Food Review: Papa John’s Double Cheeseburger Pizza

I’ve not made any bones about the fact that I love food, and I love eating novelty items. A cereal made from the lining of a trashcan? Sign me up. Pancake mix made from the trappings of a rats entrails? Bring me the milk. Okay, that was too far, but you know what I mean.

Remember back in July when I was talking about eating good and counting calories? Welp. Those days feel like a year ago. It’s hard to break old habits of eating bad and too many calories. I shudder to think how many calories there are in this pizza. But thank god I still have my metabolism, mostly.

Yesterday, I got an email about Papa John’s double cheeseburger pizza, which apparently was previously on the menu in 2018, and wouldn’t you know it, I’m a sucker for advertising, and ORDERED IT A COUPLE HOURS LATER. Seriously, show me a food advertisement for a novelty item, and it’s going to stick in my brain until I try it out. I can’t help it! I’m ideal for these Mad Men.

Not only did I order the Papa John’s double cheeseburger pizza, but Papa John’s also did something new recently that I love: They added the cheese-stuffed crust, which I only used to be able to get (around here, at least) at Pizza Hut. I’m a sucker for advertising and I’m a sucker for melted cheese inside of bread. Yes, please. It’s expensive. Papa John’s was advertising bringing this pizza back for only $12! A large pizza for $12! A novelty large pizza for $12! That’s not bad at all. But add in the cheese-stuffed crust, $4 for delivery, and I paid something like $19, maybe more with a tip, for the pizza.

I ain’t mad and I don’t regret it.

So, the idea behind the double cheeseburger pizza is exactly what it sounds like. Appealing to those of us who love cheeseburgers and who love pizza (to those who don’t like either or one of these, you’re dead to me) and would eat the combination of the two. Now, a pizza cheeseburger seems hard to pull off, but a cheeseburger pizza is quite simple actually. The recipe calls for the following: a quarter pound of seasoned beef (I guess that’s what makes it a double? I don’t exactly know where the “double” comes in at), with dill pickles (I held the pickles, but if you’re into that, I figured I”d mention it), melty cheese (MORE CHEESE!), Roma tomatoes, and apparently, the sauce itself sort of has a hint of a Big Mac-like sauce.

Folks. It tastes like you’re eating a dang cheeseburger, although contra the Big Mac-like sauce, it actually tastes more like one of those mini cheeseburgers from White Castle rather than a Big Mac from McDonald’s. Between the actual pizza itself (all that seasoned ground beef and it being a large pizza) and the cheese-stuffed crust, I was stuffed after three pieces, so naturally, I ate one more piece to be safe.

If you’re into cheeseburgers, and pizza, and aren’t a snob about chain pizza places like Papa John’s, you can’t go wrong with this. It’s tasty and delivers exactly what it advertised it would deliver: a cheeseburger pizza.

In general, I’m a fan of having pizzas with only Roma tomatoes as a topping. Pizza and tomatoes fit well together, but add in some seasoned beef with a “zesty burger sauce” that actually tastes like a White Castle burger and double me up on the melted cheese? Heck yeah.

Would you eat this? Have you eaten this? What did you think?!