Don't try this at home: Little Caesars HOT-N-READY® $5 Lunch Combo
I think the reason it's taken me so long to write about this meal is that it's just now - months later - out of my system. I was first drawn to the HOT-N-READY when its initial annoyingly catchy commercials with the inexplicable use of a mariachi band were running here in SoCal.
The pizza looked good enough, and perhaps I was missing the square-cut pizza of my Midwestern youth. So one Saturday afternoon I headed over to Little Caesars to give it a whirl. I should've known from the smell of the place and the fact that it was Little Caesars, this was not going to be the best experience, but hey: it was $5, literally hot and ready, and I'll try anything once.
I had to travel about two miles in LA, which can be several minutes, but the pizza stayed pretty hot in the box, which was thick and sturdier than most pizza boxes out there.
The pizza itself was so heavy and greasy, lacking flavor and panache. As much as I enjoyed the crispy edges, I could not take more than one square before buckling over and slipping into a massive food coma/buckling over with a terrible stomach ache. I was incapacitated for hours and couldn't eat another thing all day (I picked this up before noon). I honestly can't imagine this would be good drunk food. Never again. If I've got $5, a hankering for deep dish and no time to spare, you'll find me at Tomato Pie Pizza Joint for a couple slices of Sicilian.
