Archive
Nov 9, 2010

Review: Little Caesars - Hot-N-Ready Pepperoni Pizza

It's hard to believe but in the early '90s, Little Caesars was the #2 pizza chain in the nation. I ate it quite a bit of their pizzas growing up since you could always count on getting two pizzas for the price of one. Nowadays, they're a distant fourth in the pizza race and have a new gimmick that seems to work well for them: the Hot-N-Ready Pizza for $5.

The Hot-N-Ready Pizza is basically pizza that sits in a warmer oven after it's baked so it's always ready when you order. It's only available in plain cheese, pepperoni, and in some regions maybe a specialty pizza (only pepperoni and cheese where I live though). If you go around lunch or dinner when they're fairly busy, the pizza is pretty fresh, if you go during a slow period your mileage will definitely vary.
So how is it? I would say it's very basic. Pizza dough, cheese, pepperoni, tomato sauce? Check. It's plain and it's cheap (though Domino's does have a $5.99 carry-out large but you have to order and wait). Little Caesars has made pizza more of an impulse buy since you don't have to worry about ordering ahead or waiting. It's main selling point is value.

That being said it's a decent pizza and I sometimes randomly get one now and again on a whim. Again, it is plain, but you can always liven it up with red pepper flakes or Parmesan cheese.

Little Caesars Restaurant Locations

Nutritional Info - Little Caesars Hot N Ready Pepperoni Pizza - per slice (120g)
Calories - 280 (from Fat - 100)
Fat - 11g (Saturated Fat - 5g)
Sodium - 520mg
Carbs - 30g (Sugar - 3g)
Protein - 14g

20 comments:

  1. I remember their crazy bread was pretty awesome. And at one point, they had chocolate ravioli. Good times.

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  2. I forgot they had chocolate ravioli! I don't remember if I ever got to have any though, it was so long ago...

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  3. Little Caesars is KIDDIE pizza. The best only edible thing they ever had was their Big spaghetti in the early 90's. Caesars SUCKS!

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  4. I'd say it compares reasonably with DiGiorno and other good frozen pizzas. Don't get me wrong, I really like DiGiorno too. It's definitely not amazing pizza, but I wouldn't turn it down.

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  5. I bought a Hot-n-Ready Little Caesars a few days ago.


    Shunning pizza almost religiously lately due to calorie and carbohydrate amounts.


    But... at times... an Old Coot simply needs to let loose.


    I recall the days of the two-for-the-price-of-one routine but it was a gimmick if one is aware of marketing, how pricing works, etc.


    I also recall how often Little Caesars used to set up shop inside K-marts.


    Times have changed.


    I was rather surprised at the better subjective quality of Caesars compared to the last one I ate many years ago.


    I actually preferred this latest pizza over the last "new style" Dominos pizza eaten and after that last Pizza Hut fiasco of around three years ago I still refuse to buy a Pizza Hut "non-pizza."


    I will likely refrain from pizzas in general for another three or four years but if I can keep the weight off or, perhaps, actually loose a few more pounds if i ever have a pizza i think i will buy another Little Caesars... especilly if their output remains tasty and their price more than competitive with their competition.

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  6. Yep, the quality for the price is pretty good to me too. We actually still have a Little Caesar's in our K-Mart! And we have another stand alone one too. I don't see the need for two in our small town, but the K-Mart one is older, so maybe it's still doing well.

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  7. my experiance with little caesars hot and ready was a twelve minute wait for a pizza removed from the oven one minute after i placed my order at the register....when i asked for the manager it happened so that the manager was in fact a teenage girl with nose rings and tattoos.....who told me that hot n ready is more of a first come first serve offerred up in the order of the register receipt printouts.....i was pissed ....i waited twelve minutes for a pizza that was ready one minute after i paid for it....this interaction caused me to clock in two minutes late to my second job .... i work 715am to 345 pm then 430 pm to 100am monday through friday...but i will still go to little caesars only because my three daughters and son absolutely love their pizza breadsticks and garlic butter...i personnally am reppelled at the sight and smell of modern american fast food.....unless it is a chicago style dog or italian beef with peppers....

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  8. starman69@yahoo.comWednesday, February 13, 2013

    I recently went to Little ceasers pizza , the employees were nice , 1st thing, my gift card didn't work, is brand new , second, i live 7 minutes away , used the car heater , the pizza was still cold ! the taste, mild lke a kiddy pizza, was more like bread not pizza dough , I called, telling them the pizza was cdold, they wanted me to drive all the way back with the receipt and the pizza to gicve me another, hey all I gotta say is , "what a phucking joke! " all never return !

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  9. Caesar's is about as good as the other "chain pizzas". Sometimes it can sit in that "hot 'n ready" oven thing a little too long and dry out, which probably accounts for the low opinion some people have of it. It helps to request they make you one fresh, if you don't mind waiting, or ordering a topping like mushrooms or onions. Some locations charge more for a topping other than cheese or peperoni, some don't.

    Coming from the Northeast I know what real (local, non-chain) pizza tastes like. Unlike the other three big chains Little Caesar's doesn't try to lay down a bunch of BS about premium quality, or being America's favorite. It's just an adequate pizza at a awesome price.

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  10. That's pretty much how I feel about it too.

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  11. I ordered a HnR peperoni and an order of HnR wings. The pizza was your typical cheap pizza, not good and not bad. But let me tell you about the wings. I will never order then ever again. I believe they are microwaved. They were quite soggy, The skin was slimy and very fatty, a microwave won't cook out any of the fat or crisp the skin. They reminded me of the Tyson brand wings that you can buy frozen. Very disgusting, I couldn't eat them.

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  12. Very patrician, very boring. Quality is acceptable, but nothing worth writing about. Lots of places have better tasting sauce. There's a reason it's only 5 bucks ... not much on it. Too few toppings. I can get a five buck buffet at Mazzio's ... tons better. The margin (actual distance to the toppings, not price/cost margin) is almost a full inch!

    The only redeeming quality is the drive-thru approach.

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  13. Ever been to a zoo and seen the apes throw shit? Thats the impression I get when I see the pizza I order at LC's.
    Just ONCE I'd like to get one that even Remotely resembles the ones I see in the pictures.
    Is it really SO hard to place toppings on a pizza in a somewhat organized fashion?

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  14. when did they stop selling deserts and pasta? why?

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  15. their pizza sucks i make better pizza then them i love homemade pizza is a 10000000000000 better than that card board pizza the only reason i eat their is because it only 5 dollars and i am poor and this is all i can afford lol their ingredients are not healthy for you either i bet they use the poorest ingredients they can find which would explain why they can sell a large pizza for 5 so if you on a budget this is the why to go but if you can afford to buy pizza don't choose this place sucks and i dont like the hot and ready i like my pizza freshly made

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  16. Angel Nikole SmithMonday, September 09, 2013

    I work for little Caesars and the dough and sauce are hand made in the store. Never frozen.

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  17. I usually go to the Little Caesars in Phoenix on 35th Ave & Glendale. Their pizza is usually good except I have had to check the pizza every time before I leave because frequently they will hand me a bad one (large bubbles in the dough and toppings scattered because of the bubbles). I have been going to this location for about 8 years and just this year I started having problems with them. They advertise "Hot and Ready" which means it is READY for you when you walk into their store, in and out in 1-2 minutes maximum. They advertise this but it is NOT TRUE!!! I would call it false advertising because it happens almost every time I go there which is about 3 times per week. I would be the only customer there at the time (or one other one as well) and they constantly tell me there is a wait time, about 5 minutes usually. I don't have the time to wait because I stop by there on the way to work about 1pm. I have finally had it with them!!! A week and a half ago I blew up at the manager about this constant problem and I called their corporate office to file a complaint about this location. I then called their district manager to file a complaint as well to make sure he knew what was going on at this location. He told me I was absolutely right in the fact that there is no reason that I or anyone else should have to wait and he agreed that "Hot and Ready" means no waiting. He called the store manager and made him aware of the problem. I went there again today and guess what, I was told there was a wait of about 5 minutes! I blew up! They told me that they were a busy store. I said where are all of your customers, I was the ONLY one there besides a cop waiting for his pizza. OMG, these people at this store are extremely incompetent!!! The cop just sat there listening as I went off on them, talk about a high stess level. I then called their district Manager
    back and informed him that the problem is still happening. He seemed
    shocked that I am still having this problem with them. He apologized for
    my troubles and I informed him I will never go there again!!! I spend over
    $1,000 there each year. They will never see my money again!!! BTW, I
    took my business to Papa Johns today after this big fiasco with Little
    Caesars!!! I'm done with them! DO NOT go to this location in Phoenix, you will regret it!
    went to Papa Johns instead and gave them my business



    no no waiting.

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  18. Little Caesar's always advertises Hot n Ready Pizzas on TV for $5. and we always get charged $5.99. The last one we got was so dry - it didn't have any sauce on it (barely). I always liked their pizza, but was very disappointed. The person that made it didn't put much sauce on it or it was under the heat lamp too long. They should look at them to see if they dried out before selling them. We drove quite a few miles for it, but didn't eat it until we got home. So it was too late to bring it to their attention.

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  19. I always order sausage instead of pepperoni. It is always fresh because it isn't ordered often so they don't keep it on the heaters. Plus the wait is usually only a few minutes.

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