I reviewed two of Mama Cozzi’s other Super Bowl offerings right before the “Big Game“, but they still had these left over in March, so we decided to pick them up as a cheap dinner.
The Game Day combo consists of a 14” take and bake pepperoni pizza, along with a small order of cheesesticks, and a marinara sauce. So basically, everything you need to watch a sporting event, apparently. But what’s most striking is the modest price of $5.49, which is certainly about half of what you would expect to pay at an average pizza shop for both items. Not too shabby at all.
In case you’re new here, I’ve reviewed quite a few of the items in Mama Cozzi’s take and bake pizza line lately, and they’ve pretty much all been positive. In fact, I can’t remember the last of their pizza items that really disappointed me (I’m not counting their calzones and wings, the other two Super Bowl items I reviewed, which were pretty bad, but also aren’t technically “pizza items”). Until now, that is. While most of their take and bake pizzas at least resemble something that could have been handmade in a deli, this one, at least when fully cooked, resembles nothing more than a frozen pizza. It more or less tastes like it, too. There’s nothing here that stands out, from the bland cheese, to the boring sauce, to the cardboard crust; it all comes together to form a massive disappointment.
The cheesesticks were okay, but also nothing that I would consider actually “good”, while the marinara sauce tasted like it had been sitting around for a while. Which it probably had, considering these pizzas were released as Special Buys a month ago for the Super Bowl, but they were still being sold at full price and seemed to be within their expiration dates, so that’s certainly not my problem. It’s hard to believe that I was disappointed that these sold out last year before I could get my hands on one…but it should have been telling that we’re a month removed from the Super Bowl this year and there were still plenty left at my local Aldi. Stay far away from this one.
Overall: 2/10. Even at $5.49, this was a huge waste of money, especially considering Aldi offers much better take and bake pizzas for roughly the same price. Most of Mama Cozzi’s similar pizza offerings at least somewhat resemble “fresh” bakery-style pizzas, but with this one, you’re much better off paying a little more at your local Little Caesar’s; the enclosed cheesesticks were only okay, while the marinara sauce was what failure would taste like, if it had a taste. All of Mama Cozzi’s Super Bowl offerings were below-average, but this takes the cake as the worst of the bunch. Get any of their other standard take and bake pizzas instead.
