Review: Papa John's - Spicy Pulled Pork Pizza

Papa John's Spicy Pulled Pork Pizza is a hand-tossed pizza topped with "Kansas City-style" barbecue sauce, slow-cooked pork, pepper jack and mozzarella cheese, and crushed red pepper flakes.

It was $12 for a large.

The pulled pork was actually relatively tender and pretty tasty. It, along with much of the pizza, was also very spicy. There was a lot of red pepper flakes going on, which is fine if you don't like to share as it was too spicy for several people I had try it (this included my 3-year old nephew who spent a minute or so trying to wipe his tongue off with his hand). So yeah, probably not for a family event.

Beyond that, I couldn't taste the pepper jack at all. They might as well have just done with mozzarella to cushion against the heat.

The barbecue sauce was overly sweet and sticky. The pizza could have definitely used some onions to provide some extra depth and flavor.

The crust itself was very chewy in a way that fresh-baked bread should never be. I've only had this problem with Papa John's and I even got the pizza "well done" with this in mind. It was also bone dry the next day so it wasn't so great for leftovers.

Overall, Papa John's Spicy Pulled Pork Pizza was a step above their last two new pizzas (I tried them both; you can read about them here and here), which puts it into middling territory. I liked the pork, but the fairly simple pizza went too far with sweet and spicy to the detriment to any subtler flavors. It would have been much better if they just put the pork on a regular pizza base (i.e. tomato sauce and mozzarella).

Nutritional Info - Papa John's Large Spicy Pulled Pork Pizza - Original Hand-Tossed Crust
Serving Size - 1 slice (140g)
Calories - 330 (from Fat - 100)
Fat - 11g (Saturated Fat - 5g)
Sodium - 1000mg
Carbs - 44g (Sugar - 10g)
Protein - 15g