Tag Archives: pizza

The Veg Life, Vegan Tips

Vegan Fast Food: Papa John’s Edition

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I’m going to be honest, I knew Papa John’s was a pizza place, but I never went to them before I was vegan. There wasn’t any particular reason (that I remember), it just wasn’t my pizza place of choice.

So, that begs the question: why is my older brother obsessed with them? The last few years, any time we start talking about pizza places, he’s hailed Papa John’s as being the best pizza place ever!

Last July, I finally decided to humour him and we got it for lunch.

I was disappointed, to say the least.

The vegan options? Abysmally small! They have only a small selection of veggie toppings, 1 kind of dough that’s vegan (the gluten free crust is not it!) and they don’t even have vegan cheese!

It’s 2025!

I could maaaybe understand not having a faux meat option, but no cheese? Come on, Papa!

What the hell have you been doing over there?

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Pizza

  • Hand-Tossed Original Dough (Thin, Original or New York Style Crust)
  • Signature/Original Pizza Sauce (Tomato)
  •  BBQ Sauce
  • Onions
  • Jalapeno Peppers
  • Banana Peppers
  • Green Peppers
  • Mushrooms
  • Roma Tomatoes
  • Pineapple Tidbits
  • Spinach
  • Black Olives
  • Green Olives

Sides

  • Original Breadsticks

Dips

  •  Signature Garlic Sauce (Lactic Acid)
  • Buffalo Sauce
  • BBQ Sauce
  • Pizza Sauce
  • Spicy Garlic Sauce (Lactic Acid)

Other

  • Whole Pepperoncinis
  • Crushed Red Pepper
  • Special Seasoning

Drinks

  •  Pepsi
  •  Diet Pepsi
  • Pepsi Zero Sugar
  • Mountain Dew (Yellow 5)
  •  Aquafina
  • Starry
  • Starry Zero

Their website also makes it kind of hard to find the ingredient information, but once you find the page it includes very detailed descriptions and doesn’t appear to hide anything behind vague-sounding names.

For example, the Banana Peppers list sodium metabisulfite  and then in brackets next to it, is the explanation, ‘a salt, maintains freshness‘.

The only iffy thing is the lactic acid. They don’t say whether it’s plant- or animal-based, so it’s up to you to decide if you’re willing to chance it.

Their Allergen Chart is also fairly straight forward to look through.

I will also say, despite their lack of vegan options, their Signature Garlic Sauce and Breadsticks were pretty good. I know this isn’t a product review, but it’d be the only thing from them I’d recommend trying. Unless you’re into sad no-cheese pizza that’s thin enough it feels like a tortilla and you have to fold it in half just to bite it.

They’re good for a snack/side, but definitely not for a filling  vegan pizza meal.

At least, not at the moment.

Like this post? Check out more of the Vegan Fast Food series!

*If anyone from Papa John’s wants to reach out for more specific feedback, I’d be happy to share!

Product Review, The Veg Life

Daiya’s Meatless Pepperoni Style Pizza Review

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Pepperoni pizzas are considered to be pretty basic, but just because a product isn’t overly complicated or a mash of six different flavours doesn’t mean it shouldn’t get just as much attention as the more exotic products out there!

Sometimes, you just need a simple meal to fill you, and that’s what this pizza does best.

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I’ve only tried this pizza once – for some reason it’s really hard to find in Canada – and I ended up burning it a bit, so it was a bit more crunchy then I like, but even with that, it was pretty good!

The crust and cheese tasted the same as their other frozen pizzas. The pepperoni was more interesting. Now, the only other vegan pepperoni I’ve tried is Yves and the one that PizzaPizza uses (though they might use Yves, I can’t remember right now), and I don’t really remember what meat pepperoni tastes like, but I liked this one. It was actually pretty spicy, which I wasn’t expecting. It was about the same amount of spicy as the Beyond Meat Spicy Sausages. Which might not be that much for some of you, but for me it’s a lot.

Because they were spicy, they reminded me of what Hot Rods used to taste like. I don’t know how popular those are outside of Canada, but that’s pretty much what they tasted like. They were also pretty big in size, bigger than the pepperoni PizzaPizza uses, (I bought a pizza specifically to compare their sizes). Aside from the spicy aspect, they also had quite a strong smokey flavour.

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I obviously would’ve liked them better if they weren’t spicy, and just smokey, but the smoke flavour did a good job of sort of ‘washing’ your mouth out when you swallowed so it didn’t feel like your throat was on fire.

This pizza is also the same price as the others (usually $10.99), which you could maybe argue for it being less because there’s only one thing on it. Other than that, there’s not really much to tell. It’s pretty basic, but it’s good.

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Product Review, The Veg Life

Daiya Mushroom and Roasted Garlic Pizza Review

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Ah, Daiya. I don’t understand why so many people hate this company. I’ve had nothing but pleasant experiences with them. The only ‘issue’ I’ve ever had was one time I bought a block of their cheese from a store and it was mold-y. But, I sent them pictures, and they sent me coupons for compensation. How nice is that?

That said, this isn’t my favourite pizza from them. My favourite is the Supreme pizza, and I have a suspicion I would like their Meatless Lovers’ too, but I’ve yet to find it. Every store I’ve been to that sells their pizzas are either sold out of the Meatless Lovers’, or they just don’t carry that kind. I have no idea why, but it’s actually getting a little annoying. (Same as the Monterey Jack Blocks are getting harder and harder to find – they’re my favourite ones! I had to start buying them in 4’s!)

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Most of the Daiya frozen pizzas taste the same, which makes sense because it’s the same company. It’s the same crust, sauce and cheese, they just change the toppings. The garlic bits on the pizza are a little much for my taste. I don’t really understand why they put bits of real garlic on the pizza, so you actually bite into hunks of garlic. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t find that part appetizing.

The rest of the pizza is not really overwhelming. It’s watery mushrooms on top of a frozen pizza crust. Not really something to write home about, but I have also had worse. It hits the spot, and isn’t as hard to find as the other kinds, but it’s also not their best.

As said before, there’s no real ‘wow!’ factor to it, it’s just… good. Will do in a pinch, and gets the job done of satisfying your hunger.

I know that’s not really an exciting review, especially after the in depth one of the Vegan Food and Drink Festival from last month, but there’s just not really too much to say about this pizza.

It’s good, but it’s not their best. If you haven’t tried any of them, I wouldn’t recommend starting with this one, but if there is nothing else, it’ll get the job done.

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Product Review, The Veg Life

Daiya Supreme Pizza Review

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Ah, pizza. One of my favourite foods on the planet. It’s hard to go wrong when you’re giving me pizza. Perfectly acceptable to eat for every meal – it has all the food groups, y’know.

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Frozen pizza is good, but it’s more of what you settle for when you can’t get to the real thing. It usually does the job and fills/satisfies, but is nothing compared to it’s freshly prepared counterpart.

Or at least, that’s what I hear non-vegans describe it as. I don’t know if maybe it’s the novelty of being able to buy a frozen pizza instead of making my own at home (which I still do) or perhaps Daiya just has a stronger frozen pizza game, but I’ve never had that ‘this is gross’ feeling when eating a frozen pizza. All the frozen pizzas (which, to be fair isn’t that many) I’ve tried have been pretty good. This one is my favourite that Daiya makes.

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It was also the first way I tried Beyond Meat and I gotta say, even frozen and mixed with other toppings, I loved it. Since tasting it at A&W in burger form, I’m definitely a fan. While I don’t want to say the Beyond Sausage is the one reason it’s my favourite Daiya pizza, I’m not gonna lie – it definitely helped.

The pizza minus the Beyond Sausage is pretty uneventful – it’s Daiya cheese with veggies. If you like Daiya cheese and veggies, you’ll like it. Although, for some odd reason many vegans don’t like Daiya cheese, so I guess don’t buy their pizzas then?

I would personally like there to be more crust, but even still, it’s one of my favourite thin crust pizzas. It’s not so thin where it flops under the weight of the toppings and doesn’t even rip when you bite it (looking at you Pizza Nova), but it’s definitely not a thick crust.

Another thing I would say they could improve on, is that the toppings go all the way to the edges of the pizza – there’s no crust handle! How am I supposed to hold the thing? Underneath like a madman? No. Give us that edge to hold onto – it would definitely make dipping it in say, HotforFoods’ Ranch dip easier.

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(This picture isn’t the supreme pizza)

All in all, this pizza is pretty good, not overly floppy, has a decent amount of toppings and it’s a good size for being a ‘one person’ pizza. I usually cut it into 8 slices and eat half now and save half for later. (Or sometimes I just eat it all) It’s definitely my favourite out of the pizzas I’ve tried from Daiya. I would recommend you try it if you haven’t already.

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