Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Harry Kersh: From calorie count to portion sizes,

  • we wanted to find out all the differences

  • between US and UK Papa John's.

  • This is "Food Wars."

  • In the UK, our sizes start at small.

  • Ours is 9.5 inches across

  • with a surface area of 71 square inches.

  • Joe Avella: Our small pizza comes in at 10 inches,

  • which is 78.5 square inches of pizza.

  • Harry: Next up, we have our medium pizza.

  • It's 11.5 inches across

  • with a surface area of 103.8 square inches.

  • Joe: Our large, 14 inches,

  • which is 153.9 square inches.

  • Harry: Finally, for some reason, we skip extra large

  • and go straight to extra-extra large.

  • This one's 15.5 inches across

  • with a surface area of 188.7 square inches.

  • Joe: We didn't skip the extra large.

  • 16 inches, right here.

  • That's 201 square izzos of pizzo.

  • Our extra large is bigger than your extra-extra large!

  • In your face, Harry.

  • Harry: In the UK, a small cheese pizza

  • will cost you £11.99,

  • which is around $15.54.

  • That's a price per square inch of 21.8 cents.

  • Joe: Small in the US, $9.49,

  • which is about 12 cents per square inch.

  • I know I got a small, but apparently they're also

  • doing small peppers with the small pizzas.

  • Look how small this is.

  • Skimping on the peppers, eh, Papa?

  • Harry: An XXL cheese pizza in the UK

  • will cost you around $23.32,

  • which is a price of 12.3 cents per square inch.

  • Joe: USA's extra large, $15.49.

  • That cannot be right.

  • Sprinkle a little math on that.

  • That's 7.7 cents per square inch.

  • That is so cheap.

  • Harry: So, what can we take away from this?

  • Well, in both countries, the more pizza you buy,

  • the cheaper it gets.

  • In the US, the price per square inch of a small

  • is 55% more than an extra large.

  • And in the UK, it shoots up to a huge 77% more.

  • Joe: I mean, it makes sense, right?

  • I mean, that's how they get you.

  • They pretty much are tricking you into getting more pizza

  • 'cause it's cheaper per square inch.

  • So you're going, "Oh, I'll just get

  • the extra large instead."

  • And then a year later you're fat. [laughs]

  • Whoops. It was such a good deal!

  • Harry: It is worth noting that painful price

  • is kind of rare in the UK.

  • We got, like, a 40%-off deal

  • because we spent a certain amount of money.

  • Basically, if you're paying full price in the UK,

  • you're really not getting the best value for money.

  • Joe: I'm on their website right now,

  • and it looks like, yeah,

  • they have endless "specials," or deals,

  • for pretty much every combination you want to get.

  • Large one-topping pizza, any two sides, two large pizzas.

  • I'm assuming what Papa John's does

  • is have all types of deals and codes and promotions

  • that whatever you get when you order Papa John's

  • was probably a deal for you.

  • So you probably are never paying full price.

  • Harry: In the UK, an extra-extra-large cheese pizza

  • is cut into 12 slices.

  • Each of these 12 slices is 268 calories,

  • which brings the total to a whopping 3,218 calories.

  • Joe: In the US, our extra large is cut into 10 slices.

  • That means each slice has roughly 300 calories.

  • And there is no possible way

  • you're eating this pizza without the sauce.

  • [hands slapping]

  • Whew!

  • Harry: What about the most calorific thing on the menu?

  • In the UK, it's a sausage and pepperoni pizza.

  • Now, for an XXL version of this pizza,

  • each slice is 355 calories.

  • That brings the total to 4,260 calories.

  • Joe: In the US, if you're going for most calories,

  • it's a tie between the meats pizza

  • and the pepperoni, sausage, and three cheese pizza.

  • This used to be John's favorite.

  • They changed the name.

  • They took his name off of it when he left.

  • I wonder what happened to that guy?

  • [laughs]

  • Each pizza is roughly 410 calories per slice.

  • And since it's 10 slices per pizza,

  • that is a whopping 4,100 calories per pizza.

  • Ha!

  • Harry: So, despite the average pizza sizes

  • being smaller in the UK,

  • the pizzas themselves are actually more calorific.

  • Who knew?

  • Now, despite Papa John's motto being,

  • "Better ingredients. Better pizza,"

  • they don't actually make their full

  • ingredients list available in the UK.

  • We did reach out to them to see if they'd

  • make an exception for us, but at the time of shooting this,

  • unfortunately we haven't heard back.

  • Joe: Now, because we can't get the UK Papa John's

  • ingredients list, we're gonna tweak

  • this section a little bit.

  • We're gonna compare the US Papa John's ingredients

  • to another very popular fast-food pizza chain, Domino's.

  • Let's get Domino's dough ingredients on the screen.

  • [bell dings]

  • OK. Now let's compare that

  • with the Papa John's US dough ingredients.

  • Unbleached enriched wheat flour, water, sugar,

  • soybean oil, salt, yeast.

  • And that's it.

  • How hilarious is that?

  • See? Doesn't need to be a whole chemistry lab.

  • OK. I gotta give Papa John's props. That's really great.

  • They say fresher ingredients, and they mean it. I like that.

  • Harry: Here is everything you can only find

  • on the menu at a UK Papa John's.

  • Joe: And these are all the USA-exclusive items

  • you can get at Papa John's.

  • Harry: Let's start with the pizzas.

  • So, in front of me, I have three pizzas.

  • And across these three, we've covered pretty much

  • all of the items you can only find on the menu

  • at a UK Papa John's.

  • So, what I have right in front of me here

  • is a pizza with a butternut squash base.

  • Now, this is on the menu as a gluten-free alternative

  • to traditional doughs.

  • Then the pizzas outside of that, as you can see,

  • have a stuffed crust, which is just the classic crust

  • but then folded over and filled with a kind of cheesy,

  • garlicky mix, which is really, really good.

  • Joe: This right here is a pizza consisting

  • of only the toppings and crust that you can get in the US.

  • We have the Parmesan cheese, garlic-crusted crust.

  • Crusted crust!

  • Harry: Now, from there, you can also

  • customize the base sauce.

  • So instead of the tomato sauce on this one,

  • we have an amarillo chili sauce.

  • Joe: I was not aware of this until recently,

  • but apparently at a Papa John's in the United States,

  • you can substitute the tomato sauce for ranch.

  • And I did exactly that, because there's nothing

  • more American then ranch dressing.

  • Harry: Papa John's in the UK actually offers quite a few

  • vegetarian and vegan options.

  • For example, again, on this pizza,

  • instead of the classic mozzarella-blend cheese,

  • we have a vegan "sheese," which is a cheese alternative

  • that's friendly for vegans.

  • So, in the UK, you can top your pizza with anchovies,

  • with tuna, with tandoori chicken, with spicy beef,

  • and also some fake meat alternatives

  • such as vegan pepperoni and also a vegan sausage.

  • Finally, we have a couple of vegetarian toppings.

  • For example, on this pizza, we have some red chilies,

  • and on this pizza, we have feta cheese and sweet corn.

  • Joe: Cheese. We did do the Parmesan Romano

  • and the three-cheese blend, which is provolone,

  • fontana, fontania, fontawhatever,

  • and Asiago cheeses.

  • Salami, Canadian bacon,

  • the Philly cheesesteak stuff,

  • spinach, and also, of course, banana peppers.

  • I don't know what it is with banana peppers.

  • They're suddenly on everything.

  • I don't get it.

  • All right. [sighs]

  • Here we go. All right.

  • Positive mental attitude. PMA.

  • I'm about to have the USA Only.

  • No, I do not like that.

  • I'll admit it's growing on me.

  • I wouldn't pick the ranch sauce.

  • I would stick with tomato.

  • But yeah, not bad.

  • Harry: Oh, God.

  • That's not good. [laughs]

  • Oh, man. Don't, don't order this.

  • Don't order the UK-only pizza.

  • Moving swiftly on from the UK-only pizza,

  • here are some sides you can only find on the menu

  • at a UK Papa John's.

  • We've got some vegan cauliflower wings.

  • It's basically just small pieces of cauliflower

  • that are breaded and fried,

  • and then you can kind of dip them in a sauce of your choice.

  • Just a nice chicken-wing alternative for vegetarians.

  • Here we've got some chicken poppers.

  • Now, I think these are available in the US,

  • but the one that's exclusive to the UK

  • is the tandoori chicken spice one,

  • which is just pieces of chicken

  • breaded and fried with an Indian spice blend.

  • Here we've got some tater tots,

  • which I'm surprised you guys can't get in the US,

  • 'cause these aren't really a thing in the UK,

  • but here we can get tater tots.

  • You can get them with cheese like we have here,

  • or you can also get them with cheese and bacon.

  • And then finally, again,

  • surprising you don't have these in the US,

  • these are some jalapeño poppers.

  • Just kind of mini jalapeños, breaded,

  • fried, with some cheese inside.

  • Now, I'm super excited to try these.

  • These are Marmite Scrolls.

  • What it is, is kind of pieces of dough rolled up

  • with some cheese and some Marmite in the middle of them.

  • Now, Joe, if you've never had Marmite,

  • it sounds gross, 'cause it's actually --

  • Joe: Harry, yes, I actually in fact have had Marmite.

  • It was a while ago in college.

  • I lived briefly with a British guy, he had a jar of it.

  • I did try it once.

  • I don't remember exactly how it tasted,

  • but I do recall comparing it to the taste of vomit.

  • So suffice to say,

  • I'm in the "not fan of Marmite" category.

  • So far, the Papa John's sides game is pretty strong.

  • Now, for wings,

  • we have a honey chipotle wing sauce.

  • Garlic knots.

  • Oh, man!

  • Ugh!

  • Dude, this thing is drenched in their butter.

  • I'm confused by this next USA-only thing.

  • It is called a Papadia.

  • I mean, it's a calzone, but for some reason

  • they're calling it a Papadia,

  • which I assume is a playoff of quesadilla.

  • Yeah, look, it's just a pizza

  • that they cut and folded over, right?

  • Moving on! These look good. [hands slapping]

  • These look right up my alley.

  • These are the jalapeño popper rolls and ranch.

  • Forgot, we also got breadsticks!

  • Here are some US-exclusive sauces:

  • spicy garlic,

  • ranch, of course,

  • honey mustard,

  • blue cheese,

  • regular cheese.

  • And you can also get, big surprise,

  • a side of banana peppers.

  • Also, side of jalapeños.

  • And I was as surprised as anyone to see,

  • also in the US, you can get these.

  • Side of anchovies.

  • [bell dings]

  • Harry: Finally, for those of you with a sweet tooth,

  • Papa John's in the UK has a few exclusive desserts.

  • Sides, we have some chocolate scrolls on my right,

  • and some cinnamon scrolls on my left.

  • And then finally we have some Ben and Jerry's.

  • Papa John's in the UK is kind of like

  • a Ben and Jerry's licensed vendor, which is quite cool.

  • And then also we can get some milkshakes here,

  • which are a brand called F'real,

  • and they're not bad.

  • Joe: And for dessert, the one thing we got

  • that you don't have, UK,

  • cinnamon pull-aparts.

  • Again, apologies. It's been sitting for a while.

  • Dude,

  • yes to these.

  • I guess I'm not supposed to,

  • I mean, I don't have to try everything,

  • but I'm kind of curious, right?

  • Oh, boy.

Harry Kersh: From calorie count to portion sizes,

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it