I’ve never really gotten sick from Papa John’s. Any pizza gives me a little heartburn, though, and Papa John’s gives me the worst heartburn of just about any kind of food.
No, they’re two entirely different chains.
Chain pizza joints are often somewhat franchise-dependent. The Papa Johns that delivers to my address is fairly decent; the one nearest my previous workplace was dogfood in comparison. I would think they’d use the same ingredients and prep, but there it was. Never had a bad gut reaction, though.
Papa John’s pizza is always kind of leathery and flavorless. I don’t get why anyone likes it; I’ve tried several different locations, and they all suck. And that garlic dipping sauce is just nasty. Why not make a better tasting crust that doesn’t NEED to be dipped in pasteurized pots of grease? Plus they’re kind of pricey, too. Which means they’re proud of that leathery crap. Whatever.
I’ve never gotten sick from it, though.
For chain pizza, I greatly prefer Domino’s. And those Domino’s Dots ROCK.
Sorta OT, but has anyone else ever gotten sick in the kitchen of a pizzaria? At least three times in my life, in the kitchen at various pizza shops, I’ve very suddenly gotten extremely dizzy and nauseated, only to feel perfectly ok once I left. Am I a freak? Or has this happened to anyone else?
I had Papa John’s once and it seemed unremarkable in both taste and… well, you know. However…
Does anyone remember Round Table’s Rostadoro? Oh Dear God. Ate that one night and spent the whole of the next day at work running from my office to the restroom. Which was somewhat embarrassing because my office was at one end and the restroom was on the other and in between were the offices of my associates. And yes they were eager to learn what was going on. Sheesh.
It gives me the runs/gas too.
I love it, but it does make my wife ill. She’s not usually the sort to become queasy from the things that she eats, but it does her in.
Papa John’s pizza isn’t very good, although it beats Domino’s and Pizza Hut by miles. I prefer getting my pizza from a family owned shop or making it myself.
Oh, and it never makes me sick either.
What a fascinating response. It seems that, while we’re definitely in the minority, there are a significant number of us who suffer from dismaying digestive side-effects.
Maybe we should lobby for a listing of the side effects on the commercials and the pizza boxes. Caution: May cause intense squirtage. If runs result, discontinue use. Not to be used by people with good taste in pizza.
And yeah, we always order from a local pizza place around here. Which is why I was surprised that Papa John’s even came up. So to speak.
Sigh.
Yes. My husband and I have tried every pizza Cincinnati “claims” to have. Yuck.
Donnato’s is okay…
Yes. Papa John’s gives us the runs. It’s not pretty.
We stick with the familiar Domino’s because it’s safe down here.
Miss the Detroit Jet’s Pizza and even Hungry Howies! 
Papa John’s gives me a stomach ache everytime I eat it, but not sick to the extent of a bunch of other people here. But no other pizza consistently makes me queasy, so I’d say that you’re on to something. I personally blame something in the sauce, as it tastes kind of funky to me to begin with.
I actually get a similar reaction from Pizza Hut pizza - and for the record, I’ve never known anybody else who had this happen to them after eating food from either chain.
[RANT]
But I think all the chain places (ESPECIALLY Papa John’s) are just disgusting. I don’t know where they get their “better ingredients” from, but they must be kept in some huge anti-flavor anti-freshness vat before they’re used. Yech. And the cheese is just foul. I don’t know what it is about it, but it’s positively nauseating, as is the “Garlic Dipping Sauce” - where do they get this stuff? A sicilian liposuction clinic? UGH.
[/RANT]
There’s a couple half-decent mom & pop’s around where I live where I can get an OK pizza, but 99.9% of the time I just make it from scratch myself, it tastes a hell of a lot better that way.
No problem with PJ, but Godfather is sure death for my intestinal system.
Papa John’s is the nastiest pizza ever. I’ll starve before I’ll eat that shit. Yes, it made me puke.
When I went on my trip to the States, I had some pizza from Chuckie Cheese’s… I had forgotten how bad it was. Spent the next day in the toilet.
My baby cousins seemed to love it though.
Oh man, Jet’s was/is the shizzit of Detroit pizzas, along with Buddy’s. Good, GOOD stuff.
I like Papa John’s though. It’s my favorite not-too-expensive chain pizza (I consider Pizza Hut to be a little on the pricey side, though it is quite good.). I also love that garlic dipping sauce which is nothing more than melted butter.
[Homer]Mmmmm… melted butter… droool[/Homer]
But even here in DC, we have locally-owned establishments that have more choices and better taste than both of them. I think that’s true in just about any city.
It’s not pizza. At least, it doesn’t taste like it. If I order it, I have to order it with no sauce and at least two toppings, otherwise it tastes wretched. The garlic dipping sauce is okay, but after I spilled a container of it in my dorm room freshman year and spent the next month smelling garlic when I tried to sleep, I started to dislike it.
Then again, I’m from the Chicago area. There are plenty of places to get genuinely good pizza around here, and Papa John’s sure as heck isn’t one of them. Also, they’re the only place to ever totally fark up my order–and, I mean, it was screwed up to the point where I couldn’t eat it–and then say that I could have a coupon for a free pizza that they’d send me, but they couldn’t make me another pizza because it was too late.
I ate it at a LAN party with no ill effects. I even dipped it in a plastic container of disturbingly yellow garlic/butter liquid. Of course, I also had about a gallon of Mt. Dew in me…
The hamsters obviously ate Papa John’s pizza, poor bastards.
I’d heard good things about Papa John’s so was primed and ready when folks at work ordered in a few pies on a really snowy day. I was starved, and the only alternative on offer was machine snack food junk.
FTR, my body is a temple but it has the finely honed sensitivity of a garbage truck when it comes to allergies, reactions, etc. I happily munch down on street food when travelling but haven’t suffered worse than momentary pause before recognizing a tentacle-- and then thoughtfully eating it.
With that background, Papa John’s Pizza ripped out my entire gastrointestinal tract. It worked faster and more effectively than that hideous stuff I swilled (Fleet?) before a colonoscopy. We’re talking bodily distress lieu couldn’t describe. Yes, that bad.)
FWIW, two other folks at work suffered the same effects. We chalked it up to flu hat was going around.
You’re not alone, MrVisible.
Obscurely comforted,
Veb