The Walmart Deep Dish Frozen Pizza You're Better Off Skipping

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A thin and crispy New York-style pizza that can be folded in half and devoured while hitting the bricks is a thing of beauty. But, there are plenty of people out there who swear by the hearty vibe of a deep dish pie that requires you to take a seat to best enjoy its thick crust and abundance of toppings. Better yet, grab the frozen variety, and you can chow down at home with the entire family. Grocery stores stock several options that are guaranteed to please the palate, but there's one supermarket pie you're better off leaving in the freezer aisle: Walmart's Great Value pepperoni deep dish pizza.

In our taste test of six deep-dish frozen pizzas, ranked worst to best, this pie had nothing going for it. In fact, it was so poor that we took two bites and tossed it in the trash, even though we don't approve of wasting food. Why? The central issue was the weird texture of the crust that was unusually gummy instead of soft. It had a doughiness to it, even though it was baked according to the cooking instructions on the back of the box. Secondly, the cheese had an artificial taste, which was disappointing, considering that cheese is arguably the most distinctive feature of a classic pizza. Finally, the pepperoni was low quality and couldn't save the texture of the crust or the unusual taste of the cheese. Walmart's offering was affordable, but we'd advise skipping it and selecting something that actually tastes good.

One thing that might explain the lackluster flavor of Great Value's pepperoni deep dish pizza is that there's only one cheese mentioned on the ingredients list: Mozzarella. Yes, the high moisture content of this Italian soft cheese makes it incredible for melting and producing an inviting cheese pull; however, it has a very mild taste by nature. Some frozen pizza brands incorporate other cheeses that have a richer, umami character, such as Parmesan, into their blends to maximize the umami factor. That said, the winner in our taste test — DiGiorno's Detroit Style Double Pepperoni Pizza — is solely topped with mozzarella, too. Nonetheless, it was billed as reigning champ because of the quality of the pepperoni and sauce.

Another frozen pepperoni pizza that's a total waste of time and energy is Market Pantry's thin-crust pepperoni pie. The sauce and pepperoni were tasty on this inexpensive pizza, but the cheese was uneven on top, and the crust was more like a cracker that was just too sharp and crispy to enjoy. You'd be far better off spending a little more and selecting Trader Joe's uncured pepperoni pizza, which took the number one spot in our ranking of 9 frozen pepperoni pizzas.