LOST REVIEW - Papa John's from 2015 - Toronto ON

It's #throwbackthursday & another LOST REVIEW!!!

With everything on lockdown and folks doing lots of take-out, I figured I'd dip into the vaults and find one of my lost reviews that has to do with delivery. The year was 2015, and while I was taking lots of photos of wings to do reviews, it seemed like I just never had time or energy to sit, edit and write. My job back then was 24/7 (I lived AT work), so that probably played a part. Anyways, here is what I have from my notes:

It was April 2015, the 27th to be exact, and a Monday (why was I ordering pizza on a Monday?!?!), after 7pm. I know all this because I have a copy of the receipt. I was living in Toronto and this was from the Papa John's on Dundas street, that hadn't been open very long.

 I don't know if I got a combo or not (I think it was) but I know I did get:

• 14" Original Pizza - light on sauce
• with Italian Sausage, Pepperoni, and Jalapenos
• 1 Garlic dipping sauce
• 1 Pepperoncini
• 8 Piece Buffalo Wings
• with 1 Garlic Sauce
• 2 Mountain Dews

The entire bill with delivery came to $30.48. 

Papa John's was not my go-to pizza joint at this time (or ever). Papa John's did not have a long history in Canada and before this I think I have only had it once or twice before in London and Kingston Ontario. I didn't hate the pizza, I liked the style and such, but never cared for the sauce itself. It's probably why I went with light on sauce.

This was a large pizza, 8 slices. You can see in the above photo there's a thick crust margin around the pie, but it at least has cheese baked on it. You can also see the Pepperoncinis that I don't know if they were free extras back then or an additional charge.

They had a good ratio for toppings for the pizza and each slice clearly gets lots of everything on it. It looks cheesy good too.

Here are some of my comments about the pizza:

• Pizza's ok - worried it won't last a second day (as in going stale quick)
• Toppings decent
• wasn't hot or fresh when I got it - disappointing.
• thin crust (didin't order thin crust, it's just thin)

 When I got the wings they gave me a choice for dip and for some reason I went with Garlic. They also gave me an extra dip with  my pizza and it too was garlic (would have changed one up if I had known). I was expecting a creamy garlic like Pizza Pizza gives, but this was more like a garlic butter dip. It was neon yellow, and it was delicious. I was like garlic movie butter, and it was perfect for dipping the crust at the end. It's very artificial tasting, and you know its chemical trash, but sometimes that's just they way something tasty is.

I also got an order of 8 wings. It came in a heavy duty card board box, and inside that were the 12 wings tightly wrapped in tin-foil with the other Garlic dip. I did not use that dip for my wings however.

So a few things - pretty sure the wings are baked, which means they aren't as crispy as a fried wing. But when you toss them in sauce and then encase them in tinfoil, these wings are going to get soft and soggy. And they did. And they were cold when I got them too. They look not bad though!

The wings were small to almost medium. They are pretty meaty, and they are tender.

The sauce on these were Buffalo, which isn't real Buffalo in flavour. It's a bit sweet, but not as sweet as say Domino's hot. But at least these were more spicy, but they weren't killer.

There was also lots of sauce and the wings were pretty well coated.

Everything was decent or ok, nothing special. The food came and wasn't hot. The pizza is ok, it has a nice crust and toppings but I was just not crazy about the pizza sauce. The dip was phenomenal. The wings weren't very big, they were soggy, but they were also tender and the flavour was pretty tasty.

I said at the end of my notes that if there was a good deal I would order Papa John's pizza and wings again, IF there was a good deal. And I think that was the last time I ate Papa John's.

This is a photo of Papa John's from Google street view from 2015

Papa John's
255 Dundas Street E, Toronto ON (and other locations)
papajohns.com