The timing is designed to not burn the pizza no matter what so if you add toppings, they either don't get cooked or the folks applying the toppings cut back the amount of each topping.

Depends on what you mean by undercooked.
I worked for Dominos and have eaten fresh "bad order" pizzas. The dough is hardened enough to a fluffy texture and the cheese comes out fully melted. The flat thin crusts also come out crisp.

I mean, sure the ingredients are going to be crappy compared to a gourmet, high end place, but the pies are going to get cooked.

Workers loafing around can be a issue, but....the last couple months, the guys at the top obviously must have heard feedback and brought in a hard-nosed taskmaster of a manager to push for accountability. I actually liked that style becuase the coworkers were lazy bitches and the senior Nigerian-descended driver always was good a putting on a noble face while conducting himself in a self-serving manner.

 

[Zorba]

Okay buddy...


Okay buddy...
Good flour is fucking cheap. Good canned tomatoes are fucking cheap. Please do us a favor and explain how whatever cheap chain pizza dough making process is "incompetent." It shouldn't be too hard for you to explain since you are so qualified to speak on it.

Less spices, less sauce, less dough, less kneading of the dough. Fake cheese, or at least much lower grade cheese, give less time for the yeast to work, using cheap bulk instant yeast, less toppings, etc etc.

Seriously, have you never cooked or eaten at a cheap restaurant? Why does a McDonald's burger suck compared to a good restaurant? They both use 100% fresh beef, should be the same right?

 

[Torn Mind]

Great, but calling olive-oil pizza "great" and non-olive-oil pizza "shitty" is ridiculous hyperbole. Are all breads not flavored with olive oil shitty? Are we appealing to tradition? Are people who maybe don't like olive oil shitty people? I think the cost per pizza for olive oil is in the neighborhood of $0.008.

Vegetable oils are the devil with regards to health.

However, "olive oil" these days is just olive oil heavily adulterated with other vegetable oils. True olive oil is unlikely to be found except in a high-end, true Italian establishment in the nice end of town. If store bought Olive Oil(not even necessarily EVOO) is commanding obscene price per oz, the bulk price will not be much lower.

When it comes to millions of transactions though, even saving $0.008 can translate to substantial revenue. It's the reason bean counter ethnicities manage to rise to the top of the food chain and stay at the top.

 

[dank69]

Less spices, less sauce, less dough, less kneading of the dough. Fake cheese, or at least much lower grade cheese, give less time for the yeast to work, using cheap bulk instant yeast, fake eggs, less toppings, etc etc.

Seriously, have you never cooked or eaten at a cheap restaurant? Why does a McDonald's burger suck compared to a good restaurant? They both use 100% fresh beef, should be the same right?

Eggs? In pizza?

To be clear I'm not talking about there being no difference. I'm just wondering how someone can justify calling any pizza "shitty." I mean, sure, you put green peppers on there and it will justifiably be shitty, but that's not the pizza's fault. That's just because even a tiny piece of green pepper makes an entire dish taste like nothing but green pepper. But I digress.

 

[nakedfrog]

Less spices, less sauce, less dough, less kneading of the dough. Fake cheese, or at least much lower grade cheese, give less time for the yeast to work, using cheap bulk instant yeast, fake eggs, less toppings, etc etc.

Seriously, have you never cooked or eaten at a cheap restaurant? Why does a McDonald's burger suck compared to a good restaurant? They both use 100% fresh beef, should be the same right?

But McDonald's burgers aren't "shitty" either, nor would I say they "suck". It's a decent burger for the price point.

 

[dank69]

Vegetable oils are the devil with regards to health.

However, "olive oil" these days is just olive oil heavily adulterated with other vegetable oils. True olive oil is unlikely to be found except in a high-end, true Italian establishment in the nice end of town. If store bought Olive Oil(not even necessarily EVOO) is commanding obscene price per oz, the bulk price will not be much lower.

When it comes to millions of transactions though, even saving $0.008 can translate to substantial revenue. It's the reason bean counter ethnicities manage to rise to the top of the food chain and stay at the top.

After a million transactions, $0.008 translates to $8000.00. Even if they got their cheap oil for free.

 

[ponyo]

Pizza and fast food threads here amuse me. People here love to shit on it but we all know they happily eat it. 1. Because it's cheap and convenient. 2. Because they can't cook or too lazy. 3. They secretly like it.

One of my biggest mistake in life was buying and owning pizza restaurant. We made everything from scratch. So I learned and know some things about pizza. I ate pizza everyday for a year to test for quality control and because I liked it. I still like all pizzas. Even crappy pizza like school cafeteria pizza, Chucky Cheese pizza, and even $1 Totino's frozen pizza. And I still make occasional pizza at home.

 

[Torn Mind]

After a million transactions, $0.008 translates to $8000.00. Even if they got their cheap oil for free.

And that can be used to pay labor, cover waste, pay for utilities, taxes, vandalism, paying contractors for a remodel, etc. The business price for services is higher than residential.

 

[dank69]

And that can be used to pay labor, cover waste, pay for utilities, taxes, vandalism, paying contractors for a remodel, etc. The business price for services is higher than residential.

You're thinking locally, not nationally. $8000 spread over enough locations to make a million pizzas pays for nothing. And the reality is that they aren't even saving 8k unless like I said their oil is free.

 

[BUTCH1]

Apparently I was wrong about Papa John's. I looked up the list of ingredients and it looks decent. I guess it takes extra skill to male it bad.

Bulk purchase seems to be the main chain advantage. Using pre shredded cheese is cheaper as well

Papa Johns is the best of the cheap chain pizzas but as an example, (I work for a food distributor) we sell the top brand of cheese in the country, Grande. I can buy a 5lb sack for $15, the depth of flavor, the nuttiness and the melt properties are simply miles above cheap cheese, I know this because we sell both, pizza shops are one of our main clients.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Pizza and fast food threads here amuse me. People here love to shit on it but we all know they happily eat it. 1. Because it's cheap and convenient. 2. Because they can't cook or too lazy. 3. They secretly like it.

One of my biggest mistake in life was buying and owning pizza restaurant. We made everything from scratch. So I learned and know some things about pizza. I ate pizza everyday for a year to test for quality control and because I liked it. I still like all pizzas. Even crappy pizza like school cafeteria pizza, Chucky Cheese pizza, and even $1 Totino's frozen pizza. And I still make occasional pizza at home.

Did you have a large rubber meatball?

Let me explain.

When I was a late teen my friends & I went to a pizza place close to where we lived but not walking distance. Since we just got cars we explored different sandwich/pizza places.
Dude I know ordered a “large meatball” as in the sub.
Old dude makes our subs, then pulls up a plate with one softball sized meatball on it and asks if my buddy wanted sauce on it.
We were fooled for a moment the faux meatball looked very realistic other than its outrageous size.

 

[Zorba]

Eggs? In pizza?

To be clear I'm not talking about there being no difference. I'm just wondering how someone can justify calling any pizza "shitty." I mean, sure, you put green peppers on there and it will justifiably be shitty, but that's not the pizza's fault. That's just because even a tiny piece of green pepper makes an entire dish taste like nothing but green pepper. But I digress.

Have you had the $1 frozen pizza from a gas station? That is shitty. Other than that most pizza is decent enough to eat, but there is still a big range from "I'll eat this" to "this is really good and worth going out of of my way for." I think most pizza falls in the middle of that. Around here we have a chain called Hideaway, the real one is amazing, all the others are owned by a different company. Even though all the franchised ones are owned by the same company and have the same menu there are differences store to store, to the point I won't go to the one closest to me because it's worse the closer Pizza Hutt for double the price, but others are definitely better than the Hutt.

Also I was trying to remember the dough recipe from a long time ago, for some reason I was thinking eggs were in it.

 

[Zorba]

But McDonald's burgers aren't "shitty" either, nor would I say they "suck". It's a decent burger for the price point.

Compared to a proper burger at a good burger restaurant, yes they suck. I mean I'll eat one in a pinch and it isn't the worst thing in the world, but it is no where near the burger at even a cheap chain like Chili's or Texas Roadhouse. Or you know anywhere that actually has a thick enough patty that they can be cooked to something other than well done and that can grill them instead of fry, etc.

 

[Zorba]

Pizza and fast food threads here amuse me. People here love to shit on it but we all know they happily eat it. 1. Because it's cheap and convenient. 2. Because they can't cook or too lazy. 3. They secretly like it.

One of my biggest mistake in life was buying and owning pizza restaurant. We made everything from scratch. So I learned and know some things about pizza. I ate pizza everyday for a year to test for quality control and because I liked it. I still like all pizzas. Even crappy pizza like school cafeteria pizza, Chucky Cheese pizza, and even $1 Totino's frozen pizza. And I still make occasional pizza at home.

So do you agree with @dank69 that all of your effort in making good pizza was wasted and Totino's was just as good?

 

[lxskllr]

I've seen one pizza in my life I wouldn't eat. I was at work, and we stopped in a place for lunch. One of the guys got a pizza, and when it was served, the pan it was sitting in had ⅛" easy of oil in the bottom. I was offered a piece, but I declined. That looked like a truly shitty pizza. Papa Johns has declined over the years. I used to like them, but not so much now. Still isn't "shitty". Dominos I don't like at all. I'll usually pick something else if that's a choice. It treads close to being shitty, but still doesn't hit the mark. If you offered me a piece, I'd probably take it.

 

[Torn Mind]

You're thinking locally, not nationally. $8000 spread over enough locations to make a million pizzas pays for nothing. And the reality is that they aren't even saving 8k unless like I said their oil is free.

It doesn't matter if its fat cat Coca-Cola, Dominos, or that local convenience store owned by family or single owner. Every minutiae counts. It's the same reason high-fructose corn syrup is used. Being half the price of table sugar(domestic sugar prices are propped up) leads to bigger profits in the products used.

1 million pizzas can be expected for a more local chain with multiple stores but not a national presence.

Nationally, Dominos and Papa Johns are selling about 400 million and 350 million, respectively,

 

[nakedfrog]

Compared to a proper burger at a good burger restaurant, yes they suck. I mean I'll eat one in a pinch and it isn't the worst thing in the world, but it is no where near the burger at even a cheap chain like Chili's or Texas Roadhouse. Or you know anywhere that actually has a thick enough patty that they can be cooked to something other than well done and that can grill them instead of fry, etc.

So, what, the issue here is subjective versus objective ranking?

 

[ponyo]

So do you agree with @dank69 that all of your effort in making good pizza was wasted and Totino's was just as good?

I agree with him most of you are in no position to be pizza snob and are generally hypocrites.

 

[nakedfrog]

TBH, this thread is kinda making me hanker for a Totino's, I haven't had one in a few months

 

[Zorba]

So, what, the issue here is subjective versus objective ranking?

Um, yeah, all food is subjective. I just feel bad for you if you think McDonald's is the Pinnacle of burger making.

 

[lxskllr]

McDonalds is McDonalds. It's like being happy with your new Corolla, and being told the M3 is better. Yea, no shit. There's a lot of reasons an M3 is better, but the Corolla will still get your groceries, and keep the rain off your head. Not being the best doesn't equal shitty.

 

[nakedfrog]

Um, yeah, all food is subjective. I just feel bad for you if you think McDonald's is the Pinnacle of burger making.

Not exactly what I meant. I don't think it's hard to glean from my post that I don't think it's the pinnacle of burger making. But that doesn't mean it sucks. I think we can generally agree that objectively an inept neighborhood grill-out burger that's charred on the outside but still cold on the inside sucks.
And same with pizza, I think we could probably objectively agree that a microwaved Totino's sucks (they're intended to be cooked in an oven, and would be a soggy mess if microwaved).

Following your line of thinking, I suppose probably almost all food sucks, because there's probably a better version of whatever it is you're eating out there somewhere.

 

[IronWing]

Did you have a large rubber meatball?

Let me explain.

When I was a late teen my friends & I went to a pizza place close to where we lived but not walking distance. Since we just got cars we explored different sandwich/pizza places.
Dude I know ordered a “large meatball” as in the sub.
Old dude makes our subs, then pulls up a plate with one softball sized meatball on it and asks if my buddy wanted sauce on it.
We were fooled for a moment the faux meatball looked very realistic other than its outrageous size.

 

[sdifox]

Lol even given the same ingredients, the skill of the person making the pizza will make a difference. Throw in different grade of ingredients and you got a huge variance in quality.

 

[Zorba]

Not exactly what I meant. I don't think it's hard to glean from my post that I don't think it's the pinnacle of burger making. But that doesn't mean it sucks. I think we can generally agree that objectively an inept neighborhood grill-out burger that's charred on the outside but still cold on the inside sucks.
And same with pizza, I think we could probably objectively agree that a microwaved Totino's sucks (they're intended to be cooked in an oven, and would be a soggy mess if microwaved).

Following your line of thinking, I suppose probably almost all food sucks, because there's probably a better version of whatever it is you're eating out there somewhere.

I said "sucks compared to," not "sucks to the point of not being edible."

I would never sit back and think "I want a good burger, let's go to McDonald's (or pretty much any other fast food place)." But I do get them all the time when I'm driving somewhere.

Just like there are some places I wouldn't buy pizza from, but very few I would refuse to eat if offered. It's also ridiculous for people to claim there is no quality difference between a $5 and $20 pizza, or a $2 hamburger and a $10 burger, at least in general. Yeah, more expensive food can suck too, but in general you get a big step up in quality going from the super cheap to the restaurant quality. Although there is a burger place here that people love that I literally think is shit and I would take any of the fast food places over it.