Frozen pizzas are a quick and easy dinner that many Canadians flock to after a busy work day on a weeknight. But when you go to your local grocery store, you will notice that there are seemingly dozens of frozen pizzas up for sale. From rising crust to thin crust, value brands to big names, it feels like there are endless options.
So, what one should you get?
Well, to help the modern Canadian shopper, I took it upon myself to try some of the nation's top frozen pizza brands, from the most affordable to the name brands and rate them from worst to best.
I limited my choices to what they had in stock at both No Frills and the Walmart in my neighbourhood. Along with this, I only tried cheese pizzas, or the closest thing to it in each brand.
My philosophy with that was if you can nail a cheese pizza, you can nail just about anything — it's a good baseline to measure things on.
From there, I tried nearly all of the frozen pizza varieties that they had in stock, whilst trying my best to give every single popular and wildly available variety a try.
It should also be noted most were by the Dr. Oetker brand because they had so many different types available, it wouldn't be fair to limit to just one.
I was also limited by my store's own stock and selection, so I'm sure there are some great frozen pizzas out there that are very much worth being put on such a list.
So, without further ado, here are all the frozen pizzas I tried and ranked them from the worst one to the best.
Dr. Oetker Casa di Mama Four Cheese Pizza
The Casa di Mama pizza.
Price: $4.97
The first pizza I tried from the Dr. Oetker brand was this Casa Di Mama four-cheese pizza.
The four kinds of cheese on this 'za include mozzarella, Edam, Emmental and Blue cheese. And while I'm a cheese lover, especially of blue cheese, I don't think this one worked on that front at all.
The blue cheese just had a bit of a "stank" and a bit of a "funk" that lower-quality blues can have. So much so that it sort of stank up my apartment when I started cooking it. It was also the greasiest pizza I tried for this article, which is a few strikes against it, especially given how similar all of these were.
The bites were passable, with all the flavours combined, but the blue just didn't work with this type of pizza. And don't get me wrong — I've had blue cheese on pizzas in the past and really enjoyed it, so I think it's an issue of quality at this level.
That all being said, it was an alright slice. The crust and sauce were alright and by no means was this an evil option.
Score: 2/5
President's Choice Mozzarella Thin & Crispy
PC Pizza Mozzarella Thin & Crispy pizza.
Price: $4.99
This pizza falls almost into the flatbread category with its thin, almost cracker-y crust, but that's not what sets it apart.
All in all, this President's Choice pizza from No Frills does a fine job of doing exactly what you'd expect: being a thin-crust frozen pizza.
This one has the added bonus of a few dashes of basil and spinach pesto on it to give it some oomph, plus the addition of pieces of tomatoes makes the whole dish taste a little fresher than the others.
But still, at the end of the day, it doesn't really transcend the world of frozen pizza. It's right down the middle, causes no good nor bad reactions fills the void for a pretty affordable price.
Not bad, not good, just plain alright.
Score: 2.5/5
Great Value Thin & Crispy 4 Cheese
A Thin & Crispy pizza.
Price: $4.17
This was among the biggest surprises of the entire lot. I may be revealing myself as a bit of a snob, but I find that Great Value prepared or frozen food doesn't often transcend its price point.
Don't get me wrong, my fridge is full of its stuff at times, but it's never been my favourite.
That is, of course, until I tried the Thin and Crispy Pizza by the company. A few bites in, I noticed that the sauce was flavourful and garlicky and the cheese tasted nice, melty and real.
I found that this pizza's crust was similar to a cracker, and the whole thing actually reminded me of a pizza bagel -- which is a good thing!
Of course, it's not the best thing I ate, but considering that price point, it's really hard to argue with something that rises above that low price.
Score: 3/5
Dr. Oetker Giuseppe Rising Crust 4 Cheese Pizza
The Giuseppe Four Cheese pizza.
Price: $4.97
If you grew up like me, this type of frozen pizza was among the most nostalgic.
It's by no means thin-crusted, matter of fact it's mostly bread, but oh boy does it remind me of the type of frozen pizzas my mom would always make growing up.
I do have to admit that I blundered making this one trying to cook two at the same time, so I can't speak too fairly about the crust (I burned the bottom of mine) but the parts that weren't dark were quite nice. The crust is light, fluffy and bready, while the cheese and sauce play perfectly.
The four cheeses on this one are mozzarella, Monterrey jack, cheddar and parmesan — which work much better than the similar four-cheese pizza I tried for this article.
Ultimately, I think this one is a winner. It tastes great, but if you're trying to cut back on carbs, maybe you'll want to opt for something with less crust.
Score: 4/5
Dr. Oetker Ristorante Pizza Mozzarella
The Ristorante Pizza Mozzarella pizza.
Price: $4.99
To illustrate how good this is, I'm going to first fess up to another mistake I made during this article.
Given I was trying to buy these pizzas quickly, I didn't stop to look at this one properly. It turns out I had accidentally purchased the lactose and gluten-free version of the pizza.
To me, those two words are the death knell to flavour — sorry to my lactose and gluten-intolerant comrades.
But I was blown away by how good this pizza was, despite the setbacks.
The sauce was wonderfully flavourful and tasted as close to "the real thing" as you could get from a frozen pizza. And while the cheese wasn't as stretchy and melty as I am normally used to, it tasted exactly like standard mozzarella cheese. The same went for the crust!
On a blind taste test, you would have had to tell me this was the gluten and lactose-free version — which only gets me more excited for how good the lactose and gluten-full version of this same pizza would be.
Everything on this was bang on and it was definitely my favourite slice I tried.
Score: 5/5
And there you have it, all of the best-frozen pizzas that you should grab on your next stop at your local grocery store.
While you're there, try out some of the best Canadian treats you can get at your local No Frills, including Nanaimo Bars, cookies and more.