Domino's Pizza Menu Items You Should Think Twice About, According To Employees

Domino's may be the world's biggest pizza chain today, but that hasn't always been the case. In fact, prior to 2009 — when the restaurant famously reformulated its pies — Domino's was almost unanimously regarded as, well, terrible, to the point that the restaurant itself ran an entire ad campaign addressing the claims that its old crust tasted like cardboard, the sauce was basically ketchup, and that its pizzas were "totally void of flavor."

Over a decade later, the tides of public opinion have turned on Domino's. However, its entire menu isn't to everyone's taste. This includes some of the chain's own employees, who've wasted no time sharing their least favorite items online over the years. As the people responsible for actually churning out orders, we're inclined to believe them when they warn that some things are better left alone. Whether it's due to the methods used to whip up a dish, or revelations about the ingredients themselves, we've rounded up some of the most-hated menu items within the Domino's community. These are the nine things the Domino's staff recommends reconsidering when placing your next order.

Read more: The Healthiest Fast Food Chains In The U.S.

Sandwiches

Domino's attempted to take a bite out of Subway's clientele in 2008 when it launched its own line of Oven Baked Sandwiches. These don't offer nearly as much freedom as you'd find at the actual sandwich chain — unless you call the store and ask nicely — with your options currently limited to seven flavors: Buffalo Chicken, Chicken Habanero, Mediterranean Veggie, Philly Cheesesteak, Chicken Bacon Ranch, Italian, and Chicken Parm.

Anyone who orders a sandwich at a fast-food joint like Domino's knows what they're getting into, which usually means a meal that prioritizes convenience over nutrition. Employees have noted that the quality and taste of the ingredients themselves are fine, but once you know the amount of grease and oil involved, you just can't stomach them the same way. Posting in a Reddit thread asking fast food workers which menu item nobody should ever order at their restaurant, one employee warned against ordering any of the subs for this reason. "We have to pour the grease off the sub when it comes out of the oven, lest it saturate the box AND the little insert that comes with it," they said. Nice.

The ExtravaganZZa

The ExtravaganZZa doesn't include every topping on the menu, but it comes pretty darn close. Each hand-tossed pie features ham, beef, pepperoni, Italian sausage, onions, black olives, mushrooms, mozzarella, and green peppers (and breathe). While you're getting more than your fair share of meat and veggies per mouthful, several employees have warned about how kitchens tend to grab these toppings, with some of its most creative nicknames on a Reddit thread comparing it to garbage, the pit, and the gutter. Not exactly the most appetizing image.

As these nicknames suggest, Domino's employees apparently make the ExtravaganZZa using leftover toppings that fell beneath the grate over the course of the day. "It didn't matter how warm they were," a former worker recalled on Reddit. "As long as it was in the tray, it was going to be used because the owner refused to throw the droppings [sic] away," presumably referring to pizza toppings. Of course, that meant that sometimes toppings not listed on the menu would end up on the pizza — something one employee claimed their manager would have them rectify by picking them out by hand. Gross, yes, but let it never be said that Domino's is wasteful.

Gluten-Free Pizza

Back in May 2012, Domino's became the first national pizza chain to start offering a gluten-free crust. Gluten-intolerant customers rejoiced as the fast-food restaurant began whipping up pies made of rice and potato flour, not wheat, and soon rolled the crusts out to international stores. From the very beginning, however, Domino's made it clear that this wasn't a suitable option for everyone following a zero-gluten diet. While the crust is indeed gluten-free, the chain advised that those with serious intolerance or celiac disease should still avoid its pizza, as they can't 100% guarantee it won't be contaminated in-store.

Employees have backed up these claims, going so far as to warn that anyone with any kind of sensitivity should skip the gluten-free pizza just to be safe. "Nothing is done to prevent contamination," one said on Reddit. "Do not eat it if you have actual problems with gluten." Others have detailed the exact process used to prep the gluten-free pizzas, explaining that the crusts come frozen (unlike their non-gluten-free counterparts, which are hand-tossed) and toppings are applied before they're cooked in the same oven as all the other pizzas.

Chicken Wings

Done right, Domino's chicken wings can be quite tasty, with the chain giving them a makeover in 2020. "We totally redesigned the wing, from fat content, to texture, to preparation and sauces," the company's chief marketing officer at the time, Art D'Elia, said during an earnings call, via Restaurant Business. "Testing revealed that consumers wanted a wing with a better, firmer texture."

Whether or not it delivered on this improved texture is up for debate, with Domino's employees claiming that it all comes down to one thing: How the wings are cooked. Over on Reddit, several alleged workers have explained that despite coming into the kitchens pre-cooked, the bone-in chicken wings need to be cooked twice. That's not for the sake of food hygiene -- you'll be fine eating them either way -- but to ensure that each wing reaches optimum crispiness.

The reality is that not all Domino's employees cook them this way, especially when kitchens get busy at peak hours. Chicken that's only been cooked once will often come out with a strange gelatinous feel, which employees writing on Reddit have theorized is caused by all the pre-cooking, freezing, and thawing the wings go through before hitting the oven. For that reason, you may want to request a second whirl in the oven next time you place an order -- or give the wings a miss entirely.

Thin-Crust Pizza

The Domino's menu is pretty vague about how the restaurant preps its Crunchy Thin Crust, especially compared to its other pizza bases. While the original crust is proudly dubbed "Hand Tossed," and the deep-dish is named "Handmade Pan," the Crunchy Thin Crust is only described as being "thin enough for the optimum crispy to crunchy ratio and square cut to be perfectly sharable."

It turns out there's a reason why the restaurant is as thin on details as it is on the crust: It doesn't actually make the Crunchy Thin Crust in-store. A now-deleted TikTok made the rounds a few years ago, showing a Domino's employee sprinkling a countertop with cornmeal -- as is the norm when making one of the chain's pizzas, then preparing to stretch and roll out raw pizza dough ... before throwing it off-screen and grabbing a thin crust in plastic film. "It's pre-packaged!!!!" the person wrote on the video's caption before its deletion.

If you do order thin crust, not only are you not getting the same level of freshness Domino's promotes in its marketing, but employees have described some logistical issues as well. When one disgruntled customer shared a picture of a jumbled Crunchy Thin Crust pizza post-delivery, multiple alleged Domino's workers chimed in on Reddit to warn that because, they're so light, you'll often not receive your pizza in the best condition.

Ham

Of all the meats available at Domino's, the sliced ham seems to get the most hate from employees. Although one alleged worker wrote on Reddit that there's nothing wrong with it to the extent that you'll get sick, those in the know consider it to be the worst quality -- and worst-tasting, and worst-smelling -- meat in the kitchen. The kindest criticisms compare it to the meat found in Lunchables, while a harsher claim on Reddit says it smells awful and requires a warning whenever you open a fresh packet. "I always like to say something like 'Gentlemen, prepare your gas masks' when I see a manager is about to prep it, and then pull my shirt up so it covers my nose," they noted.

The texture is the worst part of all. Many have described it as mushy and difficult to spread on the pizza, causing a real headache for the person making your order. "Ham is horrible," complained one employee on Reddit. "It's slimy and sticks together and is just overall unpleasant." Taste-wise, you're also in for an incredibly oily experience, another claimed. Basically, whatever the opposite of an all-rounder is, that's the Domino's ham.

Salads

Theoretically, you can always get your greens at your local Domino's, and not just on your pizza. The standard Domino's menu features two classic salad options (Classic Garden and Chicken Caesar) with your choice of Caesar, balsamic vinegarette, or ranch dressing. While nobody expects a top-tier salad from a fast-food joint, the sentiments from employees towards these menu items mostly range from bad to meh.

According to multiple reports from alleged employees writing on Reddit, these salads aren't overly popular -- which is probably why Domino's prices them so high and apparently puts minimal effort into making them anything more than a half-hearted attempt at nutrition. Some employees have even reported putting zero effort into the salads at all. "At least in my store, we barely ever got orders, so when someone would order one, we would just walk across the street to the grocery store and purchase a package of mixed salad," one former worker claimed on Reddit. The only difference between the salad they delivered and the salad from said grocery store? Several dollars worth of markup.

Any Pizza Late At Night

The hours between sunset and sunrise are peak Domino's hours. Like any fast-food chain, its restaurants are powered by drunchies, munchies, and midnight cravings once the sun goes down. However, next time you're seized by the urge to feast on copious amounts of cheese, bread, and pepperoni at 12 a.m., you may want to consider what former employees have to say about late-night orders.

"If you order late more than likely I'll have some dough that's already been slapped out and has been sitting getting crusty," one revealed on Reddit. That dough may have been hand-tossed fresh earlier in the day, but it's definitely not at its prime several hours later -- and yet it still needs to be used. As the same employee added in a gentle warning: "You better believe I'm gonna use that s**t." Not only will your pizza potentially not taste as good as if you'd ordered a pie earlier in the evening, but you won't make many friends in the Domino's kitchen if you request a delivery right before the store closes, as per employees on Reddit.

Methodology

Domino's employees are extremely vocal about the pros -- and cons -- of working for the pizza giant. The likes of Reddit and Quora are populated with observations on their day-to-day working life, including the menu items they themselves avoid.

When putting together our list of the Domino's menu items rejected by the chain's own workers, we read through hundreds of complaints buried on these sites and kept an eye out for menu items that received complaints over taste, smell, cooking instructions, or some other surprising secret unbeknownst to customers. Of course, everyone's taste buds and experiences are different -- especially when a chain is franchised and runs differently from store to store. Just because something is featured on this list, doesn't mean that it's hated by every single Domino's employee, or even that it's objectively a terrible choice for your next order. It's just a sign that it's received some pretty scathing critiques from those in the know regarding its time on the menu.

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