When I signed up to review Domino’s new Artisan Pizzas, I immediately began thinking of disparaging comments to make about their choosing to use the word artisan. “Domino’s employees are to artisans,” I imagined myself writing, “as the Noid is to a relevant cultural icon.” That’s not even the cleverest or pithiest analogy I had lined up, if you can believe that’s even possible.
I was so ready to do the whole snarky-blogger thing, but Domino’s has preempted any snark by actually embedding it into their ad campaign. The text on their new pizza boxes starts with, “We’re not artisans, we don’t wear black berets,” and their new TV ad vilifies some vaguely French chef who’s acting like a prima donna. By acknowledging the images associated with artisans and wink-winking at the ridiculousness of their artisanal aspirations, the folks at Domino’s have managed to take all the fun out of making fun of them. (Although it’s great we can all still make fun of the French – what is with those berets, amirite?)
While they could get out in front of my snarkiness, I knew they couldn’t stop me from criticizing their crappy pizzas, and I was intent on writing a blistering review. There was only one problem: these pizzas were actually pretty good.
Each pizza was rectangular and cut into eighths, with all the toppings reasonably well-distributed across the slices. Both pizzas had crusts that were thinner and crispier than usual Domino’s fare but still structurally sound enough to support the toppings.
The Spinach & Feta pizza had alfredo sauce, feta and parmesan-asiago cheeses, fresh baby spinach, and onions. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a significant amount of feta, as its sharp tanginess was the primary flavor of the pizza. In some places the cheese was spread almost from edge-to-edge, leaving the crusts quite tasty, as well. The spinach and onions were noticeable in their contributions to the texture of the pizza, but I wish there had been more of each topping, as both were mostly overwhelmed by the feta.
The Italian Sausage & Pepper Trio had parmesan-asiago cheese, sliced Italian sausage, and red, green, and banana peppers. The sausage was nothing special; it had some sweetness but wasn’t particularly spicy. I imagine it was the same as can be found on any other Domino’s pizzas, but serving it in thicker slices rather than the usual crumbles seemed to hold in the flavor better. The green and red peppers added some mild crunch, but they were completely upstaged by the banana peppers. The banana peppers were the clear-cut stars of the Pepper Trio, much like Beyonce to Destiny’s Child or Joe to the Jonas Brothers or somebody else that would make you look less poorly upon my musical tastes. I had never ordered a pizza with banana peppers before, but their strong vinegary, spicy presence on the Italian Sausage & Pepper Trio has convinced me to add banana peppers to the toppings rotation from now on. A generous dusting of oregano rounded out a pretty well-made pizza.
As far as other complaints go, the pizza was relatively pricey and fairly small compared to their regular offerings (they measure in at 13″ x 9″, so roughly the size of one of their medium pizzas for the price of a large). Still, I give these pizzas a thumbs-up, and they’re certainly better than Domino’s re-launched pizzas from last year. Domino’s, you guys are running some annoyingly self-aware ad campaigns, but as long as you keep up the tastiness of these Artisan Pizzas and the Francophobia in your commercials, I will make sure to keep my blogger snark in check.
(Nutrition Facts – 1/6th of a pizza – Spinach & Feta – 150 calories, 7 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 250 milligrams of sodium, 17 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 1 gram of sugar, and 6 grams of protein. Italian Sausage & Pepper Trio – 160 calories, 7 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, 330 milligrams of sodium, 18 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 2 grams of sugar, and 7 grams of protein.)
Other Domino’s Artisan Pizza reviews:
Grub Grade
Item: Domino’s Artisan Pizza (Spinach & Feta and Italian Sausage & Pepper Trio)
Price: $7.99
Size: N/A
Purchased at: Domino’s
Rating: 7 out of 10 (Spinach & Feta)
Rating: 7 out of 10 (Italian Sausage & Pepper Trio)
Pros: Crust was thinner and crispier than regular Domino’s pizzas. Spinach & Feta had significant amount of feta cheese spread from crust-to-crust. Italian Sausage & Pepper Trio had delicious banana peppers and thickly-sliced sausage. Vilifying French people. Referencing the Noid. Beyonce’s having a baby!
Cons: Not enough spinach and onion to stand out against the feta. Green and red peppers were kind of useless. Pizzas were a bit expensive for the size. Domino’s pre-empting my snark. Spellcheck not recognizing snark as a word.
At least they were cut in the right portion unlike on grubgrade. I’m definitely going to need to try these out soon.
I tried the salami & veggie last night. It was a very pleasant surprise. 8/10 for sure. I too wish it was bigger, but if it was, I wouldn’t be at work today. I ate the whole thing.
The chef is Fabio from Top Chef, he’s Italian and actually seems like a pretty cool dude.
Are you implying Nick Jonas isn’t the star of the Jonas Bros?
OMG!
Will definitely try the spinach and feta one if it arrives in my local. But I must defend the Noid. “Yo, Noid!” was a really good 8-bit Nintendo game. A work of art, we might say. Or an artisan game, mayhap. So, making a logical extrapolation — a pizza joint that can inspire an artisan video game can certainly make an artisan pizza. If it tries.
Talking to myself here – alas, just checked Domino’s site and discovered that for reasons known only to themselves, they made the spinach & feta version vegetarian-unfriendly. The alfredo sauce includes “chicken base” (ingredients are chicken meat, chicken juices yuck yuck ptooie plus some other benign vegetarian-friendly stuff)”. Won’t be trying it after all… Just as well, I’m actually non-fatally allergic to dairy (especially milk yuck yuck ptooie, much less so to cheese if I don’t eat it every day) and so the sauce would probably do me in for other reasons. No, that has never stopped me from eating pizza, except while working on a tight deadline and needing all my brain cells working right.
I also checked the dimensions, since some people are saying it’s too small. (I always check the areas to decide which size pie is really the most pizza for the buck, doesn’t everybody?) The area of the spinach & feta is actually comparable with a 12″ inch pizza (area = pi x radius squared, or 3.14 x 6″x 6″ = 113 square inches), since it’s a 9″ x 13″ rectangle (area = length x width = 13″x9″ = 117 square inches). Calorie count for 8 servings at 150 calories each = 1200 calories, which for two people would be 600 calories (about 1/3 of the daily calorie needs for many women). How can a 1200 calorie pizza be “too small” for one adult?!? Are you guys all on combat missions or something, requiring at least 5000 calories per day? The pizza weighs just a tad more than a pound (496 grams; 1 lb = 454 grams as is embedded in my brain from long hours taking inventory in the chemistry stockroom).
For comparison, a thin crust 12″ regular cheese pizza is listed as 330 calories per slice, 4 slices per pie = 330×4 = 1320 calories per pie. That’s only a difference of 120 calories (equivalent to one piece of decent bread or a nice glass of orange juice).
If you’re used to getting the hand-tossed regular cheese 12″ (medium): 8 slices at 210 calories each, or 1680 calories for the whole pie (half = 840 calories). So if that is a better size meal for you, then yes, you need to add something to the spinach & feta. For two adults eating it, they each just need to add 240 calories = 2 slices of bread … or 1 slice slathered with about a tablespoon of good butter. Or a nice kaiser roll (180 calories) semi-slathered with half a tablespoon of butter. Or get yourself some Domino’s salad dressing and (gasp!) a salad for the full fast-food experience. Domino’s idea of one serving of dressing is about 210 calories. If you add a “garden fresh salad” to your dressing then that’s another 70 calories per serving (which they claim is half a bowl). Lessee, spinach & feta pizza at 600 calories for half plus 70 calories of salad plus 210 calories of dressing = 880 calories for each of two adults eating it.
I personally would suggest eating the whole bowl of salad (140 calories) and half the dressing (105 calories) for an extra 245 calories (600 + 245 = 845 calories total per adult), but that’s just me, I don’t like drowning the veggies in glop. I can’t eat that much of anything at once without internal consequences anyway, so I would consider 1/4 of the feta&spinach (if made veggie-friendly) as a good meal of safe proportions (don’t worry, I eat more than 3 meals per day). Half a pie would be at the hazardous limit for me, although I would probably try that approach at least once (being an experimentalist) especially in a leisurely enough meal. Of course, nothing ever prevents me from having pizza for more than one meal in a day. But I would certainly want to apply the ultimate test for pizza: How does it taste cold from the refrigerator the next day? 1/4 of the pie would make a nice breakfast, much better than a poptart or bowl or cereal. (My sweet tooth doesn’t wake up until late afternoon or early evening, so even fruit or juice makes me gag at the thought in early morning).
They do taste good but they are so small and thin that they will not satisfy your hunger. Plus the price is a bit high for their size… Very disappointing
Yes, but do the Artisan pizzas use the same crappy sauce as the regular pizzas? If so, I have no interest.
they all have different sauces
i’ve had slices of pizza that were bigger than this entire pizza. they could sell it for $4.99 and it still wouldn’t be worth it. and i thought i got burned when i paid $5.99 for their chicken breast pieces.
These are premade frozen pizzas and are not any better than store bought. I tried to substitute the sauce on one and it is not possible since they are sitting in boxes. Avoid the hype!!!!
Actually, the dough is made in-store and is hand stretched. But, thanks for playing.
And they don’t do special requests like switching sauces because the “chefs” have crafted these pairings to work together. I called to ask : )
My Spinach & Feta pie came sans Alfredo sauce, sans spinach (!), and was just an oily mess altogether. No wonder my box came unsigned.
Go to the Dominos web site, look for Customer Service link at the bottom of a page. E-mail them and tell them which store did this … They have a form on the site to e-mail them, choose “complaint” and give whatever info you have about the location of the store. They do collect the information. You really should get a refund or a coupon for a harder-to-mess-up menu option.
I love the Spinach and Feta Artisan pie, also I love the low calorie count in comparison to other pizza offerings. 7.99 seems fair, considering the quality of the ingredients but would be amazing if it was a bit cheaper. Overall Domino’s quality is definitely picking up.
Pizzas are premade thats why no substitutions. Good marketing though with the perfect recipe bs. Lol,
hey guys i work at a dominos and currently am manager at my location. I must say that most of your guys comments are harsh, but at the same time incorrect. Our artisan pizzas don’t come in a box haha we aren’t like pizza hut, we actually hand toss every item we sell. A lot of you are nagging about the price, but not really understanding the entire thing. Our big deal pizzas are sold for 5 dollars and are one topping. An artisan pizza has a minimum of 4 topping and is 7.99….so if you actually had common sense, the price matches up! If you have any questions feel free to ask! (We have the new chicken and Bacon carbonara artisan out too if your curious to know about that)
Make sure that your staff knows that the Spinach & Feta artisan pizza is NOT vegetarian – the sauce has chicken in it. I mentioned this on the main web site and it was passed along to the owner of the regional franchise, who was really surprised to hear it (and had assumed from the name that it was meatless). They were nice enough to give me some coupons for other vegetarian options, though. Anyway – it’s not obvious.
But you can tell customers that the normal diced white cheese used on the regular pizzas is veggie-friendly (non-animal rennet is used). Dominos can’t guarantee veggie-friendly cheese in other products because the source varies. The L-cysteine used in the hand-tossed dough is also vegetarian-friendly (non-animal source). The normal pizza sauce is both vegetarian and vegan-friendly (except it has sugar, some vegans are careful about that because of the clarification process that might be used). Only the thin crust is vegan-friendly, though (others have whey), in case anybody asks for a pizza with no cheese (yes, people do that!).
Actually the pizzas are not premade. They don’t want you substituting because they were created to have a specific taste. If you want a different taste you need to order a regular pizza and ask for the specific toppings you like. The pizzas aren’t for everyone, if you don’t like the toppings order something else. I am 100% positive the ingredients (all separate) are brought in to each store every week and the assembly happens when you order.
I have a new favorite pizza! I Love the feta and Spinach. They are not giant but plenty big enough for one really hungry person who is eating nothing else as a side. Or two people if having with a side. My room mate and I share 1 pizza and add a tossed salad on the side. 7.99 isnt a bad price for the pizza, considering it is really very good and filling!
And they do toss the dough because I watched them doing it several times while I was waiting for my pizza.
Tried their Chicken Caesar Salad as part of their 2 or more items for $5.99 deal. Good deal on the pizza, I ordered a 2 topping medium hand tossed, but the salad is a JOKE for $5.99..should be $3.99. Pre-packaged should tell you enough. Though this awful salad was made by Lunchables..at least that’s where the tiny chopped up bits of chicken look like they came from. How dare they call this chicken grilled! A crazy person might actually expect grilled chicken cut into strips, but NOT this garbage!