Just curious really, as I'm not a massive pizza fan. Since the regular cheese here is relatively bland compared to regular cheddar in the UK, do you think it affects the flavour? The sauce base only goes so far.

Another odd thing in the land of pizza is I've never seen a supermarket with a create-your-own pizza deli counter, like is common in the UK where you take the pizza home to cook. Freshly made in-store (allegedly) yes; made on demand with the ingredients you specify, no. There must be some chains that do, presumably.

Kramer on Seinfeld was going to open a restaurant to do that.

I think most pizza places do that with the various toppings added to your specs, but the difference is that they will bake it, so saving you gas/electric and time. My SIL used to work in a Safeways in Scotland doing that very same pizza to order thing.

We have a chain in our area (not sure if they are nation wide) called Papa Murphy that do the made to order take and bake. This is a stand alone store not in a supermarket.

I thought you were referring to where someone comes in to a buffet like place and gets the dough and puts toppings on themselves. I have to starting reading posts better.

I think Papa Murphy is nationwide but I was never crazy about their pizza. Also if I'm going to pay cooked pizza prices, I'd rather not pay for an uncooked pizza. Also I know how long some of my favorite pizza places take to prepare and cook a pizza so I can usually time it where I get there (5 minutes away) just as it is coming out of the oven.

Most of the frozen pizzas I don't like but in my opinion, the Safeway brand is the best and also the lowest price and better than their fresh uncooked pizza which is about double the price.

If you buy a large bag of sharp shredded cheese (or shred your own), and add some parmesan, I have found you can make a pretty decent pizza. I concur on never having seen a pizza counter of any kind. Its probably tough for the stores when Little Caesars have $5 hot and ready.

I've only ever used mozzarella cheese on pizzas. I always thought the flavour should come from the other toppings, including a really good sauce and crust.

Yah, I think it'll be very hard to find cheddar except possibly in minimal amounts on any pizza in the US.

Papa johns, Papa Murphy. In store Winco has an in house where you can select your toppings (thin). For an extra dollar they will cook it for you. Better yet take it home and add more cheese.

I'd say the same goes for Italy....

Best thing we ever did on the pizza front was to buy a pizza stone. We now eat gorgeous, thin, crispy tasty pizzas that are low in salt and fat and far better than pretty much anything we can get delivered (or via the supermarket). Still enjoy restaurant pizzas (coal-fired brick ovens and all that) from time to time, but for pizza at home our home-made ones really can't be beat.

My husband really likes Mod Pizza. We have had a store open near us recently (he has one down the street from his office in Seattle) I don't think the taste is fantastic, but we both really like the thin base as opposed to the thick bread base on most pizzas.

Ah, I didn't realise you could get it uncooked. I've bought their ready-to-go pizzas which are quite edible.

I'm generally not a fan of Pizza Hut, Dominos etc due to the questionable ingredients that one tends not to have at home. That and they're stingy on toppings That said, I do occasionally get the hot'n'ready pepperoni from Little Caesars purely for the convenience and price rather than any expectation of decent food.

I don't think I have ever had mind-blowingly good pizza until I moved to San Francisco - 22 years wasted on subprime pizza I guess - so I guess I take a different stance on the use of milder cheeses used in the US. Especially with a good Neapolitan style margherita where I think the extra boldness would throw the balance off.