The Frozen Pizza Brand That Started As An Italian Restaurant In The '50s

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Sold in big box stores across the country, you may not think of your favorite frozen pizzas as having humble, family-owned pizzeria beginnings, yet there are many frozen pizza brands with restaurant origins, including Totino's. Founded by a husband-and-wife duo, Totino's opened its first and only pizzeria in 1951 in Minneapolis. In 2008, the pizzeria moved locations within Minnesota before ultimately closing in 2011.

The company started its venture into frozen foods in 1962. While best known today for its frozen pizza rolls, regular pizza was the first pizza product to be sold frozen under the Totino's name. 13 years later, in 1975, the brand was sold to Pillsbury (now under General Mills). Despite the sale, founder Rose Totino remained with the company as corporate vice president where she worked on new and improved recipes. This innovation ultimately led to the creation of Party Pizza in 1979, the first frozen pizza to be sold nationally, and one which is still available today in a wide variety of flavors.

Pizza rolls joined the lineup of frozen Totino's products in 1993 as the result of the 1985 acquisition (and later rebranding) of Jeno's Pizza Rolls. In other words, it wasn't exactly a Totino's creation. Today, Totino's is sold across the United States and is one of the most popular frozen pizza brands, ranking third in terms of sales in this category, according to Instacart (via Food & Wine). Presently, the brand has four product lines: Pizza Rolls, Party Pizza, Ultimate Pizza, and pizza-inspired instant ramen.

Starting off with the best Totino's pizza roll flavors, Ultimate Pepperoni has the highest rating on Totino's website with 4.7 stars. The next highest-ranked at 4.6 stars includes Triple Meat, Combination, and Triple Cheese (which ranked third in our list of Totino's pizza roll flavors). These flavors are also rated highly by Walmart shoppers, with one reviewer saying of Totino's Pizza Rolls Combination, "They taste so much better than their competitors!"

Next, let's compare Party Pizza and Ultimate Pizza. The main difference is that Party Pizzas use imitation mozzarella while Ultimate Pizzas use real mozzarella and higher-quality meat toppings. (As you might imagine, Ultimate Pizzas cost a little more as a result.) Classic Pepperoni Party Pizza and Ultimate Chicken Bacon Ranch are ranked highest on Totino's site, earning 4.8 and 5 stars respectively, and both stand as a top pick among high-protein frozen pizzas.

Walmart shoppers rated these similarly, with Ultimate Uncured Pepperoni and Loaded Combination also ranking high. Customers love the flavor of the Ultimate Chicken Bacon Ranch. "This pizza delivered on an ultimate flavor bomb!" said one Walmart reviewer. Another said, "The toppings and sauce were flavorful and not skimpy." Pepperoni Party Pizza also gets good reviews from thousands of Walmart shoppers, but as with all of these there are, of course, the critics.