Papa John's new, limited-time Double Cheeseburger Pizza features a pizza with "zesty burger sauce," ground beef, diced Roma tomatoes, and dill pickles.
It cost me
$12 for a large.
The "zesty burger sauce" looked a bit like a bright Thousand Island or "secret sauce" but the taste is more mild, creamy, and savory with very light hints of ketchup and mustard. It provided the base that underpinned the burger-ness of the pizza.
Despite the name, the dominant flavor of the pizza is neither cheese (weak pizza cheese) nor burger (seasoned ground beef), but, oddly enough, dill pickles. There was actually more pickle slices than mini-ground beef balls on each slice (by at least a 2-to-1 ratio).
It's as if Papa John thought: "You know what makes a really great burger? No, not the beef... it's the pickles!" While they gave the pizza some crunch, they also delivered a potent sour punch, plus the pickle juice added a definite tang throughout the pizza.
The ground beef had a nice flavor, but there were way too few of them to make me think "double cheeseburger." There was less ground beef than you would get if you just ordered a pizza topped with ground beef.
The tomatoes were relatively sparse, but added to the burger feel.
Overall, Papa John's Double Cheeseburger Pizza was just not enjoyable for me. It was more of a pickle pizza than anything. At best, you could say it offers the burger experience minus that burger patty. If they were going for "double cheeseburger," there should have been at least half a McDonald's hamburger's worth of ground beef per slice and maybe only one or two pickles rather than the five to ten (depending on the slice) that I got.
Nutritional Info - Papa John's Double Cheeseburger Pizza - Large, Original Crust
Serving Size - 1 slice (166g)
Calories - 410 (from Fat - 200)
Fat - 22g (Saturated Fat - 7g)
Sodium - 950mg
Carbs - 38g (Sugar - 5g)
Protein - 13g
