Like the moon hitting my eye...

Location:

Dough Boy’s Pizza Co.

4658 Kenny Road

Columbus, Ohio 43220

614-459-4400

Dough Boy’s is located in an old “strip mall” next to the Kenny Road Market (yay exotic beers) and U-haul rental spot.  We ordered delivery, so I never saw the inside, but peeping in through the windows a couple times led me to believe they were straight on the cleanliness – and they had a green sticker.

The man was tasting for pizza, and I had a flyer. “Anniversary special! One large pizza any way you want it with an order of cheesy bread only $9.99!” WOW! What a great deal!  They had left the door hanger about a week before that, so we called up to take advantage of the bargain… and that’s when my unhappiness began.

Upon ordering this super-awesome “Anniversary Special”, my man was told that it had ended on Memorial Day.  Wait – didn’t Memorial Day happen in May?  Why were they putting door hangers out almost two months after they expired?  So we ordered a large pizza with five toppings – extra cheese not being included as a topping but rather costing $1.50 extra, was skipped – bacon, pepperoni, tomatoes, green peppers and onions.  No cheesy bread because that was $4.95 extra and we weren’t trying to spend a whole lot.  They quoted us 45 minutes to an hour (at five o’clock on a Sunday… apparently this is prime pizza time).

The one good mark Dough Boy’s gets is in time management.  The pizza arrived within 20 minutes.  I was thoroughly shocked.  Bill: $11.49 - $9.49 + $2.00 delivery charge.  Not bad, but not as great as that tantalizing Anniversary Special that had lured us in.  The slogan at Dough Boy’s is “We load on the toppings!!” and in all fairness to my readers, don’t believe this false advertising.  If by “load on the toppings” they mean toss them about randomly in a haphazard fashion so that only some slices have 2 toppings and some have 5, well then fine.  But in my book, “loading on the toppings” means having lots of each topping on every single slice across the entire pizza.  Ugh!  There were no more toppings than any other pizza I’ve ordered from any other place.  As for the size of the large, well, it was actually the size of a Pizza Hut medium.  Seriously.

Overall, I was quite disappointed.  It was a fine pizza, not great or spectacular, and I’d really like to know exactly who voted them best new pizza in Columbus.  The menu is fairly extensive, with wings and Italian dinners and salads and all that jazz, which might be the reason why they can’t focus on an awesome pizza.

To learn more about Dough Boy’s, click here to visit their website.

Overall Scores: (1-5, 1 being lowest, 5 highest)           

Cleanliness: unknown

Value: 2

Accessibility: 4

Friendliness: 3

Menu: 5

High on the Hog

Location:

Hoggy’s (Grandview)

1416 West 5th Avenue

Columbus, OH 43212

(614) 485-4647

Last Sunday I met up with a friend from culinary school, Rich.  He had been raving for a few weeks about Hoggy’s in Grandview, specifically their gigantic mountain of onion rings that I just had to try.  We met around noon on a hot and humid afternoon, so of course the first action was to get some cold beer in our systems.  Blue Moon draught, one of my top favorites, was the choice for both of us.

After sipping the suds and catching up, we finally took a glance at the menu.  One legal-sized back and front menu held a plethora of options, from ribs to wings to brisket and chickens – yes, chickenS, for the Hoggy’s challenge involved a half chicken (and other goodies) and there is also a half chicken meal available.  We opted for a sort of sampler, with Mt. Onion Ring as our starter and Rich getting the brisket dinner and myself getting a ribs/wing combo.

Let me tell you, Rich was not kidding when he described the onion ring starter.  This beast cast a shadow over the bar as it was being carried out, and people turned in awe as it was placed in front of us.  I believe there were some tumbleweeds involved as well as the whistling of an old prairie song… or maybe I just imagined that part… either way, this thing was huge.  The onion rings were piled almost a foot high, and each ring looked like a donut.  A donut!  Made of battered onion!  It was like heaven.

I’ve been on a mission to find a tasty super hot wing here in Columbus, and Hoggy’s presented me with an opportunity to try their “hottest”.  Unfortunately, the “Texas Pete Hot” and Cajun sauces left much to be desired in the fire category; however, they were awesome in the flavor category. My combo came with five wings and babyback ribs (in original Hoggy’s BBQ sauce) and a side of celery & bleu cheese.  For $10.99 I would have liked at least one more wing, but it was filling.  As I said earlier, Rich got the brisket dinner, which was a half pound of sliced brisket and two sides – he chose tomato cucumber salad and coleslaw.  The brisket was absolutely butter!  He literally cut it was a spoon.  The coleslaw was fine, we were both a little “meh” about it because it just seemed to be lacking something, whether it was salt & pepper or some red cabbage, we just couldn’t decide.  I didn’t try the tomato salad, but Rich said it was crisp and refreshing and a good contrast to the heaviness of the brisket.  Oh! There was cornbread too.  I ate mine for dessert.

All in all, even though Hoggy’s is a chain restaurant (which I normally wouldn’t cover, but I’ve got a soft spot for franchises), it has the neighborhood feel to it.  Our barmaid/server (for she performed both duties with ease) was very friendly, prompt, and attentive and the management was helpful as well, running food out to us when the barmaid was busy so that we didn’t have to wait.  The value at Hoggy’s is fair, but in my opinion they could offer a little more food for the cost.

To learn more about Hoggy’s, click here to visit their website.

Overall Scores: (1-5, 1 being lowest, 5 highest)                    

Cleanliness: 5

Value: 4

Accessibility: 4

Friendliness: 5

Menu: 3