Pizza -The Dominos effect (Domino's Pizza)

Member Name: DJBorley

Product:	Domino's Pizza
Date:	02/02/03 (245 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quick delivery, good customer service, hot food

Disadvantages: none

Domino's Pizza.

If you're a fan of the Simpsons, then you'll have heard of Domino's, as they sponsor the show on Sky One, and let's face it, Sky have a habit of showing the Simpsons every single day, so you can't really miss Domino's at all.

It was about 7pm on a Friday night, the snow was still falling and I had a rumbling belly. "Sod it," I thought, "I'll grab a pizza". Being the lazy so-and-so that I am, I grabbed a leaflet, which Domino's had shoved through the door not so long back, and perused the menu.

* The Selection

There was a fairly wide range on the menu, though, to no real surprise, the majority of food available was pizza (You don't say, Dan!), though you can also get starters (Chicken dunkers, garlic pizza bread, dips etc), Desserts (cheesecake, Häagen Dazs etc) and drinks (Coke, Fanta and Sprite plus a couple of their diet equivalents). I chose my normal pizza, which was a medium Mighty Meaty (Onions, mushrooms, pepperoni, ham, ground beef and sausage) made with BBQ sauce as opposed to tomato sauce, and Pralines and Cream Häagen Dazs for dessert. A grand total of £14.28 - £9.99 for the pizza, and £4.29 for the ice cream. A tad on the expensive side by my reckoning, but pretty much in line with every other pizza place.

* Delivery times

To my knowledge, Domino's don't offer a "sit-down" restaurant service akin to Pizza Hut, and besides, it was far too wet and cold to even consider going out, so I did what any self-respecting, freshly paid guy would do and ordered delivery. I've ordered from this particular Domino's (Chelmsford, Essex) many times, and they have always delivered in around 30-45 minutes. I was staggered when they said that there was a delivery time of approximately an hour and a quarter, but agreed anyway, and decided to generally not think about the weird noises coming from my belly. To my amazement,
despite heavy snowfall, my pizza arrived 35 minutes later. Dead impressed didn't begin to illustrate my happiness!

* Taste

I've never had a bad pizza from Domino's, to my remembrance. This one was no different, cooked well enough, not burnt or dried, certainly not greasy, and without too much crust (Don't you just hate it when you end up with more crust than you had pizza?). The pizza comes with a free dip (Garlic and Herb in my case), which helps to finish off the otherwise dry crusts. All in all, a top notch pizza.

* Variety

Domino's offer sixteen different pizzas, ranging from the simple (Original - Cheese and Tomato) to the overloaded (Full House - Onions, Green Peppers, Pepperoni, Sausage, Mushrooms, Ground Beef, Ham, Sweetcorn and Pineapple), via make-your-own pizzas and Vegetarian offerings (Vegetarian Supreme - Onions, Green Peppers, Sweetcorn, Mushrooms and Tomatoes), so you can cater to just about everyone's tastes. The choice of starters and desserts isn't as great, but the selection is wide enough again to offer something for all.

* How To Order

I ordered via the phone, which was a local call lasting no more than a few minutes. I prefer this method, as you can find out delivery times and what they do and don't have in stock (Chelmsford used to forever run out of dips) You can also order via the web (Dominos.co.uk - handy if you don't have a menu. Not so handy as you need to register first, which doesn't take long, but is always a pain if you're hungry) or via Interactive TV, though I've never tried this.

* Other Things To Note

· There is a minimum order charge of £6.99.
· The drivers carry less than £10 when delivering (so don't even consider paying with a £20 note).
· They accept Switch, MasterCard, Visa, Delta and American Express as payment, though you'll need to quote the card number when you call, and show the ca
rd to the driver.
· They offer "Half and Half" pizzas, which mean that you can have one pizza, with two sets of toppings (half and half of each, geddit?).

* Horror Stories

None that I can think of. The only time I've had a problem with this company is when I ordered almost £40 worth of pizza's, which turned up half an hour late (1 hour after ordering), only for the whole lot to be incorrect. A quick phone call to the store meant that within thirty minutes we had our whole order re-made and delivered, totally Free of Charge. Now THAT'S what I call customer service!

* Overall

Domino's aren't cheap when you consider that you can make a pizza indoors for next to nothing, but in comparison with other national Pizza chains, their prices are average. As I said above, I rarely have problems with Dominos, and the one time that I did, they were sorted pretty quickly. A wide range, fairly quick delivery, and good hot pizzas mean that they get my thumbs-up.

Talking of pizza, I'm starting to get peckish...

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