I tried 5 different frozen pizzas, and found the best-tasting pie also cooked the fastest
I tried frozen cheese pizzas from DiGiorno, Amy's, Newman's Own, Red Baron, and Tombstone.
The Tombstone pizza was just OK, and the Amy's pizza crust wasn't crispy enough, in my opinion.
Overall, the pizza from Newman's Own had the perfect balance of flavors, plus a tasty crust.
Frozen pizza is pretty popular right now, especially amid a lot of economic anxieties. But with so many options out there, which is actually the best to pick up at the grocery store?
To find out, I tasted frozen pizzas from five different brands: DiGiorno, Amy's, Newman's Own, Red Baron, and Tombstone.
For consistency's sake, I chose a cheese pizza from each brand and prepared every pie in the oven following the instructions found on the respective packages.
Since I reviewed these pizzas, prices have changed (and will vary by region and store), but the pies on this list typically cost between $4.50 and $14.
Read on to see how these frozen cheese pizzas stacked up and which was my favorite.
The first pizza I tried was Tombstone's five-cheese pie.
Tombstone's pizza is the only one that didn't come in a box. Instead, it came wrapped in plastic with a circular base made out of cardboard.
Cooking directions, ingredients, and nutrition facts were printed on a sticker attached to the shrink-wrap, which I accidentally threw away in my haste (and later retrieved).
This pizza advertises five different kinds of cheese — mozzarella, cheddar, Parmesan, Asiago, and Romano — and a buttery, crispy crust.
After 17 minutes of cooking, the crust was crispy and the cheese was nicely browned around the edges.
The cooking directions recommended baking this pizza for 17 to 19 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, but I didn't end up needing the full cooking time.
It looked beautifully golden and crisp after just 17 minutes. This pizza was very middle-of-the-road for me, and the crust, level of crispiness, and overall flavors were just OK.
My husband, who also tasted these pizzas, said this Tombstone pie made him nostalgic since it was his family's go-to brand when he was a kid.
He suggested that chopping up extra toppings and baking them into the cheese would vastly improve the taste of this pizza (or maybe we just ought to try a Tomstone pie with toppings next time).
The second pizza I tried was from DiGiorno, and it had a rising crust.
I couldn't help but hear the brand's tagline — "It's not delivery, it's DiGiorno!" — in my head as I picked up this frozen pizza.
DiGiorno had a few different types of crusts available in my grocery store, but I went with the rising crust because it seemed the most standard.
This pizza has a four-cheese blend of mozzarella, Parmesan, Asiago, and Romano; the same cheeses on Tombstone's frozen pizza, minus cheddar.
Although the other pizzas I tried were shrink-wrapped, DiGiorno's came in a "freshness wrap" that was easier to remove from the packaging.
I was able to cut around the seal and simply lift the pizza out of the plastic rather than making strategic cuts across the shrink-wrap to remove the frozen pie without disturbing the cheese and getting it all over my kitchen.
The pizza filled my kitchen with a pleasant, fresh-baked aroma.
The directions on the box called for cooking the pizza in the oven for 19 to 22 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. I took the pizza out after 21 minutes because it looked perfect.
However, everything wasn't perfect while this pie was in the oven. While the pizza was cooking, the side of it began sliding between the oven grates.
I chose to open the oven and intervene, but judging by the look of the final crust (which was rather puffy), the issue likely would have corrected itself during the rising phase.
Overall, I enjoyed the thick crust of DiGiorno cheese pizza, which had a yeasty flavor and managed to be fluffy and crisp at the same time.
The cheese tended to slide off the pizza a bit as I took bites, but I wasn't too mad since the pie had a lot of it. The sauce's thick consistency was also nice.
Next, I tried Red Baron's four-cheese pizza.
Red Baron's classic-crust, four-cheese pizza is topped with mozzarella, cheddar, provolone, and Parmesan.
When cooked, this wasn't the best-looking pizza, but it had a solid taste.
Following the package's directions, I baked this pizza in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 18 minutes of the recommended 21, since I saw the crust and cheese had already browned to my liking.
In terms of flavor, the more orange-hued pieces of cheese provided a stark, flavorful contrast to the rest of the blend. Like the previous two pies, there wasn't a distinguishable crust as the cheese and sauce extended to the edges of the pizza.
Even so, I enjoyed the thin, crispy crust and salty cheese (of which there was a great amount).
My husband said that, in terms of overall flavor, this pizza lacked the distinct "frozen-pizza taste" that the others had, and that made this his favorite of the bunch so far.
The penultimate pie was from Amy's.
Made with organic flour and tomatoes, Amy's frozen pizza also boasts a hand-stretched wheat crust. It's simply topped with mozzarella cheese.
The pizza's quick bake time and tangy tomato sauce were great, but the texture let me down.
I cooked Amy's pizza in the oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for just over 12 minutes of the recommended 14. I appreciated that it was cooked to a perfect golden-brown finish so quickly.
The first thing I noticed when eating a slice was that the tomato sauce, which had an acidic flavor, dominated the overall taste. I enjoyed the sauce, but was let down by the lack of cheesy flavor and spongy texture of the crust.
Although the other pizza slices held firm with their crispy crusts, this pizza sort of flopped over in my hand.
The last pie I tried was the four-cheese pizza from Newman's Own.
Advertising no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives, the Newman's Own pizza is made with a multigrain crust and topped with a four-cheese blend of mozzarella, cheddar, Parmesan, and Asiago.
I noticed these were the same cheeses used on several of the other pizzas, such as Tombstone (which also had Romano cheese) and DiGiorno.
After just under 12 minutes, the cheese was hot and bubbly.
When I peeked into the oven toward the end of the recommended cook time, which was 10 to 12 minutes in the oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit, the cheese was hot and super bubbly.
This pizza checked off all the boxes: a crunchy crust; stringy, perfectly salty cheese that didn't slide off when I bit into my slice; and a flavorful sauce that was dotted with herbs.
All of these pizzas had some strengths, though I think some also had small issues.
Albeit a touch too bland for me, the Tombstone pizza offers eaters an opportunity to get creative with toppings and make it their own.
The DiGiorno pizza had a fluffy, yeasty crust that I enjoyed, even though I had issues with the cheese sliding off the slice as I bit into it.
Red Baron's pizza had a solid taste, but I didn't like that it didn't have a distinct crust.
Amy's pie had a tart sauce that I enjoyed, but the other elements of the pizza were bland by contrast — and the texture was too spongy for my liking.
However, I found no faults with the perfect pizza from Newman's Own.
For me, the big winner was the pizza from Newman's Own.
In addition to having the shortest cook time (just under 12 minutes), this pizza also had a great flavor and texture.
Plus, it had a distinct crust — something that several of the other frozen pizzas lacked — and stringy, salty cheese that didn't slide off the pizza when I bit into it.
However, at the end of the day, you really can't go wrong with any of these frozen pizzas since each of them produces a cheesy meal that's ready in a short period of time.
This story was originally published on February 9, 2021, and most recently updated on April 21, 2025.
Read the original article on Business Insider
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