Consumer Reports' Highest-Rated Frozen Pizza Isn't From DiGiorno

Frozen pizza isn't exactly gourmet, but it's still nice to be able to sort the best from the many choices at the grocery store — and Consumer Reports can help you with that. Everybody knows you aren't going to get anything resembling a freshly made pizza from your freezer; if anything, it's more like its own category of food, and you judge it on that. You just want cheese and sauce with some real flavor, a decent, usually crispy, texture, and toppings that actually pop when you dig in. Unfortunately, a lot of frozen pizza brands fall short of even that medium bar, but a few stand out. And if you ask Consumer Reports, the best option in the frozen food aisle comes from California Pizza Kitchen.

The publication has evaluated dozens of cheese and veggie frozen pizzas — it hasn't gotten to meat yet — but of the ones it's ranked, California Pizza Kitchen's Spinach and Artichoke Crispy Thin Crust Pizza scored the highest. That being said, it was kind of faint praise coming from Consumer Reports, as across all of its frozen pizza rankings, almost every option got a poor to mediocre score. Only three, including the CPK pizza, got good scores, and not a single one ended up in CR's highest-rated category. The pizzas are ranked on two criteria: The "sensory experience," which takes into account both taste and texture, and nutrition. Because nutrition plays a significant role in the final rankings, frozen pizzas, even those topped with vegetables, lost points on the health side. When flavor alone is considered, however, the results become much more competitive, with several pizzas earning stronger marks.

What Consumer Reports liked about CPK's Spinach and Artichoke Pizza may say something about the category beyond overall quality. It praised the texture of the crispy crust, calling it nice and flaky. The toppings, though, are pretty far off from a "normal" pizza. California Pizza Kitchen is known for its unusual flavors after all. CR says it's very heavy on the garlic, with a light, creamy white sauce that, when combined with toppings, is clearly going for a Spinach Artichoke dip feel. That may be why it seems to stand out, as those kinds of toppings don't leave you with the same disappointment of comparing a frozen pizza to a fresh one.

As for other options, the second-ranked frozen pizza was Trader Joe's Organic Roasted Vegetable Pizza. Trader Joe's frozen pizza quality can really vary, but even our own reviewer agrees this is one of its best

If you're looking for a more classic cheese pizza, Consumer Reports didn't rate a single option as high-quality. However, its rankings were topped by American Flatbread's Three Cheese Pizza, which was praised for the quality of its cheese and the complex flavor of its sauce. Amy's frozen cheese pizza came in tied for first. CR liked its simple, clean flavors and tender crust. The top three in cheese were rounded out by that freezer staple: DiGiorno. Unsurprisingly, the crust was a positive, but the flavorful sauce also helped its score. Don't expect any miracles with frozen pizza, but even by the strict standards of Consumer Reports, there are some winners out there.