From Crust To Toppings, We Tried Domino's Most Popular Options. Here's The Best Pie

Delivery pizza is hands-down better than store-bought frozen pizzas (though there's a time and a place for those too). Despite the many options for fast-food pizza out there, our family has always remained pretty committed to Domino's. Now, you'll find plenty of red flags at a Domino's pizza shop, and its online ratings are reliably unreliable. But I've found it to be consistently satisfactory when I order it, at least at our neighborhood shop ... and it's got a 2.7-star rating on Yelp. The only conclusion? The standards are not that high for fast-food pizza. But that still doesn't mean every offering is equal.

There are so many variations available, with five to seven options (each!) of crust, sauce, cheese, toppings, and dipping sauce. When you multiply it out, possible combinations climb into the tens of thousands. Obviously, we can't try that many, because goodness gracious, the sodium. Instead, we ordered enough pizzas to sample a little bit of everything from every category. The taste test involved one husband, one small boy, one small girl, and myself.

While we do actually have an opinion about the best Domino's pizza combo ever — pan crust with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and pineapple — there were plenty of winners in our taste test, and we'll tell you all about each one. You'll also learn how to get the best deals at Domino's, which prioritizes the economy of the ol' wallet.

Every good pizza starts with a good crust. No matter how zingy the sauce, fatty the cheese, or delicate the prosciutto on top (not that anyone's getting prosciutto at Domino's), the whole thing falls apart — sometimes literally — if you don't have a decent crust as a base. Happily, there were some very clear winners among the Domino's crusts.

Our top choice was the handmade pan pizza. Mellow but with plenty of that umami flavor, this would be a great pizza to put pickles on, if you're into that kind of thing. (And once you try it, chances are you'll be into that kind of thing.) You could also upgrade it in other ways, like adding fresh tomatoes or arugula. We loved it with pineapple, though the other side had cheddar on it, and that was delicious too. As diehard New York-style pizza lovers for 20 years, the husband and I were shocked that this was our winner. We marked it down only for some slight sogginess owing to its thickness.

To be fair, pan crust was highly favored, while both New York-style and hand-tossed were solid options not far behind. They were crispy, well-flavored, and a bit buttery without overshadowing other flavors. Gluten-free was meh and kind of oily, but it served its purpose. The only true disappointment was the thin crust. I know that typically thin pizza can't hold many toppings, but this one seemingly had the tensile strength of steel. While that means I have great faith in its ability to hold up ... well, everything. Eating steel isn't everyone's cup of tea.

Next up, sauces. There are plenty of options to pick from when building your own pizza, and Domino's also uses them liberally on its specialty pizzas. The Cali Chicken Bacon Ranch pizza is slathered with the sauce to complement the two types of meat and diced tomatoes, while the Spinach & Feta defaults to alfredo sauce. Note that you can, however, choose any type of sauce you want once you're in the pizza builder.

As for the options, you've got five: robust inspired tomato sauce, garlic Parmesan, alfredo, ranch, and honey BBQ sauce. We did not try the BBQ sauce because we all know we don't like it, so it wouldn't have been fair to the ranking. Alfredo and ranch were both decent as a pizza sauce (though not as a dipping sauce; more on that below). Garlic Parmesan was awesome, earning rave reviews everyone (even the husband, who has an allium intolerance). It wasn't too strong, its scent didn't linger on us, and it appealed to the children ... not to do with garlic.

While the inspiration for the robust "inspired" tomato sauce is unclear, it is nevertheless pretty tasty. It's neither too sweet, too salty, too seasoned, or too spicy, which is a common problem we find with some pizzerias. It was good on both crusts we tried: the handmade pan and the hand-tossed. In the end, its bold but not overwhelming flavors did count as robust in our book.

First of all, Domino's has great cheese pizza. Its mozzarella is the perfect combination of melty and gooey — absolute excellence. The mozzarella cheese was especially delicious with the handmade pan pizza, forming a perfect crisp, slightly burnt but mostly caramelized, cheesy edge all the way around. Cheddar was also top notch.

The kids didn't think they were going to like the mix of Mediterranean cheeses (Asiago, Parmesan, provolone, and feta) that came with the Spinach & Feta, but they were pleasantly surprised. This earned more than one impression of Joey Tribbiani eating Rachel's Thanksgiving trifle with beef, peas, and onions. We managed to pick off a few of the cheeses and try them independently, but it wasn't always clear which was which, and the effect was not as nice. If you like salted upscale cheeses, just order the Spinach & Feta and enjoy them together; the pie was really impressive. If you try to build a pizza on your own, you'll find Parmesan isn't an option. Also, do note that these cheeses were a little greasy, and not as good as at a nice pizzeria.

The exception to the cheeses was the provolone. We were able to taste it more on the Cali Chicken Bacon Ranch owing to the reduced cheese load, and frankly, it was okay at best. We wouldn't recommend adding it as a topping if you're building your pizza from scratch.

Some folks are true-blue diehards, going for one or two ingredients every time. Others love to mix it up, which Domino's is happy to accommodate. If you go to the Pizza Builder on the Domino's website (you'll first have to choose carryout or delivery and can then start building), you'll see that the chain offers seven types of meat: ham, beef, pepperoni, Italian sausage, premium chicken, bacon, and Philly steak.

By ordering five half-and-half pizzas, we were able to try every type of meat other than the Philly steak. To make sure we tried them all, we got the ExtravaganZZa, which came with pepperoni, Italian sausage, ham, and beef, as well as half a dozen veggie toppings. The small boy absolutely loved this pie, though the rest of us thought it was overpowering.

So, what about the toppings on their own? We ranked them, from best to worst: Pepperoni was an easy winner, with bacon and Italian sausage at tied just slightly behind it. Chicken and ham were disappointing, though none were worse than beef. Although I'm open to the unexpected pizza topping, beef was ... not it. At all. I'm honestly just grateful I didn't have to try the Philly steak, and the rest of the family felt the same way.

The veggie toppings definitely fared better as a category than the meat ones. We enjoyed almost all the ones we tried. Pineapple was a clear star, both sweet and soft, while also taking on the surrounding flavors of the cheese and sauce in the best possible way.

Black olives weren't far behind with a salty bite and perfect softness. Mushrooms and spinach were in that conversation, too, both with a nice, fresh flavor and a noticeable lack of the canned or dried-out quality that some pizza toppings can have. The tomatoes were solid which surprised us, as too often tomatoes are juicy or weird when they're diced on top of pizza — but that was not the case here.

The onions were just okay, but we found they were better when cooked longer and softer. They were great on the Spinach & Feta pizza, where they mellowed and married well with the surrounding flavors. However, on the ExtravaganZZa, they were undercooked. Then again, they were paired with the beef, so ... *shudder.*

It's hard to sort Domino's — or any fast food — pizzas by overall quality since they are all so different. The possible variations of all crusts, sauces, cheeses, toppings, and dipping sauces are around 60,000, so you'd be eating Domino's every day for the rest of your life if you wanted to try them all. Hopefully you're independently wealthy.

In general, though, we can provide some guidance on what worked and what didn't. First up, the handmade pan pizza with tomato sauce and simple toppings was the best. We thought cheddar with mozzarella and plain with pineapple were the absolute best. "It's the greatest pizza in the world!" said the small boy about the latter. It had a great mouthfeel without being greasy, dry, or overloaded. The mixed cheeses were also good, making for a nice complement to the gluten-free crust, which desperately needed some lubrication. If you're going to go GF, we suggest a cheesy top, such as the Spinach & Feta specialty pie, which has four kinds of cheese (mozzarella, provolone, Parmesan, and Asiago) along with alfredo sauce.

The Hand Tossed ExtravaganZZa had too many toppings, as did the Cali Bacon Chicken Ranch. In general, Domino's does not shine if you put more than two toppings on, because the flavor just gets muddled. Stick with simple, that's our recommendation. As for Domino's as a whole? We think it's pretty darn good, ultimately concluding after much discussion that it is one of the best fast-food pizzas. More impressively, it's not too far behind the schmancy upscale pizzerias in town, with crispy crusts and good flavoring in sauce and cheese.

If you absolutely love gobs of toppings, then you should order a specialty pizza. We ordered three specialty pies with an average of about seven toppings. If you custom-build a pizza with that many meat or veggie options, it will cost you about $15.99 for a 10-inch. However, if you choose one of Domino's specialty pizzas, you'll pay $13.99 for one of the same size. Therefore, your best value option for topping lovers is to choose a prefab pie.

Overall, the most cost-effective pizza is the Mix & Match deal. You can get a 12-inch plain cheese for $6.99 each (with two toppings each). You do have to buy two of them in order to get the deal, but it adds up to $13.98 total, which is one penny less than a 10-inch specialty pizza. The specialty approach might make for a better experience (and for more protein and veggies), but the Mix & Match is quite a steal. Note that you can also get other entrees as part of the deal, including pasta, salad, chicken, loaded tots, bread, and desserts. Overall, since we found that a combination of more than two toppings was just not great as a whole, we highly recommend the Mix & Match. It's our average Friday night pick for a reason.

On a final note, gluten-free crust is not a best-value proposition. It costs an extra $3 for a 10-inch pizza, so if you're not actually gluten-intolerant, but just trying to avoid it when you can, you're probably better off doing so in other areas of your life — not here.

Domino's offers tons of coupons and rewards. If you feel like providing your email address and getting spammed about how you haven't yet used your "emergency pizza," then you will definitely see financial benefits in the form of free stuff every two orders or so. Rewards take 48 to 96 hours to be added to your account, so they won't work for same-day use.

Specifically, each $5 order from Domino's earns you 10 points. At 20 points, you can choose from a drink, dip cup, or bread bites. At 40, your options are bread twists or stuffed cheesy bread. And at 60, you can get a medium two-topping pizza, a sandwich, pasta, or lava crunch cakes. Additionally, you can get members-only deals, bonus points, and even more fun stuff during Member Appreciation Week. If you're going to be pizza-ing frequently, it's probably worth signing up.

In general, Domino's is pretty affordable. This makes it a nice fast-food pizza to buy cheaply and save for later. If you're going to do that, make sure you have a good reheating method. Warming it in the oven on a cookie sheet or pizza stone is always a good option, especially if your oven goes up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit, which mimics a pizza chain's industrial oven. Other good tools to have on hand include a pizza cutter or, if you prefer this for already sliced pies, a pair of sharp kitchen shears to get those frustrating uncut bits.

Domino's offers seven sauces for dipping, all $.50 each: ranch, garlic, marinara, hot Buffalo, sweet mango habanero, and honey BBQ. We did not try the last three because they seemed a bit too advanced for childlike palates, and I didn't want to bring the rankings down artificially. Given the middling quality of Domino's pizza sauces, we were a little leery of the dipping variety, but we were pleasantly surprised by several of them.

First up, though, the main disappointment: Ranch was subpar dipper, well below its pizza sauce ranking, which could be because the other ingredients were pulling it up. This is too bad since ranch is a classic lubricant for getting those crusts down and not wasting food. The whole family loves ranch (we prefer Toby's, but that's a local brand), so we were pretty bummed. Happily, the garlic and marinara sauces were both tasty, with garlic getting especially good reviews.

The one I'm happiest to report on, though? Sweet icing. The four of us shared one dipping cup (considerably bigger than the other dipping cups) and it was plenty to provide an enjoyable way to finish off our crusts as well as avoid needing additional treats that night. We wouldn't need more than that for a family of four, so at only half a buck, that's possibly the best steal of all.

Domino's offers exactly one alternative option: gluten-free crust. It's free of wheat, rye, and barley, with a gluten content of less than 20 ppm. While it is decent for what it is, it doesn't compete favorably with the others, as it's too hard and a little bit oily, so the non-GF crowd won't love it. Also note that gluten-free crust costs extra and there is potential for cross-contamination, so Domino's may not be suitable for people with Celiac.

The good news is, all Domino's sauces except its alfredo sauce are gluten-free, and that goes both for sauces on pizza and in dipping cups. The chain also offers an online list of gluten-containing products, so you can check before you order. As long as you don't have a medical intolerance to any gluten, you can absolutely build yourself a nice GF meal.

Unfortunately, Domino's does not have any dairy-free options. I have two neighbors, mother and son, who are highly allergic to milk products, though, and they've found that the best way to deal with DF needs is to just go cheese-less. Because I struggle with dairy myself, I often order a pie without cheese, and I can confirm that with toppings and the marinara — which I think is quite good — it's fairly tasty. Would any of us choose this over not-pizza? No. But if the family is going the Domino's route, the option is there.

So with all Domino's has to offer, the time has finally come to answer the question: What is the very best pie you can possibly order here? Which combination produces the best and most delicious representation of Domino's pizza?

When it comes to the pies as a whole, our favorite was the handmade pan crust with tomato sauce and pineapple. If we could pair the absolute best crust, sauce, cheese, and toppings Domino's has to offer, this is still what we'd choose ... and what we will be ordering next time. Small boy and small girl did not think they would like this without their customary pepperoni alongside the canned fruit, but they were shocked to find they enjoyed it just as much — if not more. While pineapple's is admittedly a highly controversial pizza topping, we thought the Domino's version had great flavor and wasn't too wet. But hey, if you really can't abide it, a plain cheese pizza on the same homemade pan crust will do just fine.