I didn’t have anything to make for dinner, so when I chanced upon frozen/refrigerated boxes of Belafino Take and Bake Pepperoni Pizza at Grocery Outlet, I thought I’d give it a try. Probably I won’t do it again.
The 2lb, 16″ pizzas seemed good enough in the box. They are made with 100% real mozzarella cheese, and at $3 each they looked like a good bargain. They seemed to have a fair amount of cheese and pepperoni – though once I took them out of the box, the pepperoni seemed rather scant. Still, what ultimately matters is the flavor, and these pizzas taste only of sauce.
There was no cheese flavor /at all/, and while the mild pepperoni was nice in itself, it couldn’t stand up to the sauce. I found the sauce to have an unhappy combination of a predominant too-sweet taste, with hints of annoying bitterness. I just didn’t like it.
The crust was OK, though it had a slight refrigerator taste that I didn’t really appreciate, still it was masked by the sauce.
All of this said, the kids *loved* it. I can’t imagine why, but kids are funny.
I did a bit of googling about this pizza and it seems it’s a relatively recent brand from Schwan, the makers of Freschetta, Red Baron and Tony’s frozen pizzas. Belafino is supposed to be a “gourmet” offering, one to be sold on the deli section of the supermarket – giving the impression that it’s fresh (though the box does note that it’s been previously frozen). Supermarkets are supposed to defrost them, put a “sell by” date of 10 days after the pizza was defrosted, and place it in the deli. I find that kind of scary, because nothing on the box says when the pizza was made (it has a 6-month freezer life). It also seems sort of deceptive.
In any case, the pizza doesn’t taste good and that’s what really counts.
Belafino seriously tastes like crap on cardboard.
This pizza, made by Belafino was the absolutely worst tasting pizza that I have ever encountered. Purchased at Grocery a Outlet in Hayward because I was lazy but this is a total afront to taste buds. The only flavor is pizza sauce and sugar. The cheese is absolutely tasteless.
This is a FOOD CRIME!
Sincerely,
CKnapp
I bought a Belafino Cheese pizza at grocery outlet and tossed or on the freezer for an undetermined length of time, it had ice on it inside the clear plastic wrap, not in a box., and it was sensational! I smeared a little pesto on it , sprinkled a few pine nuts and popped it on the oven