You just activated my personal time machine. Remember how they used to give you that really big lenticular button, and you’d get stars for every pizza you got?
Holy crap, that was probably 20 years ago. I turned 29 today.
Does Numero Uno count?
Yeah, but only once.
Uh, non-rich people (like me) who buy pizza and don’t eat it all?
We have a UNO where I live, and I understand that they started in Chicago and invented the deep dish. I like their pizza.
Non-national I’ll go with Round Table.
I’m hoping by that incredulous remark wring was implying that s/he is among those who eat their leftover pizza cold for breakfast the next morning. I’m definitely in that camp. It is very important to me that a pizza is not only delicious when freshly baked, but also when eaten cold the next morning.
Oh, God. When I was in school, I used to describe the pizza in the cafeteria as resembling Bazooka gum on cardboard.
I would have to say Papa John’s. I usually prefer to get it from a place actoss from where I work, its a locally owned place, and the pizza (and all the other food, for that matter) is excellent.
I just wanted to add that, thanks to this thread, my plans for cooking a lovely dinner tonight were canceled so I could order a Korean BBQ pizza instead. Turned out to be a good idea because I got the equivalent of over 5 dollars off because of a sale this month! Score! 
We have a smallish regional chain mostly in NJ where I believe the individual stores are franchises. The chain is Attilio’s. They range from better than the national changes to pretty damn good pizza. I like the one in Lincroft, NJ and Long Branch quite a bit. The ones in Tinton Falls and Freehold aren’t great. For a chain they make a very good pizza. If you are a thin crust fan though they are not a great choice. I never found a good chain thin crust and settle for the typical NJ thinnish crust that Attilio’s provides.
As to National Chains, well quite honestly they all suck enough where I don’t consider them pizza but pizza-like food.
Does Ray’s count as a chain in NYC? If so they are the best chain.
For me it is very hard to make a truly horrible pizza. So I am content with most of the chains. I find the local independents are usually better, but I will eat Pizza Hut, Dominoes, Papa John’s without complaint. I haven’t had any for a long time, but I think Papa John’s is my favorite of the three.
Speaking of Shakeys, anyone remember what was on the doors of the under-the-counter fridges?
“Icea Boxa”
“More Icea Boxa”
“Even More Icea Boxa”
Pizza Hut or Gino’s East (is Gino’s considered a chain?) for a chain.
I used to like Rosatti’s (local chain) but not so much anymore. Ditto with CPA.
ETA - Pillsbury makes a thin and crispy premade crust that comes in the can (in the fridge section of the store where the other in a can rolls are) that is really good - husband made a pizza with it once and it was better than we’ve had in a long time.
'Struth, though the Unos that are any place other than downtown Chicago are run by a separate company, which licenses the name and recipes from the original (and isn’t even based in Chicago!)
Here in Chicago, I think we’re blessed with a lot of great local / family pizzerias, which may be why the big chains have never dominated here.
Every once in a while, I get a craving for Pizza Hut’s thin crust pizza. And, I love the Buffalo Chicken Pizza at CiCi’s Pizza Buffet. But, other than that, I’d much rather have a pizza from one of our local places.
Don’t know if it’s nationwide, but Papa Sevario’s has great pizza, but they’re just really expensive. Same with Jimano’s.
Rocky Roccoco’s is my favorite – but only the Roccoco Chicago. They have the *best *sausage.
I can’t stand Papa John’s or Rosatti’s.
I do like Pizza Hut and Little Ceasar’s for chains.
I’ll order Domino’s only when cost or time is a factor. Even then, only the thin crust with pepperoni.
As someone else here mentioned, the best pizza is usually a small non-chain place.
It’s always amazed me that no matter how many pizza places there are, the pizzas all taste slightly different. Where I go will often depend on what flavor I’m looking for. Some have better cheeses, others better sauce, others have the crust. You’d think they’d all taste the same…
I miss Rocky Rococo’s. They’re based out of Madison, WI, where I went to college; they expanded in the mid-80s, but not successfully, and a lot of those expanded locations closed soon after. There aren’t too many of them outside of central Wisconsin. (And, I agree about their sausage!)
Chuckle…I know what you mean.
Some of my in-laws live in Florida. They hate the pizza down there, and adore Chicago pizza. About a decade ago, we sent them mail-order Chicago pizzas for Christmas, and they declared that (a) this was one of their all-time favorite gifts, and (b) they wanted us to keep sending them those for Christmas until further notice.
Papa John’s. Domino’s sucks, and Pizza Hut has a web interface that is a pain in the butt to use. Besides, I like Papa John’s thin crust.
We use Papa Johns as our standard pizza place.
That being said, the best pizza I have ever had was from a place close to Charles St in Boston (I wish I could remember the name).
Also, since the opening post did not specify which nation in “national chain”, I will say that South African chain pizza is an order of magnitude better than United States chain pizza. National chains like Debonairs or St. Elmos are far more awesome. One thing I definitely miss …
Former NYer here.
Having been out of the city for almost 20 years now, I’ve had to make do with pizza chains. While none of them come close to real NY pizza, some chains are better than others. I like Pizza Hut’s pan and hand-tossed–the thin crust stuff reminds me too much of how awful PH was when that’s all they had. Didn’t like Papa John’s originally–the sauce was way too sweet. They appear to have corrected that problem and have moved up to a distant second. Domino’s is just plain gross. I think it’s the cheese mixture they use–it just has the most awful texture. Little Caesar’s is better than it used to be, which isn’t saying much, but for 5 bucks, it’s still better than Domino’s. As far as “mall pizza” goes (Sbarro, Villa, etc.), just OK, nothing special. Sbarro’s strombolis are better than the pizza.
Papa Murphy’s “take & bake” pizza is pretty decent and, IMO, the best of that category. I especially like their stuffed pizza.
What surprised me is Costco’s pizza. Not the “take & bake” ones, but the ones you get hot from the food court. For around 10 bucks, it’s actually pretty darned tasty. If you live near enough to one that you can get the pie home while it’s still reasonably hot, you could do a lot worse–say, Domino’s.
Locally, we have a few places that profess to serve “New York” style pizza, but the ones that are any good charge way more for a pie than I’m willing to pay.