6 Deep Dish Frozen Pizzas, Ranked Worst To Best

If you're not already familiar with deep dish pizza, it's distinct from your standard varieties thanks to its thick crust, which forms an almost casserole-like interior of stacked toppings. And, if you think that sounds delicious, you're absolutely right. You'll usually find a variety of deep dish pizza either in Detroit (where they're typically a more rectangular shape) or Chicago (which is circular with the tomato sauce on top instead of on the bottom). But what if you don't live near either of those cities? You can turn towards your freezer aisle to discover potential deep dish options. Unfortunately, not all of them are going to give you that cheesy, savory, starchy taste you crave — some could be downright disappointing. So, how do you figure out which is great and which is best left on the shelf?

Thankfully for you, I already did the hard work answering that question. I bought and tried six deep dish frozen pizzas side-by-side before ranking them from worst to best based primarily on taste and texture. To do this, I relied on my food industry background and other relevant experiences. If you want to learn more about how I chose the best pizzas, you can check out my methodology at the end of this article. Now, ready to find out which option won the deep dish frozen pizza showdown? Let's get into it.

I have a love-hate relationship with Great Value, Walmart's private-label brand. I'm actually a big fan of the brand's donut shop coffee blend, but I ranked it as the worst store-bought white bread. I find that a lot of grocery store private labels are hit or miss like that, but some of those great finds keep me trying new things, hoping that I'll find another affordable winning product. Unfortunately, these Great Value Pepperoni Deep Dish Pizza Singles aren't one of them.

While I can generally find something good to say about the foods I try, I struggled so hard in that aspect here that I gave up. The crust tastes weirdly doughy, like it wasn't truly done, even after it'd been cooked according to the instructions. Texturally, it was just as bad, featuring edges that were challenging to eat and a bottom that was gummy rather than soft. The pepperoni tasted strongly of low-quality meat, while the cheese had a heavy artificial flavor. These were so bad that I threw mine away after only two small bites, and I really hate wasting food.

I certainly wouldn't buy these again, and you couldn't pay me to eat them again. Skip these and grab a better ranking option instead.

I've had a lot of Red Baron pizzas in the past — which, you would think, means I'm a big fan of the brand since I've continued trying them. However, that's not exactly the case. The problem with Red Baron is that its quality isn't reliable. Sometimes the pizzas are really great, while other times they're really bad, and you never really know which it's going to be. Unfortunately, this Red Baron Meat-Trio Deep Dish Pizza Single turned out to be the latter.

When I pulled this individually-sized pizza from the box, it looked fine, other than the fact that I would have liked to have seen a few more toppings. As it was, the distribution seemed a little stingy and uneven, but I could have overlooked that if everything else was good. You could tell this pizza came from a box, and the otherwise appropriately cheesy, saucy pizza was marred by the taste of low-quality meat. The crust tasted alright, but the edges came out a bit too hard, while the center came out a bit too soft.

While this wasn't the worst pizza I've ever tried, it falls short of being called "good." I won't be purchasing this again, nor could you convince me to eat it again by offering it to me. I recommend skipping this in lieu of better-ranking deep dish frozen pizzas.

If this review feels a little repetitive, I'll apologize in advance — but these Red Baron Four Cheese Deep Dish Pizza Singles taste nearly identical to the meat-trio option above. The sole exception? It's devoid of the low-quality meat taste, which is the only reason it ranked ever so slightly above the brand's other option.

Again, the pizza didn't look bad when I pulled it from its individual wrapper, and the cheese was distributed well enough. The crust tasted okay, but the texture was off. I expect a somewhat crispy, thick, and moderately fluffy crust in a deep dish pizza, but this one was slightly gummy and a bit too crunchy at the ends. The cheese and sauce were fine, although there were slight artificial aftertones from the former and a bit too much sweetness from the latter.

Unlike the Great Value deep dish frozen pizza, I could at least finish this one, albeit with some difficulty. That being said, I wouldn't buy this again, nor would I eat it if offered to me by someone else. Do yourself a favor and stay away from the Red Baron deep dish products altogether.

This Pizzeria Uno Pepperoni Deep Dish Pizza Single was my first experience with this brand, which comes from the Pizzeria Uno restaurant chain. I had a challenging time finding it in the freezer aisle of my local grocery store. But, I'm glad I persevered in my search because this option really wasn't bad — in fact, it turned out to be a very solid middle-of-the-road deep dish pizza.

Out of the box, before cooking, this pizza looked exactly like it should. The toppings were fairly well distributed, and they certainly weren't stingy on the pepperoni. Those pepperoni blocks were awesome, featuring an intense savoriness with a small kick of spice, and none of that upfront, low-quality meat taste I suffered through with the lower-ranking brands at first. However, there was a faint, low-quality meat aftertaste, but I was able to overlook it. The cheese reached the edges and achieved a nice golden brown along the crust, which was semi-crunchy overall with a slightly softer center. Even the tomato sauce had a nice flavor, although it was mildly sweeter than I would have preferred.

Overall, this isn't a bad pizza, and I would definitely eat it again if someone else offered it to me. I might buy it again if I wanted individually portioned pizzas but I wasn't shopping at Aldi, where our next pick comes from.

I'm well-versed in the frozen pizzas offered by Mama Cozzi's, which is one of Aldi's private-label brands. In fact, when I did my ranking of Mama Cozzi's frozen pizzas, I discovered the brand's Italian-style mini pizzas, which have since become a constant in my home's freezer. I may not have liked Mama Cozzi's Pepperoni Deep Dish Pizza Singles quite as much, but they did live up to the expectations I have for the brand.

The smell of these while cooking was delightful, bringing to mind the scent of opening a pizza delivery box — except this was stronger and filled my whole kitchen. The crust was starchy, with crisp edges and a thicker, fluffier bottom. I detected a very slight cracker-like taste from the crust, which is my single complaint and the reason this came in second place instead of first. The cheese was perfectly melty and tasted real without any artificial undertones. The same can be said for the pepperoni, which was devoid of that lower-quality taste I despise.

This is a solid frozen deep dish pizza choice, and would be my go-to if I wanted individual servings instead of a family-sized portion. If you shop at Aldi, I recommend grabbing these and trying them for yourself.

DiGiorno, like Red Baron, is a big hit or miss brand for me. I know a lot of people adore the brand, going so far as to call it the best frozen pizzas money can buy, but you'd never catch me saying as much. Now, are they decent? Most of the time. Are they usually amazing? I didn't think so until I tried this DiGiorno Detroit Style Double Pepperoni Pizza.

All of the lower-ranking pizzas on this list tasted as though they'd come from a box to varying degrees. But, to my great surprise, this option from DiGiorno tasted like a real delivery pizza — which I guess supports the brand's catchy slogan: "It's not delivery, it's DiGiorno." The distribution of toppings was generous, and I really liked how the cheesy edges became brown and crispy, which is my own personal preference. The crust was fantastically crispy without being so hard that it's challenging to eat. Best of all, the pepperoni tasted real, and there wasn't even a hint of low-quality meat flavor. I also enjoyed that this came as a family-sized pizza, which made feeding my family simple.

There's zero doubt in choosing this as the top deep dish frozen pizza because I couldn't find a single thing wrong with it. If you're looking for the best your grocer's freezer section has to offer, this is it.

I chose deep dish frozen pizzas for inclusion in this list based on their availability to me in my local area of Vineland, New Jersey. Options were included from my local Shoprite, Aldi, and Walmart. After some debate, I decided to include both Detroit-style and Chicago-style deep dish pizzas to offer the most comprehensive assessment possible. Each item was judged based primarily on taste and texture, with smell and visual aesthetics playing a smaller role in my ranking decisions.

To make my assessments, I relied primarily on my food industry background: 15 years of cross-training in both hot foods and bakeries. Thanks to this unique background, I have spent time both creating pizzas and homemade pizza crusts individually. A great love of deep dish pizzas and prior work creating articles for Daily Meal also contributed — this includes similar pizza-based articles like this review of the Aldi pizza that costs less than $3, and this recommendation on grocery store frozen pizzas you should leave in the freezer aisle. Although personal preference played a role in this ranking, I aimed to be as unbiased about product quality as possible.