Good Food Hunting

Chris and I have our preferred pizza joint here in Lansing. BUT, sometimes time is of the essence, take out is more convenient and DeLuca’s is closed on Sunday anyhow. Last night, we decided to stop at Dolly’s Pizza on W. Saginaw (by Outback).

First, we tried agreeing on a specialty pizza. I liked the sound of Chicken Parmesan but Chris preferred Chicken BBQ which had cheddar cheese on it. Not my taste, thank you. So, we ended up each getting our own pie. Outside of chicken pizzas, I generally prefer a vegetable pizza while Chris is really keen on having his meats. I went for a small green pepper and onion; Chris opted for a large with sausage, mushroom and onion. The usual for both of us.

I tried to order mine as the square deep-dish but the guy said they don’t make the square in a small. Its on the menu! Then he said they just don’t carry it at this location. This means one of two things: they don’t have the right size pans (acceptable) or their dough is delivered pre-rolled in to the available sizes (bad). I’ll hope for the former.

It took about 20 minutes for our pizzas to be ready so while we waited, we perused the store’s magazine selection, which consisted of a bunch of restaurant industry magazines. I love reading these things because you can figure out which restaurants are really cooking their food and which are just heating up pre-assembled stuff. Let’s just say that if you come across Indian-spiced onion rings at a chain restaurant, its not an original thought.

We got home and cracked open the boxes with anticipation. Both pies had nice even coverage of toppings with good amounts of cheese but not overboard. The cheese was bubbled and browned up near the crust. According to the company’s website, the secret is in the sauce. As it turns out, the sauce was both Chris and I’s least favorite part of the pizza! I thought it was just a little too sweet but more importantly, they were a little skimpy on the sauce. The crust was very nice though, crispy but not like a cracker.

The total with 2 20-oz pops while we waited was $26. This provided enough pizza for at least 2 meals apiece, probably 3 for Chris with the larger size.

Dolly’s locations are mostly in the metro Detroit area but there are a few scattered around the rest of the state. At some point, Dolly’s was awarded best pizza by the Michigan Restaurant Association. This was good pizza but I’m sorry, not even close to a Buddy’s Pizza.

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