- Thread starter A.Hidalgo
- Start date
Papa John's opens its first restaurant in the Dominican Republic
A few days ago my friend ordered from Papa John's here in NYC. The large was actually a small, so small I could of eaten two pies by myself. It was the "special" with two toppings for $23 dollars. A bit too much for what you actually get.
The smallest slices I've ever seen in my life and their thin crust pizza is abominable. If they are exporting this crap to the DR buena suerte, it won't last 2 weeks.
I've never been to Pizzarelli, but I don't mind the Pizza Hut on El Conde in Santo Domingo.
Spoken like a true fat @$$...:cheeky:
I was just joking, but really now you don't see a correlation between the availability of these types of establishments and obesity? I read an article a few months back abut how even in China this is becoming a huge problem (no pun intended) with the advent of all the Western franchises into the country.
Now, why don't you post a pic of yourself Nals and let us judge if you're LAZY or not...or have all those years in CT (I think it was where Crisco would always call you out about) taken a toll...
Damn
you've got quite an appetite! LOL! but damn a special with 2 toppings for $23? did that come with a bottle of rum?
I've had Pizzarelli every time i visit DR and it's pretty good. i usually eat the calzones and was rather surprised how good it was. I have also eaten Dominos inside the Sirena in la zona Oriente and it was ok....not great for 500 pesos which was a SUPREME large and 1 liter of soda...i guess i could have eaten 2 of them by myself but i'd have to be STARVING....
Berzin, best deal in the Bronx is Little Ceasars at the Parkchester train station on the 6 line. it has ALWAYS been $5 for a large regular or pepperoni pizza since the place opened up, you CANT beat that! It's pickup only i dont believe they deliver, and NO minimum order either, if you want 1 pie you pay $5 + tax, nuff said!
you've got quite an appetite! LOL! but damn a special with 2 toppings for $23? did that come with a bottle of rum?
I've had Pizzarelli every time i visit DR and it's pretty good. i usually eat the calzones and was rather surprised how good it was. I have also eaten Dominos inside the Sirena in la zona Oriente and it was ok....not great for 500 pesos which was a SUPREME large and 1 liter of soda...i guess i could have eaten 2 of them by myself but i'd have to be STARVING....
Berzin, best deal in the Bronx is Little Ceasars at the Parkchester train station on the 6 line. it has ALWAYS been $5 for a large regular or pepperoni pizza since the place opened up, you CANT beat that! It's pickup only i dont believe they deliver, and NO minimum order either, if you want 1 pie you pay $5 + tax, nuff said!
I know people that eat everything there is under the sun, exercise weekly and still maintain a health weight.As a fitness professional I can confirm - proper diet (not just exercise) is the key to maintaining healthy weight. Exercise only helps, but is not enough
The key is they don't eat anything in excess.
Whomever is planning to live off fast food needs a psychological reassessment more than anything else.
-NALs
Diet is key, but you cannot blame obesity to Pizza establishments or fast foods choices If you eat fast food in excess day and night of course you will get fat, but if you eat rice in excess instead of fast food you can get fat faster due to carbohydrates.
Riiigghttt...Now where's that pic of yours?
Extreme: I don't know so much about the rice connection...I know rice is mostly carbs and as Austin Power's Fat Bastard would say "Carbs are the enemy...", but look at all the Chinese, Japanese (pretty much the whole of east Asia) eat a ton of rice just like Dominicans do and they weren't exactly getting fat until Mcdonalds, Pizza Hut, etc showed up and became popular.
Asians do not cook their rice with oil like latinos do.That's the difference. And if you've ever gone into a chinese restaurant during staff meal check out what they eat-they do not eat the most popular dishes they sell.
They have steamed rice, a bit of meat and veggies, while most take-out orders are fried rice, fried chicken wings and plenty of duck/soy sauce.
The average Dominican may not suffer the obesity that North Americans do but their eating habits certainly do contribute to high diabetes/high blood pressure and other lifestyle diseases.
A Dominican grocer once told me, "We come from a tropical island and we fry everything we eat. That's not good". No it is not.
Last edited:
These people might look skinny due to their slim nature and high metabolism, but it does not mean that they are healthy and their cholesterol level is normal for their age. I have known very skinny people with very high cholesterol level. Skinny people also can die from heart attack and have diabetes as well as other diet related diseases, just the same way as heavier folks. It does not mean they only live off fast food - it might be the case that their diet is not right for their age, blood type, activity level, etc, etc, etc.
Prices range from 650 - 850 a family size (very small family), the appetizers are very expensive:
10 bbq chkn wings: $300 (not the whole wing, they take the wing and cut it in two), so basically you only get 5 chicken wings (minus the end part of the wing)
Potato wedges: $140 (very small serving, not enough for two people)
10 chicken strips: $300
6 garlic breadsticks: $100 (very good, actually only thing I would recommend)
The service is horrible, they made me wait more than 15 minutes because they were "cleaning the table", finally after we complained, they bring us to the table, and surprise surprise, is not clean. They just put the paper trays anyway and give us the menu. Waiter after waiter pass us by ignoring us, finally I got mad and stopped a waiter and asked who's supposed to serve us, he said "anyone", I said "well NO ONE has stopped to take our orders, and we've had the menus down for more than 10 minutes", so he took our order. We asked for appetizers and a family size pizza. We waited more than 20 minutes for the apettizes, finally when I complained they said "it's coming", yeah right, the appetizers arrived with the pizza, of couse I complained, you order appetizers if you want to munch out while you wait for the main course, it is not fair that we have been sitting here for 20 minutes starving and waiting and then you bring everything together. They wanted to take the pizza back while we ate our appetizers and I said no way, we are hungry, we want to eat and get out of here, which we did as soon as we could. Neither the appetizers nor the pizza were great, so I don't think I'm coming back to Papa John's anytime soon.
It all came up to $1,530 (four people), which I don't think is that bad because the place is really first rate, but the service is horrible.
A pizza mediano was 360, Presidente light 80 pesos. The waitress was OK and the service was adequate. I gave the waitress a 50 peso tip which brought the entire outing to about 600 pesos, almost $17 US.
Unh unh. If I get a pizza craving, for 200 pesos I can get two Pizarelli slices that are about as big as the very small six slice Papa John's pizza mediano.
The pizza was very good but at those prices I won't be back anytime soon either.
Unh unh. If I get a pizza craving, for 200 pesos I can get two Pizarelli slices that are about as big as the very small six slice Papa John's pizza mediano.
The pizza was very good but at those prices I won't be back anytime soon either.
Where are they located?
Exactly where are they located in Santo Domingo?
This is on Abraham Lincoln Ave and??
I have not been able to locate this place on Google Earth.
Exactly where are they located in Santo Domingo?
This is on Abraham Lincoln Ave and??
I have not been able to locate this place on Google Earth.
Andr?s Julio Aybar. Its about two blocks south of the Piantini office building.
I drove by there twice on Saturday and on Monday morning before heading to the airport. Most overblown piece of crap I've seen thus far in DR when it comes to US franchise restaurants. I pray to the Allmighty that they never put a Starbucks over there ( I can imagine the crowds, lol), but from what I heard from my old boss, that might be on the horizon. The only thing is that Starbucks doesn't utilize the franchise concept, but who knows what the next few years might hold....
PS: P.F. Chang's would do pretty well in my opinion but it needs the right location to make it work, maybe in Piantini or Naco. Personally, even I would go there for some Mongolian Beef :lick:
PS: P.F. Chang's would do pretty well in my opinion but it needs the right location to make it work, maybe in Piantini or Naco. Personally, even I would go there for some Mongolian Beef :lick:
Papa Johns is located where Burger King is. In fact they're the same corporation. In most parts of the world where you find a Burger King you find a Papa Johns. I suspect when you call Papa Johns phone you'll get "Is this order for Burger King or Papa Johns" like you do at most of their franchises. I think it's connection to Burger King says a lot about what you'll get and what you'll pay. Take away the garlic butter and Papa Johns pizza is "blah" and overpriced.
Seperate note: Looks like they're putting in a Quiznos across the street and a couple blocks down towards the 27th. Quiznos is a regular stop for me when I'm not here. You can eat healthy or as junkie as you want, toasty and tasty!!
Seperate note: Looks like they're putting in a Quiznos across the street and a couple blocks down towards the 27th. Quiznos is a regular stop for me when I'm not here. You can eat healthy or as junkie as you want, toasty and tasty!!
Sounds like there's some agreement on DR1 that Papa John's is not much to be thrilled about. I suspect it will do well for a while due to the novelty of it, but a little more time to see if they win over Dominican taste buds.
I've always wondered why anyone would buy pizza that requires dipping in nasty tasting greasy garlic butter to be semi-palatable. :glasses:
I'll still take a Thin crust from Pizza Hut any day over Papa J's.
I've always wondered why anyone would buy pizza that requires dipping in nasty tasting greasy garlic butter to be semi-palatable. :glasses:
I'll still take a Thin crust from Pizza Hut any day over Papa J's.
It may be due to the fact the Subway was a cold sandwich place...I can tell you as a Dominican I'm just not a fan of cold cuts. It doesn't feel like food. Now that they've added oven to heat up the sandwiches I like it a little better, but I stopped going there because I cannot stand the smell of their bread when you enter one of their stores.
Another issue with subway and pretty much any other franchise in The DR is the local competition is fierce. You can get a full Dominican lunch (Rice, beans, meat) for about the same price or cheaper almost anywhere so if you're a Dominican you're going to have your rice and beans instead of the bland sandwich from Subway.
Mason, the only reason that they opened the Burger King next to the Papa John's is because the Turull family has exclusive BK franchise rights for the entire DR territory and they did the same when negotiating with Papa John's for franchise rights.....they've done pretty well for themselves by following that model. McDonald's could've been much bigger in DR if they didn't stick to using individual franchising rights for each city, but I'm not interested in seeing their sub-par food offerings all over the country. I'd rather go to D'Richard Pierna by La Cadena supermarket in la Lincoln and stuff myself silly for much less.....