Vegan review: Domino’s Pizza

Back in June, Domino’s announced they’d finally be bringing a vegan option to the market in the UK. They’d supposedly spent a long time trying to recreate their iconic pizzas to a standard they were happy with, and 46 stores would be testing out the popularity of their vegan margherita and veggie supreme. The nearest branch to Oxford that offers the plant-based versions of their pizzas is Wantage, but I got to test it out for myself from the Ipswich branch when visiting family.

Prior to going vegan, Domino’s would’ve been my go-to order for home delivery (although I’d much prefer eating out and enjoying a proper pizzeria style pizza where possible). Post-vegan though, Papa John’s have been leading the way with their brilliant vegan offering and consistent innovation, offering new additions to the menu every so often to keep us coming back. I was looking forward to trying Domino’s for the first time in a good five years, and seeing if it was anything like what I remembered.

My Mum and Granny both tried a slice of my vegan pizza and said they’d quite happily eat it, and that it had more of a cheesy flavour than their meat pizza, which is surely a big compliment. When I compared the cheese on this pizza to Papa John’s though, I felt pretty indifferent about it. In fact, after Domino’s big announcement that they’d spent months and months perfecting a cheese that imitates their usual pizzas, I felt that couldn’t be farther from the case. Against the ooze of the dairy cheese, this was very much your standard, un-melting vegan grated cheese, and as usual they weren’t overly generous with the amount they’d sprinkled on, so you could see more of the tomato base than anything else. In fairness to them, the cheese flavour definitely was there, but it just wasn’t anything special.

The soft, fluffy dough was good, and closer to the original Domino’s experience that I remembered. In fact, it was possibly even better, as I didn’t have that horrible bloated stomach full of lead feeling after (or maybe I just didn’t eat as much as I used to)! In terms of the toppings, I’m glad I didn’t go for a margherita as I’m sure I’d have felt a bit ripped off for a very bland pizza. I ordered the vegan vegi supreme, which comes topped with onion, sweetcorn, mushrooms, peppers and extra tomato. They were fairly generous with the toppings and they all tasted decent enough, making for a perfectly adequate pizza. Just not so exciting when you compare to Papa John’s vegan marmite scrolls or mock pepperoni.

The only vegan side (again, miles behind Papa John’s here) is their potato wedges, which come with barbecue sauce. They were already cold by the time we got our pizza home, which was a shame, but they were a nice enough addition to the meal. One of my wedges tasted like it’d been made with a piece of mouldy potato but I think I was just unlucky with that one. For the most part they were exactly as you’d expect, nothing more, nothing less.

Using Domino’s ‘Pick and Mix’ deal, we got a large pizza, a medium pizza, and three sides for £26.99, which comfortably fed four adults with a little left over, so all in all it really wasn’t bad value. However, the vegan pizza only comes in a medium size, which is a shame, as you wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the offer with a fully vegan order. Good to note that the vegan pizza did past the morning after test! In fact, I had a couple of slices for tea the next day after keeping it refrigerated, and I almost enjoyed it more cold. Domino’s is hugely popular in the UK and it’s exciting that they’re finally taking steps to cater for vegans – let’s hope they start to roll these options out across the UK, see the demand for vegan food, and start to improve on their current offering.