Somehow, it feels like there’s a fundamental difference between swinging through the McDonald’s drive-thru for a Big Mac and ordering a pizza from Round Table. Sure, it’s still food you’re eating less for the nutritional content than you are for the fulfillment of a late-night craving of familiar, greasy goodness. But ordering a custom pizza pie feels elevated somehow — a little fresher, with a little more likelihood that you’ll eat it crowded around a table of friends rather than in the front seat of your car.
So, are pizza chains still considered fast food? The official consensus is yes. Of course, there are dissenters, but for chains like Little Caesars or Domino’s, where your pizza is seemingly delivered in mere minutes, the speed of delivery is pretty indicative of its status: Even the best popular pizza chain can pretty well be placed in the realm of fast food.
What kind of pizza isn’t considered fast food?
There are probably certain times when you’ve sat down, ordered pizza, and had to wait 20 minutes (or longer) for it to be made fresh to your specifications. If you’ve had an experience like this, or had specialty pizza in a foreign country (Why does pizza in Italy taste so good, anyway?), you’re probably thinking: There’s just no way that all pizza is fast food. And to be sure, non-chain restaurants are much less likely to fall under this umbrella.
But even within the realm of chain restaurants, a select few might be separate from the fast-food categorization. California Pizza Kitchen, for example, or a small regional chain with more of a focus on artisanal pizzas or a broader menu with pizza being just one of many options. And by all means, if you’ve got the time, pick a recipe and craft an at-home gourmet pizza recipe from scratch for an indulgent, albeit slow, meal. But in a time crunch, the truth stands: Papa John’s has got your back with a speedy meal just as much as Taco Bell does.
