Bzz: Dr. Oetker Pizza Ristorante Review

Recently, Bzz Agent gave me the opportunity to try Dr. Oetker Ristorante Pizza.  This was the first time hearing of the brand so I was curious to see if the pizza would be available at my local grocery store, which is notorious for not carrying a lot of variety.  To my surprise when I checked there were 4 of the 6 varieties.  Apparently Dr. Oetker is the most popular frozen pizza in Italy and they produce more than just pizza, including baking mixes.  

Dr. Oetker Pizza is thin crust, gourmet-style pizza that is available in the following varieties: Pizza Spinaci (Spinach), Pizza Mozzarella, Pizza Funghi (mushroom), Pizza Vegetale (tomatoes, peppers, onions and chilies), Pizza Quattro Formaggi (four cheese: mozzarella, Edam, Emmental and blue cheese) and Pizza Speciale (Pepperoni and Ham).  Each pizza contains 3 servings and costs about $6.  You can get complete ingredient lists and nutritional information for all of the pizzas by clicking the above external link. You can also find stores near you that sell their pizza.

Using the coupons provided by BzzAgent I purchased the Pizza Vegetale for the adults and the Pizza Speciale for the kids.  I really, really wanted to try the vegetable and mozzarella pizzas but I knew my kids would hate me forever if one of the pizzas didn't have pepperoni.

I got a picture of the Pizza Vegetale box before throwing it away.  I don't have any photos of the Pizza Speciale.

You might notice that my pizza is on foil.  That is not how these pizzas are supposed to be cooked- they should be placed directly on the oven rack, but I HATE doing that, so I didn't.

The directions were as simple as any other frozen pizza and it only took about 10 minutes to cook in the oven.    

Ta-da!  Looks pretty close to what's on the box.

  
It is what it promises- a thin crust, crispy pizza.  The veggies were really good and they were large pieces, not tiny chunks of barely-recognizable vegetables.  On the Pizza Speciale, the pepperonis were the same as any and the ham pieces were large.  I don't like ham on pizza but I ate one for the sake of reviewing and it was good.  Again, it was much better than the pizzas that use tiny chunks of meat.

A few years ago I gave up on all but the Giant brand frozen pizzas because they were too much money and not good.  Giant's was the only one I actually liked and it cost less than Domino's or Little Caesars (until recently, anyway).  Dr. Oetker Pizzas were good, but kind of expensive.  On their website it says the suggested retail price is $4.99-6.99.  $4.99 I would pay for one for myself if I felt like eating something a little better than big-name pizza place would provide but I would make the trip to Little Caesars for the kids, for a much larger pizza for the same price.  Unfortunately the stores where I live charge a higher price of about $6 for Dr. Oetker pizza.  More than likely I would wait for a coupon or skip them and buy a cheaper pizza and fresh veggies to put on top while cooking it.  It doesn't make much sense to me to spend $5 or $6 for a pizza that I have to go to the store to get then cook too, when I can get one hot and ready for the same price.  Either way I have to drive!  But if delivery or driving to a cheap, local pizza shop isn't an option and your typical frozen pizza is getting boring I suggest trying one of these gourmet pizzas.