Tavern Style Frozen Pizzas

In keeping with the food trend… A few years ago there was just Heggies, Lotza Motza, and maybe one or two others. Now there’s a ton of options for quality tavern style pizzas in your frozen section of the grocery store. They’re not exactly cheap but I like picking up a new one every now and then to try. Haven’t found a bad one, but I think Heggies still holds-up pretty strong against the competition and is a good MN company. Kwik Trip Pothole Pizza might actually be my favorite and I prefer it even to their take and bake. While I haven’t tried it yet, I’ve heard Kettle River Pizzas are supposed to be phenomenal, but it’s harder to find south of the cities where I’m at. What are some of your favorites?

7th Avenue hands down the best and yes they are local. My wife got a couple heggies and while I liked them in the past, it gave me the runs BIG time last week after eating it.

Kettle river is delicious and Lottza motza, I don’t care fir the heggies but that may be because I over ate them. Brew pud is also a good one. But my go to frozen pizza is a beltoria

Beltoria used to make this wood fired style pizza but they dont anymore. That was my all time favorite. At least I cannot find it anymore.

my go to used to be lotza motza. i think i burnt myself out on them. ill still pick one up if they are on sale. their taco and pepperoni pizzas are still solid. my new go to isnt a pub pizza but its damn good – green mill supreme. sometimes ill find them on sale for around $6 and when i do i usually just buy about 10 of them to last me 4 or 5 months

Ive never liked Heggies. feel like im licking a salt block

The Drafthaus frozen pizzas they sell at Holiday gas stations are delicious! I was skeptical at first – frozen pizza from a gas station , but now I’m hooked!!

X2 on 7th Ave and just made one last night haha! Now if I’m going really cheap on pizza you cant go wrong on Jacks.

In the beginning: there was Ole and Lenas. And as the light appeared behold, they sold them frozen and we no longer had to go to one little restaraunt. Whole Hog and PB and Jalapeno are particularly tasty. Bacon Mac and cheese is pretty good too.

KP have you done a pizza on the bullzeye yet? I did a couple papa murphys and holy smokes were they good.

Jacks, Tombstone = college bargain pizzas most edible between the hours of 1:00am-3:00am, decent bargain though if you don’t care about taste

Lota Motza & Heggies = very overrated for what they cost, crazy salty

Red Baron = crust is the worst on any frozen pizza, taste is middle of the road

Belatoria = decent pizza, decent tasting and a notch above the bad pizzas for sure but not overly filling

Digiorno = most filling, tastes pretty bland though

Drafthaus = best overall mix of toppings, taste, and relatively filling

I dig Heggies.. but recently had some Harrys Pizza at a wedding reception (think 45 minutes before ending) and it was da bomb. I have since had it sober and it was equally delectable. Plus its made local in Elrosa !

I have heard about Harrys, but I cant say I have ever seen it in stores.

Green Mill Tavern Style is the best I have tried lately, Cub has them on sale for $6.99 or 2 for 1 fairly often.

buckybadger wrote:

Jacks, Tombstone = college bargain pizzas most edible between the hours of 1:00am-3:00am, decent bargain though if you don’t care about taste
Lota Motza & Heggies = very overrated for what they cost, crazy salty

Red Baron = crust is the worst on any frozen pizza, taste is middle of the road

Belatoria = decent pizza, decent tasting and a notch above the bad pizzas for sure but not overly filling

Digiorno = most filling, tastes pretty bland though

Pretty spot on. Bellatoria italian sausage is the cream of the crop imo but I can eat a whole one and not be full.

I’d add one category: Roma/Totinos Party Pizza = the college kid who’s out of loan money for the semester. Only edible with half bottle of your roommate’s Franks or Ranch. Last step before resorting to ketchup noodles.

Aldi’s frozen pizzas are good and very affordable

Hometowne Pizza is good

Drafthouse, lotza motza

Don’t get me wrong I will do work on any of the pizza’s listed, but I rarely, if ever, buy them anymore since they cost more than Papa Murphy’s, Casey’s and the big restaurant chains. My wife picks up some Cauliflower Crust 2 packs from Costco that cost about the same as a Heggies, and are much less unhealthy (even tho they are probably not actually healthy).

Anything besides Heggies.

CaptainMusky wrote:

KP have you done a pizza on the bullzeye yet? I did a couple papa murphys and holy smokes were they good.

I did a 7th Ave Pizza on it last night and turned out great! Was a little worried the bottom would get over done but it was perfect. I have also made a calzone on it too in a cast iron pan.

KP Sweet!

BigWerm wrote:

My wife picks up some Cauliflower Crust

You might want to look into a ridgeline

I’ve noticed a few bars north of the cities have Giovanni’s! This was a pizza chain back in the 90s around MN – we had one in Winona when I was in College – it was the BOMB and a couple of good friends worked there – they set the new bar for pizza joint employee “skullduggery and tomfoolery” we’ll just say . I think they may still have one or two Giovanni’s restaurants up north – maybe Bemidji?

But it seems like they’ve pivoted to more of a Tavern brand to sell in bars they’re still pretty great, from what I’ve had!

Carter Johnson wrote:

You might want to look into a ridgeline

well played Carter!

ThunderLund78 wrote:

I’ve noticed a few bars north of the cities have Giovanni’s! This was a pizza chain back in the 90s around MN – we had one in Winona when I was in College – it was the BOMB and a couple of good friends worked there – they set the new bar for pizza joint employee “skullduggery and tomfoolery” we’ll just say . I think they may still have one or two Giovanni’s restaurants up north – maybe Bemidji?

But it seems like they’ve pivoted to more of a Tavern brand to sell in bars they’re still pretty great, from what I’ve had!

I believe Bemidji is the last one that’s open.

The frozen Giovanni’s are made in Brainerd and are sold in bars and a few grocery stores, or if you happen to be in Brainerd you can buy them directly from their facility in the industrial park. Their sausage is great.

I had Kettle River recently bought from a fundraiser thing and they were very good.

I’ve recently stopped buying a lot of frozen pizza, however, except for the cheap Jacks (which I love). I just realized that life is too short not to eat good pizza and when the prices to get from a restaurant aren’t that much more than a frozen pizza, might as well go that route. Especially when you can get the $7 or $8 carryout from the big chains. I’ll eat that all day over any frozen pizza.

Bearcat89 wrote:

But my go to frozen pizza is a beltoria

Beltoria breadcrumb pizza is the only frozen pizza I eat these days. Its amazingly good.

For $3-4 you cant beat a Jacks in my opinion. However, I add a little cheese to help it out.
Roma is horrible,
DiGorno is OK, just no pop in the taste.
Pothole from KT is really good but pricy (unless they have the Packer win thing going on).
Beltoria? Im gonna try that one.

I’ve never had a frozen pizza closer to the tavern style I grew up on in Chicago than Portesi’s. Not sure if they’re available in MN but they’re all over central WI. Looks like you can order them online, but I didn’t look at the prices. The ones that are par-baked seem to come out tasting closest to the real deal. https://portesi.net/products/

Beltoria? Im gonna try that one.[/quote]

We like the ultimate pepperoni and sausage. 4 cheese is good to but I never eat straight cheese pizza. My kid loves it.