A new pizza place in town... what excitement! In the interest of journalism, I decided to take a bunch of teenage boys (my 18-year-old son and his friends) there.

And, there was a reason for this — they are old enough to distinguish good food from bad and young enough to still enjoy quasi fast food. Papa John’s has a terrific location — right opposite Wadia College on the Bund Garden Road... and it’s pretty big with a significant signage, so you really can’t miss it. (They have another outlet on Ghole Road).

As you walk in, it’s friendly and warm, with country style wooden chairs and a green and wood décor. This didn’t look like something that was just thrown together. It had “American franchising” written all over it. And upon questioning, I found out that it’s actually the third largest takeout delivery pizza chain in the USA, behind Pizza Hut and Domino’s.

While people may have forgotten about how these biggies started, they remind you in the Papa John’s menu that it was started as a delivery chain by a young student, John Schnatter in Indiana in 1984, from one oven in the back of his father’s tavern. As a high school student working at a local pizza pub in Jeffersonville, Indiana, Papa John’s founder John, realised that there was something missing from national pizza chains — a superior-quality traditional pizza delivered to the customer’s door.

His dream was to one day open a pizza restaurant that would fill that void. This is the American dream and the success no doubt comes from franchising this model successfully. Today, there are more than 3,000 Papa John’s restaurants worldwide in 27 countries (China, most of the Middle East, UK and now India).

So, how is Papa John’s pizza different from any other? Well, they claim that the quality is “superior”. They even offer a whole wheat “healthy” crust option. The cheese is made from “100 per cent mozzarella”. This is a clever way of saying that it contains mozzarella, but the end product definitely tastes more like a stretchy processed cheese.

To the food itself, the boys declared it was “the best pizza in town”, especially the Pepperoni. I was aghast, but that was their verdict. We are clearly talking about American style pizzas here, with a medium crust, generous toppings and filling meals, not about thin crust Italian ones with a slather of tomato and mozzarella. They found the crust perfect — not too thin, not too thick, “bready and tasty”, but not “doughy”, and the toppings were delicious and not sparing.

The Pepperoni is the real McCoy — pure pork and imported. They have already included Indian style offerings like Chicken Tikka, Mutton Mazza and Kheema. In the vegetarian section, the Onion Blossom (with onion and green chilli) and Sweet Heat (jalapenos, onion and pineapple) were actually very good.

There is even a Hot Pepper Passion, with three types of chilli pepper.

PAPA JOHN’S
Gera Centre, Opp Wadia College,
Bund Garden Road,
Pune: 411001.
Phone: 40077373



The prices are slightly lower than Pizza Hut and Domino’s and the offering and variety, probably better. They also have a variety of salads, pastas and add-ons like Parmesan bread sticks, cheese sticks etc, which I will try on another visit. Papa John’s is not my idea of a great lunch out, but it certainly is any teenager’s dream!