Domino's Revamped Breakfast Pizza - an Exclusive Taste Test

A few years back, Domino's and some other national pizza chains tested breakfast pizzas in select markets. Not much came of the effort, as most folks apparently just prefer the previous night's Meatzza Feast served up cold with a cup of Folgers. Enter the year 2010, and Domino's latest rendition of the Breakfast Pizza is back. Recently I had the fortune of getting to try a slice of the pizza conglomerate's latest product. But can Domino's offer a legitimate reason to ditch the Egg McMuffin or tried and true bowl of Corn Pops?

I have been critical of Domino's revamped traditional pizza, calling it "bland" and "doughy." A disappointment. The Breakfast Pizza, by contrast, restores some glow to the company name. A friendly woman in a white trailer handed me, and one thousand of my closest friends, a paper plate buckling beneath the weight of two generous pizza slices. As far as first impressions are concerned, I must confess skepticism. More or less, these two slices of pizza looked like their dinner-hour cousins, minus the red sauce and garlic-spiked crust. Great, I thought. Here we go again. I scooted aside to a quieter grassy area where I could make my final assessment free of distractions. The pizza's texture mirrored that of its congealed dinner-hour cousin. All of the layers - crust, eggs, and ham - melded into one chewy bite. In a dinnertime pie, I like to taste the complexity of ingredients and textures; however, a quick breakfast is another matter. I've never been a big fan of starting my day the starchy way, so the Breakfast Pizza's chewy flatness did not bother me. A liberal coating of eggs and thinly sliced ham gave the pie what can best be described as - and this is probably a stretch - a quiche-like quality. Refined and complex? No. But all in all, not a bad product.

I suppose it's a lot easier to order two Breakfast Pizzas than it is to wait in line at McD's while your frazzled cashier assembles five sacks of McMuffins and a clamshell of hotcakes. But is it worth it? I'll take a fresh Egg McMuffin any day, but for a morning meeting of hungry staffers, sure, a breakfast pizza is a great idea. An office tired of the same old glazed donuts in the break room? Breakfast pizza. And for the kids stuck having end-of-year class parties in their 8:30 a.m. homeroom, long before Dairy Queen will open its doors, breakfast pizzas are a perfect appeasement.