Cappello’s – Grain Free Uncured Pepperoni

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.

Digiorno – Ultra Thin Gluten Free Sausage Supreme Pizza

I’m impressed. Very good. Couldn’t tell this was gluten-free. I think the seasoning helped mask the lack of glutens. The entire pizza was also only 540 calories. It was pretty small, but also surprisingly filling. Excellent option for someone looking to either limit calories or eliminate glutens.

Rating: 7.5/10

Purchased at HEB for $5.99. 10 oz, $0.6/oz.

Udi’s Gluten Free – Uncured Pepperoni

Probably the best gluten-free frozen pizza I’ve tried so far. Reminds me of Tostino’s, but with that same “this isn’t a flour crust” taste that all gluten-free pizzas have. Like with all other gluten-free pizzas, this isn’t something I’ll come back to since I have no gluten allergies and prefer my pizzas teeming with glutens. It’s worth a shot for those who are curious.

Purchased at HEB for $5.76. 10.1oz, $.57/oz.

Daiya – Mushroom & Roasted Garlic

Big surprise.  Miscellaneous ingredient-free food items (gluten-free, fat-free, sugar-free, etc) are usually pale immitations of the real (or maybe “standard” is the right word) thing.  This pizza holds up just fine.  Not as good as the best non-gluten-free (double-negative, I know) pizzas out there, but as good as you’d expect if you randomly grabbed a pizza off the shelf without checking the brand.

The issue is the price.  I paid $9.38 for a 17oz pie.  That’s $.55/oz, or 66.7% more expensive than the average frozen pizza.  Although not the most expensive brand I’ve tried, the other brands at or above this price range are significantly tastier.

I don’t fault Daiya.  I’ve noticed that gluten-free pizzas are expensive and imagine it has something to do with the ingredients and/or process of making such pizzas being more expensive.  However, the higher than average price tag combined with not higher than average taste means I cannot recommend this to anyone lacking a gluten-allergy.

Purchased at HEB for $9.38.  17oz, $.55/oz.

Russo’s – Greek

7/18/2015

My original review read “Still good even though I over baked it. I’ll need to try it again and do it right.”

This is the one gluten-free pizza I’ve ever eaten.   I thought I overcooked it because of how overly crisp it seemed.  My boss informed me afterwards that this is what you typically want.  If the crust isn’t crisp, it just doesn’t come out right.  Maybe I did do it right, but I vaguely remember accidentally leaving it in longer than I meant to.  I’ll try at least one of their other varieties and maybe do a gluten-free roundup someday.

Purchased at HEB for $7.99.  13.52oz, $.59/oz.  7 out of 10.  Pretty pricey due to the lack of glutens, but I hear this is common for gluten-free offerings.