As take and bake pizzas continue to gain in popularity, I felt it to be my duty to review three common options available throughout most of the country: Walmart, Papa Murphy’s, and Costco. Below are brief reviews and pictures of each followed by my recommendation for the best take and bake pizza of the three (teaser: it is probably not the one you are guessing).
WalMart’s Take and Bake Pizza: WalMart’s Marketside take and bake pizza is sold within the deli section of most WalMart stores. The best part of their take and bake pizzas in my opinion is that they have a good amount of cheese on them. However, other than that, I didn’t taste a lot to separate their take and bake pizza from a good frozen pizza. In fact, their crust reminded me of a frozen pizza’s crust in that it was kind of thick and crunchy. While the pepperoni wasn’t spectacular, I do have to give them credit for having both the diced and sliced variety on it, and I would also like to note that they have a Marketside cheese bread offering that is pretty good.
Papa Murphy’s Take and Bake Pizza: Papa Murphy’s is a pizza chain with locations in thirty-seven states that does nothing but take and bake pizzas. Actually, they offer somes sides as well, but my point is that they do not serve cooked pizza. I typically get pepperoni pizzas from Papa Murphy’s because that is my wife’s favorite, but I prefer their Italian sausage as it is very flavorful. Papa Murphy’s also does a good job with the cheese in terms of quantity and quality, but their biggest negative in my mind is that their crust can be tricky to cook evenly.
Costco’s Take and Bake Pizza: You can buy mayonnaise by the gallon and get your oil changed at Costco, so why shouldn’t you be able to get a great take and bake pizza there as well? Costco’s Kirkland take and bake pepperoni pizzas are completely covered with large slices of tasty pepperoni. I was very impressed with how nicely their take and bake pizzas’ crusts cook, and the only negative I noticed was that the pizzas could use slightly more cheese if you like cheese as much as I do.
Conclusion: In a very tight race, Costco edges out Papa Murphy’s as offering the best take and bake pizza of three in my opinion. This might be a bit of a shocker since Papa Murphy’s has helped to popularize take and pizzas, but I feel as though Costco’s tasted the best overall. Plus, its only shortcoming of potentially being slightly light on cheese is easily overcome. With that being said, I still enjoy Papa Murphy’s and will continue to eat it in the future. I would recommend WalMart’s take and pizza in a scenario where the price makes it the most cost-effective option.
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Had Costco’s take a bake for the first time a couple of weeks ago, totally rocked my world. Now I want to join Costco’s, although I still probably won’t.
Thanks for the review. I agree Costco has good T&B. It would be helpful if you included sizes of each pizza, prices and some indication of the range of toppings or options each retailer offers. Hope that’s helpful. Thanks again.
The Costco in my area only sells and services tires for autos. I asked then if they did oil changes and found out they do not. I hope this saves someone some time, when they need to get their oil changed.
1. Costco’s take-n-bake pepperoni pizza is good to put into your rotation. Just make sure to pull the pepperonis in from the edge or you’ll have a house full of smoke as the fat drips onto the bottom of your oven.
2. Costco does not change oil in my area, only tires.
3. Papa Murphy’s sucks.
We’ve never liked their T&B pizza, but we do like the pizzas that they make there. You can get one for 9.95 and carry it out, and that’s a steal. They’re better quality than the T&B.
I don’t know why people say costco TnB is good, it’s not. It’s 1 notch above bad pizza like digiorno and far far inferior to the food court pizza for a buck more. The best I can describe why is there’s a little taste to it that I can only describe as a bitter crust. It just doesn’t have that greasy taste that the food court pie does. It has a very bland bitter kind of crust that just doesn’t cut it. I’m a pizza snob and demand only the best, the TnB just doesn’t deliver.
I actually like the Walmart uncooked fresh pizza. Around here, the guy working in the deli apparently feels pretty generous with pepperoni. I actually like all of the fresh food (produce, meats, etc) at the store near me. It’s long waits in line and trying to get around all the other customers while walking through an aisle that turns me off. Today I was rang up by this super cool lady who actually had me walking out in a super good mood though. Also they had a display of cilantro plants near the front of the grocery section and I picked one up to replant and decorate my desk with. The last few times I’ve been in the nearby Walmart are making me rethink my negative opinion of them and I’ve been finding myself in the store regularly as of late.
I have had Costco T&B pizza and was not happy with the grease factor. I lived near Chevron station that oddly had a mom & pop pizza resturant in it that tasted better. Papa Murphys is just way to expensive now and I can take a Walmart T&B and make it how I want for cheaper and it taste better. So all in Wally world T&B for me.
I appreciate the review but have to heartily disagree. The pizza we just got today and cooked was dreadful. I was hoping it would be similar to their food court pizza but was extremely disappointed. There was LOTS of pepperoni and it is flavorful. But from there it went downhill. The crust was an epic fail. It was too hard for a thick crust and too mushy for a crispy crust. It was in between and it missed. It seemed to be very bland. I would still say the rising crust pizza from DiGiorno’s is way better than the Costco take and bake. Very disappointed and will not purchase again.
Good article , thanks and we wish more! Added to FeedBurner as nicely
Aldi’s take and bake pizza is amazing.