When it comes to pizza, I’m a big lover of the classics. A pepperoni, a fresh Margherita, a good ‘ol four cheese — maybe I’ll get a little wild and opt for something like prosciutto and mushrooms. Point is, I like to keep my pies simple, saving all my snobbery for the sourcing of the ingredients, rather than the clever composition of the pizza itself.
As such, I’ve never been a fan of frozen pizzas, which certainly don’t feel “local” and often seem to have superfluous toppings. Plus, why bother when making your own pizza dough is so damn easy?
But recently, I’ve changed my tune… a little. Frozen pizzas — like all frozen meals, really — have upped their respective games considerably over the past half-decade. And while they’ll never beat the real deal, made fresh, the chasm between those two camps is a little narrower than it once was. Making convenience more of a factor.
Did you have 20 Zoom calls in a single day? Might be a good time to opt for a frozen pizza rather than covering your countertop with flour. You get the idea.
Over the past month, I’ve been on a quest to discover which frozen pizzas are doing it right and which are dragging the whole genre down. So here they are, best grocery store frozen pepperoni pizzas, ranked from worst to best.* Why pepperoni? Because if your company can’t make something as simple as pepperoni work, then your other pizzas truly have no hope.
*You won’t see Trader Joes on this list, it exists in its own ecosystem with its own ranking on the way.
12. Totino’s Triple Pepperoni Party Pizza
Price: $1.36
Oh, boy. See, Totino’s tastes exactly like what a pizza snob would assume frozen pizza tastes like: terrible. A cracker crust with overly bright but ultimately bland tomato sauce and the lowest budget mozzarella on Earth. This pie burns up brown, but its most offensive feature is easily the pepperoni chunks this pizza is topped with. They’re virtually flavorless, offering little more than texture.
For a pie that advertises itself as having “Triple Pepperoni” the low quality and lack of pepperoni is almost astounding. I’ve never been more offended by a frozen meal.
The Bottom Line
The saddest party ever.
11. Cali’flour Foods Uncured Chicken Pepperoni
Price: $48 (for 4 pack)
Cauliflower pizza is not for everyone, so you shouldn’t be too surprised to find this one ranked so low. The ingredients on this chicken pepperoni pizza are a decent quality, with flavorful pepperoni and mozzarella that melts decently on the cauliflower crust, but… we’re just not sold on the crust.
Once cooked the pizza gives off a noticeable cauliflower smell, and the crust doesn’t really hold up the slice when battling against the weight of itself. This is really more of a knife and fork pizza. That said, if you’re looking for a gluten-free pizza made with few ingredients, this might be your jam.
The Bottom Line
It has its audience, but a cauliflower pie was never going to rank well against traditional crusts.
10. Red Baron Stuffed Crust Pepperoni Pizza
Price: $6.78
Alright, cool we get Stuffed Crust here. The cheese is decent with a nice melt but it wouldn’t have hurt Red Baron to add a bit more. We know we’re getting cheese in the crust, but when you’ve signed on to eating stuffed crust pizza you’re expecting an overly cheesy experience. This pie doesn’t quite deliver that, but you get the novelty of having crust stuffed with cheese which is great because as far as crusts go, Red Baron doesn’t exactly have our favorite.
Don’t expect Pizza Hut stuffed crust levels here, the bar of mozzarella cheese in the crust is a lot less indulgent than that. The thick hearty pepperonis have a nice peppery bite to them and the sauce has a noticeable garlic edge to it. We’d like a lot more cheese to bump this up in the ranking though.
The Bottom Line
If you’re going to get Red Baron at all, get their Stuffed Crust.
9. Whole Foods 365 Thin Crust Pepperoni Pizza
Price: $4.99
I gotta say, I expected better from Whole Foods. I shouldn’t have, as this is Whole Foods 365 and the actual Whole Foods probably has a pre-made non-frozen pizza chilling in the fresh food section for double the price. Plus they make fantastic pizzas fresh in many of their stores. That said, we’re not sure why anyone would bother actually buying this. But I did, for science!
The pepperoni and mozzarella are decent, the crust is a bit too cracker-like and flavorless for my liking and the sauce is really bland, despite having a zesty tomato smell. I might be harshly judging this one because my expectations were higher, but ultimately I have fonder memories of eating every pizza the follows this one, so the low spot feels justified.
The Bottom Line
Way too expensive for what it is, avoid this one on principle alone.
8. Tony’s Pepperoni Pizza
Price: $2.98
Tony’s Pepperoni Pizza being ranked higher than Whole Foods 365 says less about Tony’s than it does about Whole Foods (we really feel burned by that pie). Tony’s is easily the most suspicious pizza I’ve ever eaten. On the box, it is advertised as having “pizzeria-style crust” and touts that it is made with 100% real mozzarella cheese — as if you’d expect anything less.
The very fact that Tony’s feels the need to mention all of this (plus “sauce made from real tomatoes”) makes it feel like they’re trying to lie to us. Yet, I found this pizza to be… kind of good? You know, in that guilty pleasure way. I can’t point to a single ingredient that I like, it’s incredibly greasy, that cheese is not nearly as abundant or stretchy as the box photo would suggest, and the crust, while thankfully not cracker-esque, is a bit soggier than it should be…
But damn it, when it all comes together in the mouth, it’s pretty good.
The Bottom Line
I like it, but not enough to buy or ever admit as much in face-to-face conversation.
7. Tombstone Pepperoni
Price: $3.97
This one doesn’t even come in a box, so I went in expecting the worst. I was wrong, Tombstone, while not great, is pretty damn good for what it is — a cheap-as-hell frozen pizza. The cheese is decent, with a nice melt that, once out of the oven, actually manages to cover the entire surface of the pie. The crust here has a nice chew to it with the cornice delivering a decent crunch.
Alas, overall the thing is a bit too soft in the sections that hold the toppings. Also, the pepperoni is a little too thick and doesn’t crisp up very well, instead, you’re left with some floppy greasy meat. While I judged this pizza a little too harshly on its appearance, I found that the box-less packaging was actually overall my favorite. Once you start stocking up on frozen pizzas you realize those things take up a lot of space!
The Bottom Line
Why have pizza in a box when you can have pizza in a plastic wrapper?
6. DiGiorno Rising Crust Pepperoni Pizza
Price: $5.49
DiGiorno has this weird reputation of being the “good” frozen pizza, but I think that’s been totally influenced by its own marketing material. Through repetition of the brand’s famous tagline — “It’s not delivery, it’s DiGiorno” — the idea that this frozen pizza is special has managed to ingrain itself deep within the recesses of our minds, reverberating from commercials viewed long ago in the waiting areas of muffler shops and dentist offices — the phrase repeating like an incantation slowly turning into some collective “truth” we all just mindlessly subscribe to.
I guess I kind of get where DiGiorno is coming from with their bold claim, though. Unlike a lot of the pizzas on this list, DiGiorno’s Rising Crust Pizza is thick, fluffy, and more akin to something you might pick up from your corner pizza spot. But it’s far from being the best that frozen pizza has to offer. You’re still getting part-skim mozzarella here, the pepperonis, while tasty, are a bit too thick, and the bread is on the overly sweet side.
The Bottom Line
This is far from being the best frozen pizza on the market, like you’ve been led to believe. But it’s solid.
5. Newman’s Own Thin & Crispy Uncured Pepperoni
Price: $5.99
One thing you’ll notice about a lot of frozen pepperoni pizzas is that the pepperoni is made with a blend of pork, beef, and chicken. There is nothing wrong with this, but you’ll find that the best-tasting pepperoni out there is usually a pork and beef blend, Newman’s Own goes this route and their pepperonis are better for it.
It’s a good thing that the pepperonis are good, because for being such a small pizza, this one has a lot of it. The crust is cracker thin with a decent chew, giving it a flatbread-like bite, but we’d have liked to see more sauce and cheese on this one. The lack of sauce and cheese makes it so that the crust gets a little too crispy from the heat of the oven.
The Bottom Line
Great for pepperoni snobs, but because of its thin sauce layer and lack of cheese you’re going to have to keep an eye on this one to make sure it doesn’t cook for a second longer than it’s supposed to.
4. DiGiorno Pepperoni Croissant Crust
Price: $6.19
All right, so I’m reviewing two different DiGiorno pizzas in this ranking, which kind of goes against my self-imposed “no brand repeats” rule but I couldn’t talk about DiGiorno’s croissant crust and just ignore DiGiorno’s rising crust version, it’s part of their brand identity! The croissant crust is superior in every way to the OG rising crust, with flaky layers of crust that crumble in your mouth in buttery bliss.
The sauce, mozzarella, and cheese taste exactly like what’s on the rising crust, but the sweetness of that doughy crust is swapped here for butter, which marries the flavors together much better.
The Bottom Line
Croissant crust sounds like a novelty, but it’s DiGiorno’s greatest contribution to the frozen pizza space.
3. California Pizza Kitchen Crispy Thin Crust Signature Uncured Pepperoni
Price: $6.19
Putting the words “Signature Uncured Pepperoni” in the actual title of your product seems insane to me. Yo CPK, your name, and logo are already on the box, we’re not over here thinking you’re borrowing your pepperoni from someplace else.
Stupid name aside, this pizza has a lot going for it. The marinara sauce is ultimately forgettable but the chunks of vine-ripened tomatoes really give this pie a tremendous burst of flavor, making up for what the sauce lacks. The mozzarella melts nicely and has an added boost of flavor thanks to the blend of Fontina and smoked gouda which spreads its way across the entire pie. The pepperoni has a spicy bite and manages to crisp up nicely (though it produces a lot of grease) but it’s the sprinkling of basil that really brings things together for me.
The Bottom Line
A strong choice with great ingredients. Cheese lovers will appreciate the blend of mozzarella, fontina, and gouda.
2. Freschetta Naturally Rising Pepperoni
Price: $4.98
I’ve tried all of Freschetta’s crusts at this point but if I had to choose just one it would have to be the brand’s Naturally Rising line. The dough here is good, it’s not overly sweet, and thanks to a brushing of garlic it’s very flavorful, with a nice chew that feels more in line with what you’d expect from an actual non-frozen pizza. You don’t get the complexity of CPK’s three cheese blend, but the mix of mozzarella and provolone is a classic pizzeria combination, so it’s hard to be mad at Freschetta — few frozen pizza brands even bother with two kinds of cheese!
My only major gripe here is the pepperoni isn’t the best, I love the way it crisps up but the flavor is just a little too dull. The sauce and bread are great though, for the price Freschetta is one of your best options.
The Bottom Line
A frozen pizza you’ll actually enjoy eating the crust of. Freschetta has mastered the frozen pizza crust game, just add a sprinkling of your own oregano and some fresh diced tomatoes and you have one of the best tasting and cheapest frozen pizzas out there.
1. Screamin’ Sicilian Holy Pepperoni
Price: $5.98
This is the frozen pizza people kept telling me I “had to try” and it really lives up to its reputation. It easily rises above every other frozen pizza on this list and — to be frank — there’s quite a gap between our number two and number one. While a blind taste test wouldn’t fool anyone into believing it was an actual pizza that someone delivered, the bread does have the texture of perfectly reheated leftover pie.
If you told someone this was reheated pizza slice from a local pizza joint, they’d believe you! That’s progress for frozen pizzas!
The pepperoni on this pie is great, it’s thick-cut, which I don’t usually like, but has such a savory peppery flavor. The sauce is bright and present — like what you want on a pizza — with a salty blend of mozzarella, parmesan, and Romano cheeses. It’s legit, high-quality cheese (for a frozen pizza).
The Bottom Line
Lives up to its revered reputation. A foldable, delicious pie that is truly worthy of the freezer space it occupies. While we wouldn’t take this over a slice at our neighborhood pizza spot, we’d likely pick it over what the big national pizza chains have to offer.