Garden Party Pizza Archives

Pizza night is always popular, but I am conscious that it is a slightly less healthy choice than a green salad. As a result I do try and order lighter versions whenever I can. Papa John’s has recently launched a lighter option for their pizzas, specifically for people who are conscious of what they eat, but still enjoy the occasional treat.

Papa John’s is now offering a lower fat cheese as an option on all of their pizzas. The lower fat light cheese contains one third less fat than regular cheese and I think it will be popular with a lot of people. There is always the worry that a slight change in the recipe will dramatically change the flavour of the pizza, so we put the new lighter cheese pizzas to the test.

Papa John's Lighter

We sampled two medium original crust pizzas with Papa John’s lighter cheese. I had the Mediterranean Garden Party – a pizza heaving with lots of lovely veg so at least you feel that you’re getting one of your five a day. Hubs had an “All The Meats” which suited him down to the ground. They were both made with the lower fat cheese instead of the standard cheese Papa John’s use on their regular pizzas.

Papa John's Lighter

It was Friday night at the start of a Bank Holiday weekend and we were all tired and needed pizza. We ordered Papa John’s and decided to picnic eat it in the garden to make the most of the sunshine.

The pizzas arrived and I opened them up to check they didn’t look any different from how they usually do. There was no difference. The cheese looked good, melted nicely all over and we couldn’t wait to get stuck in.

Papa John's Lighter

We all devoured our pizzas, the small boy shared ours and enjoyed them as much as he would normally. To me there was no noticeable difference in the taste or quality of the pizza (and I’ve been a cheese judge at the International Cheese Awards). If there’s no real taste or texture difference, and there is 1/3 less fat in the lighter cheese then that’s a bit of a no-brainer for me.

Papa John's Lighter

In future when we order pizza we will be ordering Papa John’s Lighter pizzas. We might even take another healthy step and go from original crust to thin crust. That one might take a bit more getting used to though.

For more information about Papa John’s Lighter options visit www.papajohns.co.uk

About once a month we have a family pizza night, when we can’t be bothered to cook a home cooked meal we order in pizza. With the football currently dominating every waking hour for the boys, we decided to fuel up on take out pizza and phoned Papa John’s.

We’ve never had Papa John’s pizza before, but I’d heard good things about it. It’s my brother’s favourite pizza emporium, so we knew it would be good.

pizza 2

For the boys I ordered the new BBQ Beef Brisket pizza – chunks of burnt ends sliced from slow smoked beef brisket, with crispy onions and bacon, and drizzled with a sweet cola BBQ sauce.

I went for the veggie “Garden Party” made with red onions, green peppers, cherry tomatoes, sweetcorn and mushrooms.

Papa John's

Our pizzas arrived still hot and smelling delicious. I had extreme pizza envy when I saw the BBQ Beef Brisket Pizza. I have a soft spot for anything with BBQ sauce, I did dip my finger in and have a taste and it was sweet and gently spicy. I reckon Papa John’s should sell bottles of their BBQ sauce.

I really liked the look of my Garden Party pizza. It has a very generous topping of vegetables and even the slightly veg-phobic boy tucked in happily. I am a bit fussy when it comes to pizza. I don’t like my base to be too doughy, too oily or too boring. The Papa John’s pizza bases were light and not at all oily, we were all very pleasantly surprised at how good they were.

Papa John's

The Papa John’s pizzas came with a little pot of garlic dip. We weren’t especially keen on these, but the BBQ Beef Brisket pizza was saucy enough without it and didn’t need it. It’s good to try new things and Papa John’s was new to us. We’ve had a referendum, taken a vote and our next pizza night will be a Papa John’s pizza night.

Visit www.papajohns.co.uk to try the new BBQ Beef Brisket Pizza for yourself.

Note: We were sent the Papa John’s pizzas for review purposes.