Papa Johns is taking on Pizza Hut (and Domino’s) pan pizza. We tried all 3.

In a crowded landscape, Papa Johns is going deep. In an effort to compete with its fellow pie-slinging rivals — not to mention apps that can deliver stay-at-home diners anything from sushi to burritos — the chain has introduced a new pan-crust option.

Cracking the deeper-dish game won’t be easy, though. It’s territory practically cornered by Pizza Hut, whose version is as steeped in nostalgia of the Book It! heyday as it is in that iconic oil. And pan pizza, the name of which derives from the high-sided vessel it’s baked in, can be harder to nail than a traditional thinner crust. More volume means there’s more room for error, and the thicker base can easily skew doughy or greasy. But thicker pies seem to be having a moment, with Detroit-style offerings spreading far beyond the Motor City.

Papa Johns last offered a pan pizza as a limited-edition item in 2019. Now a permanent part of the menu, the newest crust on the block is being billed as a result of years of research and development. We decided to test out the new guy alongside its two main rivals, Pizza Hut and Domino’s, to see whether it could take a slice out of the competition. We ordered pan pies from all three in both pepperoni and cheese versions and dug in. My colleague Tim Carman, our resident pizza oracle, joined me for the tasting and a chat.

Emily Heil: I tuned into the virtual news conference that Papa Johns did to announce this, and the way that company execs were talking about it, you would have thought they put a man on the moon. The phrase “change the paradigm in pizza” was used. The company has been working on this recipe for years, they said, testing different iterations and ingredients before landing on this one. Do you think the wizardry paid off?

Tim Carman: I feel like Papa Johns is quickly becoming the Taco Bell of the chain pizza industry: They’re scrappy and desperately trying to introduce new items to increase their market share. Papa Johns is looking for ways to reinvent itself; some reinventions are perhaps more successful than others. Remember when it launched the Papa Dippa pizza last year as a limited-time offering? It was pizza cut into strips for easy dunking. I mean, how hard is it to dunk a triangular slice into a container of garlic sauce? Now it seems as though Papa Johns is muscling into Pizza Hut’s turf with its pan pizza. Is it any good? It depends on how much you like garlic, I’d say.

EH: The company is smart to use that signature garlic sauce to distinguish itself from competitors with this new pan pizza. It says that sauce is “infused” into the pizza, and it is used underneath the crust with some Parmesan to create the frico-like bits that clung to the bottom. It was definitely more garlic-forward than the others. I will say that the other feature of the Papa Johns pan pizza I like is that the toppings go all the way to the edge of the crust so you aren’t left with big chunks of unsauced or -cheesed crust.

TC: I’ve had semi-serious debates on the merits of chain pizza with friends and loved ones. My default position on Papa Johns has always been that its dough is too sweet. At least with its original crust, which includes sugar among its ingredients. If there is a sweetener in the dough of the Papa Johns pan offering, I didn’t immediately detect it. For good reason: The garlic sauce dominates everything within a 20-foot radius. For me, this is a clear selling point. I’m the guy who adds an extra clove, or three, of garlic to every recipe that includes the ingredient.

EH: Same here. And I’m with you on the standard Papa Johns crust — it’s way too sweet. I think we were in agreement, too, that the new pan pizza is pretty solid as far as chain offerings go. Let’s just get one thing out of the way from this test: The Domino’s pan pizza was bad. It was undercooked to the point where I could see bits of raw dough in the center. It was also pretty flavorless. Which was disappointing, because I know many people, including chefs and some of our colleagues, are huge fans of the company’s thin-crust pizza, which is crackery and flaky and really satisfying in its own way. I think, for Papa Johns, the Pizza Hut pan pizza was the pie to beat.

TC: I’m a Pizza Hut guy, too, but only for pan pizza. I was the one tasked with picking up our pies at the Hut for our tasting. There’s a location about a mile from my house. It’s a full-fledged stand-alone structure with an iconic red pavilion roof. I have so many associations with Pizza Hut, most of them incredibly happy. Little League games. College outings with one pitcher of beer after another. But when I walked into this outlet, I was immediately brought back to reality here in the 21st century: Most of the dining room had been cleared of its booths and tables. A few scattered tables were clinging to the fringes of the room. You’re greeted, not by a host stand, but by a hard Formica counter near the front door. I had to wait for the lone counterman to assist me. Behind him, there was a large drinks cooler, mostly empty. The fluorescent lights hummed a lonely little dirge. I felt a pang of grief for a part of my childhood that is gone forever. Still, I love Pizza Hut’s pan pizza. It’s the only one I would ever order, or ever think to order.

EH: So how do we think Papa Johns rates in a head-to-head with the Hut? Has the brand, in fact, been out-pizza-ed? I thought the Papa Johns version had a larger, and therefore better, crispy edge — that part where the cheese makes contact with the pan and creates a lacy ring. And the cheese coverage — the company says it is using a six-cheese blend — was more generous than on Pizza Hut’s. I couldn’t discern any meaningful difference in the quality of the pepperoni on all three brands. But still, I think I prefer Pizza Hut’s, if only by an inch, and I think it goes back to that puffy, butter- (or is it oil-?) slicked crust.

TC: It’s almost impossible to fight nostalgia. You have to give Papa Johns credit for its willingness to play David to Pizza Hut’s Goliath. Papa Johns has endeavored to create a signature pan pizza, one noticeably different from Pizza Hut’s, and I think it has succeeded. Yet some of Papa Johns’s modifications fall flat: The little squiggles of crispy cheese on the bottom add nothing, and the Italian seasoning (allegedly) sprinkled on the top was virtually undetectable by all tasters. This was more like cheesy garlic bread. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

So, if 10 represents my ideal of a chain pan pizza, here are my final scores: Pizza Hut earns an 8; Papa Johns a 6; and Domino’s 1. I’m debating whether Domino’s even deserves that.

EH: I’ll play! In my judgment, Pizza Hut gets an 8; Papa Johns a 7 and Domino’s … well, if it had just a little more oven time, maybe a 1.