Pizza Companies

Read the accounts of four pizza companies reviewed by Gordon, the Street family, and Maria.

Pizza Place

At Pizza Place, Gordon felt that his double cheese pepperoni pizza he ordered was "salty and greasy". The amount of grease on the box exceeded that of all the other pizzas he tried. Family-oriented marketing clearly works, as the film proved the overall winner with the Street children. They agreed with their parents that the pepperoni pizza they had was "salty and greasy", but insisted, with typical childish logic, that they liked Pizza Place best "because they give you toothpaste and shower gel and they let you eat as much ice cream as you like" – even though the gifts aren't available with take-aways. The branch closest to the Streets took 25 minutes to deliver the pizza, but it arrived hot and the Streets found the telephone reception "friendly and helpful". Maria judged her choice of pizza – with ham and pineapple topping – the best value and flavour of all. It was, she said, "filling and tasty, with just the right proportion of topping to base."

Pizza Top

A "Mega Week" promotion at Pizza Top outlets meant that Gordon was able to buy an enormous extra-large pizza with his own choice of pineapple, tuna and olives topping at a reduced price. He judged it "virtually tasteless; the only distinguishable flavour is that of the strongest ingredient – in this case, pineapple." The Streets had their cheese, tomato and bacon pizza rushed around in 17 minutes. They found it "slightly tasteless but very fresh", and though the base was tough, at least it wasn't greasy. The children thought it was better than most because it had "more topping." Maria complained that her mixed grill pizza was delivered lukewarm after 40 minutes because they had taken down her address wrongly, and she couldn't spot any mushrooms.

Pizza Shop

At the Pizza Shop, Gordon thought the coloured peppers on his small, mixed pizza made it look "quite jolly". The base was fine in texture but he pointed out that the meat had an unappetizing appearance, although it tasted fine. The Streets thought their cheese, tomato and mushroom pizza had a good base, "which was just as well, as there wasn't much else to it. The topping was tasteless, and we had no inclination to finish it." Maria went back to her pineapple and ham theme by ordering the Tropical, but it didn't have much flavour. "It wasn't greasy, but the pineapple tasted odd."

Family Pizza

Family Pizza outlets belong to a central ordering service called the Family Pizza Hotline. This seemed like a good idea to Gordon until he discovered he was outside the delivery area. When he picked his tandoori chicken pizza, he was disappointed to find out that the brown crust was a result of using lots of cheap oil in the dough. He was fed up because he felt that it is terrible to see a dish taken out of another culture and ruined in this way. The Streets said that the cheese, tomato and bacon pizza had too much cheese and not enough tomatoes plus the base was very greasy. Maria thought her Hawaiian pizza was "really disgusting". It looked like it had been put together without any care and in a hurry. The topping was watery as there was too much pineapple.