Papa John’s in Newbury Street opened on Monday the 13th of March. So, I headed over there last Tuesday to judge their pizza.

I walked through the door at 12:35pm and swiftly ordered a Small Cheese & Tomato pizza for £3.99 (for reference, the equivalent size Personal 7” Cheese & Tomato pizza at Domino’s would cost £7.99). The man on the counter informed me that it was going to take 10 minutes to make before I took my seat. I was pleasantly surprised when I was passed my pizza box around 8 minutes after ordering. Talk about managing customer expectations.

Now, onto the eating. The smell upon opening the box was mouth-wateringly good, an experience which I haven’t had with Domino’s pizza for quite some time. Biting into the pizza, my first thought was how fresh the tomato sauce tasted, more on a par with Pizza Express than Mr Pizza. To add to this, the pizza base was nice and crispy with a soft crust. However, rather too much of the pizza was crust compared to cheese and tomato. And despite there being a thick layer of cheese, the pizza was lacking in the signature cheesy taste that you’d expect, especially with a Margarita. Maybe this helped contributed to the pizza not being overly greasy but Papa John’s definitely prioritised tomato sauce over cheese.

So, overall, I was impressed by my experience of the new Papa John’s pizza and, according to my own preferences, it may replace Domino’s as my go-to pizza outlet. I loved the fresher taste and soft dough. And as their deals for the moment are extremely good value, I would highly recommend you check it out! Happy pizza eating!