Dominos Pasta Breadbowl Review: Order Anything Else

Sauce…just everywhere

I always want to like Dominos; they’re like the underdog of the pizza world. But even though I have fond childhood memories of their pizza and pasta dishes, I am continually disappointed as an adult.

Dominos probably spent millions of dollars advertising their new dough and pizza recipes. Money not well spent, Dominos. You can sell, sell, sell on T.V. as much as you want, but you have to deliver. This has been the major downfall with Dominos. I have high expectations because I’ve been bombarded with thousands of T.V., print, and billboard ads, yet when I order, the food comes lukewarm, messy, and grease staining every bit of cardboard.

One of my main gripes with Dominos has been presentation. Nobody wants to eat food that looks greasy and is sloppily put together; especially when the picture has really fluffy dough, full of various ingredients, and is “steaming” hot.

I wanted to give them a shot to impress me with their newness, but I can’t say I’d order Dominos pasta breadbowl again. Let’s start with the packaging. Holy grammar hell. “To breadbowl? Or not to breadbowl? That is the question.” Even if I wasn’t a writer, I could easily pick up on the fact that there are two question marks and a statement that says, “the question.” Did you spend all your money on touting your new dough that you couldn’t afford a proofreader? That makes me feel like laziness is running in the brand.

Glaring Grammar Gripe

Alright, I guess they make pizza so let’s move beyond easy-to-fix errors. I opened the box and immediately grimaced. Did a tomato throw up on my food? There is nothing appetizing about that first impression. Not only was the sauce dumped messily all over the bowl, but it was barely lukewarm and not mixed into the pasta. It didn’t look anything like the advertised bowls I saw on their website. Granted, I order a custom Dominos pasta breadbowl with chicken, spinach, cheese, and extra sauce, but how can it be extra sauce if there was no sauce on the pasta to begin with?

The pasta was hard, especially near the edges of the breadbowl and not cooked al dente. The sauce tasted salty and I found maybe 10 leaves of baby spinach in the bowl. I have to say the chicken, although lacking in quantity as well, was juicy and hot, but that’s probably because it was made by someone else and heated up in a microwave. I ordered cheese, not sure where it went, maybe it was on the bottom of the bowl, but I couldn’t find it. The bowl was, at best, cold in the middle and slightly warm on the outside.

What I thought I was getting…

What I got…

As far as the new recipe dough goes, I would have to say that’s going in the right direction. It tasted fresh, garlicky, slight hints of oregano or some sort of Italian spice, and I liked the semolina dusting. The actual edges of Dominos pasta breadbowl were good but the soggy bottom, I’d suggest skipping that.

Upon eating the edges of the bowl though, I noticed the entire bottom of the cardboard box was coated in yellow grease. My hands were also layered with grease after just tearing off one chunk of breadbowl crust. There was no cheese to be found so where did the grease come from? The dough? The chicken? The sauce was oily? I’m not sure and that’s a bad sign in my book.

Box grease

They offer chicken alfredo, Italian sausage marinara, chicken carbonara, and pasta primavera as the pre-made bowl options, but don’t expect them to come to your door looking like the picture.

Other Pasta Breadbowl Options

I’m even a carboholic; this should be my dream meal! I eat two bagels for breakfast and pasta for dinner many times yet I couldn’t manage to eat very much of this salty, sloppy, non-sizzling bowl. I’m always rooting for them to step up their game; however, no amount of ad time will save the poorly prepared Dominos pasta breadbowl.

Summary

Reviewer

Mandy Ellis

Review Date

2014-02-24

Reviewed Item

Dominos' Pasta Breadbowl

Author Rating

1