House of Pizza: Just one of the Usual Pizza Suspects

Several months ago I took on a pizza of epic proportions: a 26-inch pizza. The typical large pizza is 14-16 inches, so if you nearly double that you got the Cocoa Beach pizza that stole the hearts of everyone involved with this blog. That being said, Orlando has a pizza joint that boasts an even bigger pizza. Their menu mentioned a 29 inch pizza, which is by far the biggest I’ve heard of in the Florida area—as of now. Now I have to take on this challenge, and see if they can make good pizza. Although I am willing to drive several hours for pizza (even to the depths of evil darkness (In my case, Gator Country)), it would be more beneficial to have awesome pizza 5 minutes from my apartment. And yes, that was an anti-SEC joke I threw in there.





Across from the infamous Gatorland Park, House of Pizza has been a success story since its inception back in 2008, as it’s survived the plethora of pizza competition coming from the Hunter’s Creek area. I decided to check out the place and see how they can pull off their pepperoni pizza. The building has a lot of space, but not that many tables. A few pictures scatter the area, and a couple television sets provide the entertainment while you wait for the food. We ordered the massive pizza, some chicken tenders for my brother, and some cheesesticks. The 29-inch pizza was an oh-so-fun $36 with the topping of pepperoni. 5 bucks for added topping is a bit much, especially when the Cocoa Beach spot didn’t charge anywhere near that amount.




After a good amount of waiting, we get the pizza---before the appetizers. No big deal, but found it odd considering a 29-inch pie was delivered before the chicken and cheesesticks. The pizza was thin crust, and the top followers of my blog know that I am not at all a fan of really thin pizza. Instead of slicing the massive pie into 8 massive slices, they decided to slice it into really small squares. Some of the squares were cheesy, greasy goodness. Others weren’t faring as well. The toppings were also not always staying on the pizza, sliding off like a stick of butter. The crust wasn’t good at all; there was no effort in enhancing anything. The toppings themselves were decent, but nothing to truly brag about. Plenty of quantity, but not a lot of quality.




Now, if the pizza was good, we would not have any problems taking it out. We did conquer 26 inches with no problems after all (Keep all your naughty jokes to yourselves, thanks). This time however we were hitting a wall quickly, as our stomachs weren’t getting along with the mediocrity. The pizza was too thin for my tastes, too bland towards the end, and doesn’t have the special touch. I have a strong feeling all their pizzas are as razor-thin as the one I experienced. Ironically, their breadsticks were very thick and quite cheesy, and if they had used the thickness of the dough here for their pizza the results would have been quite different. These cheesesticks were the best part of the meal, as the bottom had a nice garlic touch and the top had good wholesome cheese to complete the appetizer.


But we didn’t finish the cheesesticks. We didn’t finish the pizza. The only thing we finished were our drinks. In Cocoa, we took out a massive calzone AND 26 inches of pizza. Here, we couldn’t even finish the pizza. Is it because we couldn’t? No, it was more because we just didn’t want to, the motivation died as our taste buds waived the white flag.


Bottom Line: House of Pizza is nothing worth bragging about, as their pizza is too thin, too tasteless for my tastes (pun intended). When we got places like the now-extremely-popular Little Caesars in Hunter’s Creek offering large pizzas at just 5 bucks, and with superior taste, there is no need to return to this spot. The prices are a bit antsy, the building itself isn’t exactly full of personality, and worst of all their pizza just doesn’t entice a repeat visit. There is not much more to say: the spot isn’t a disaster but there is much better out there—around Florida, in Central Florida, and within the same 5 mile radius. So why return here? When “elsewhere” is just around the corner?

Final Verdict: Do Not Recommend.

House of Pizza
Gatorland Crossings at Hunter's Creek
14650 Gatorland Drive
Orlando, FL 32837