What a pleasant surprise. I was concerned this would be a little bland, but I liked it. Not something I’ll buy again since I’m outside their target demographic (gimme fat and grease!), but anyone with the slightest interest in healthy food options should give this a shot. Please note that I do not have a background in nutrition and did zero research into just how healthy this really is, so do your research if you really do want to eat this as part of a healthy diet.
Pretty good! This is an average price pizza with an above average taste. Nothing too fancy, but it was both flavorful and just barely large enough to fill me up when I ate the entire thing in one go.
Note – this review was typed a whole 3 years ago! I have a huge backlog of reviews I never posted. That happens when you only post once or twice a year…
“Tastes like generic pizza, but that’s not a bad thing. I approve.” – Pizza Wife
The quote above was my experience for maybe the first slice and a half. Not bad at all, but not great. We were very interested in trying this due to the Stranger Things tv series tie-in (hey, marketing works!), but it ultimately turned out to be what I expected; a pretty basic frozen pizza that got the job done, but didn’t impress. I might give their pineapple and jalapeno pizza a chance out of curiosity, but I wouldn’t recommend the pepperoni pizza unless you too are curious and nothing else looks better.
My initial thoughts were also that it’s roughly in line with other basic pizzas like Digiorno, Red Baron, or even store brands. However, there was something about that it didn’t hold my interest. I really lost enthusiasm after my second slice of Surfer Boy and only kept eating out of convenience. To contrast, I’m usually happy to eat 4 out of 8 slices of a pepperoni pizza before I’m full and will sometimes eat the entire thing if I love it.
You’d be correct to assume that this marketing tie-in brand is produced by another established pizza company. This one was made by Palermo’s, a brand I like. In fact, I consider their thin crust pizza one of my favorite low-cost pizzas. I used to regularly buy I think it was a 3-pack for $9 at Costco before inflation went nuts in the US (no idea what the price is now). I greatly preferred those thin crust Palermo’s pizzas to this Surfer Buy pepperoni pizza. Maybe it’s the thicker Surfer Boy crust that ruined it, or maybe they used lower-quality ingredients to generate large margins on what’s most likely a temporary brand. Either way, I won’t let this affect my perception of Palermo’s unless they produce more offerings that miss the mark.
Love it! Right up there with Hill Country Fair and Kirkland’s in terms of price and taste, but possibly slightly better. I’ll have to compare the three side-by-side for a definitive answer.
Palermo’s appears to only come in packs of three, but that’s ok. I like to keep several extra pizzas in my freezer at all times for when I have guests. Buying a pack or two of three doesn’t bother me.
Note – I have a big backlog of 43 typed reviews I haven’t posted yet! This one was typed on 7/31/17, making it one of the older reviews.
Didn’t care for it. This pizza made a decent enough meal that I will never try again. The hints of bacon and spinach were good, but the overall taste was fairly bland. I didn’t think the taste of beef meshed well. Thankfully, that flavor was so light, it was almost like a faint aftertaste of beef with every bite.
Loved it! I don’t know that I’d ever had cream cheese on a pizza before this, but I’m a fan. No surprise considering I love jalapeno poppers. I was impressed by the ample amount of bacon and jalapeno bits that came with this pizza. HEB (the producer of the excellent Midtown Pizza brand) didn’t skimp. Cannot wait to have this again!
I thought the croissant crust would be gimmicky, but I like it. The flaky crust gave this pizza a bit of crispiness you otherwise don’t find in something this thick. The rest of your pizza is your standard Digiorno fare; pretty good, nothing amazing. The crust though did kick up the enjoyment factor, and I’d like to see more brands offer this crust alternative or something else even more imaginative.
I’m stuck home on a freezing, slippery-road night, so let’s try something new. This is very good! A cut above your standard supreme pizza. Flavorful and packed with pepperonis. I’ll buy their pepperoni pizza next. I really want to try some more of this brand.
Rating: 8/10
Purchased at Walmart for $6.99. 24.69 oz, $0.28/oz.
TLDR: tasty, salty, expensive, not worth it unless you need to avoid glutens.
This was one of the better pepperoni pizzas I’ve had. Didn’t expect that. It was pretty salty. Maybe that’s why I liked it.
If you’re attracted to this pizza because you’re trying to avoid gluten, have at it. It’s great! However, if you’re attracted to this pizza because you think almond flour = healthy food, please note that it doesn’t just taste salty but rather truly does have a very high sodium content.
One serving is 1/3rd of the pizza and 113g. This one serving unfortunately contains 930mg of sodium which is 39% of the recommended sodium intake based on a 2,000 calorie diet. I grabbed a quick sampling of all the other frozen pizzas in my fridge and found that this was about a 50% higher sodium content than all the other pizzas when adjusted for serving size. It’s pretty bad.
The almond crust didn’t seem to hurt the flavor. The texture and flavor of the crust was a little different than a traditional flour crust, but that didn’t bother me. However, I’m taking a guess the extra salt was used to enhance the flavor and perhaps make up for an otherwise not-so-tasty crust. I don’t know. I’m not familiar enough with almond flour to know how good it should taste. Just speculating here.
Factor in the cost and you have something I enjoyed eating but will never have again. As you can see from the footer below, this is a $10, 12oz pizza. That’s $.83/oz, making it the second most expensive pizza per oz I’ve ever eaten! It’s good, but not that good and not worth the blood pressure spiking sodium content!
Rating: 8.5/10
Purchased at Whole Foods for $9.99. 12 oz, $0.83/oz.
As you can see, I forgot to take a picture of the pizza before eating most of it. Sometimes the stomach takes precedence over the art.
The words that come to mind are “high quality” and “fresh.” This is a very good pizza that tasted far fresher than any other frozen pizza I’ve eaten.
I suspect the baking instructions play a large role in making this pizza taste so good. The box instructs the baker to let the pizza thaw for 20-30 minutes before baking. This is actually my preferred method for baking pizzas I’m familiar with and have already reviewed because it does usually result in a better tasting product. However, this method alone usually doesn’t result in a pizza this good.
It’s unfortunately a bit too expensive for me to justify purchasing often, but good enough to buy once or twice a year despite that high price. I paid $11.99 for this pizza which works out to$.61/oz. That is considerably more than the $.34, the median price of every pizza I’ve reviewed.
There are too many other really good pizzas out there priced close to the median for this brand to enter my regular rotation, but the fact that I’m not outright balking at a $12 price tag is a good sign. I applaud them for making something this good and distinct in the frozen pizza landscape.
Mann vs Pizza 