We started this because we were tired of watching people overpay for pizza

How this started

In 2021, Marisol Vega had spent nine years in delivery-heavy pizza kitchens — first as a shift lead in a college-town store, later as a district trainer walking new managers through labour targets and the maths behind a bundle. She knew exactly how the pricing worked from the inside.

What kept bothering her was watching friends order badly. Not badly in the sense of bad taste — badly in the sense of paying nineteen dollars for something that should have cost twelve, or taking a bundle deal that talked them into a third item nobody wanted. The information to avoid that existed, technically. It was just scattered, out of date, or written by people who had never stood behind the counter.

So she started writing it down. The site grew from there, and now covers 19 menu items, 18 long-form guides and 18 city-specific ordering guides.

What we actually do

Three things, mostly. We track menu pricing across markets and record what identical orders cost in different cities — which is how we can tell you a large two-topping swings four dollars between the cheapest and most expensive American metros.

We analyse promotional structures. Not just reporting that a two-for-fourteen offer exists, but building the same order four ways and comparing what you actually get. That work is where most of our “this looks cheap but isn't” findings come from.

And we write explainers — crust types, allergen handling, calorie realities, how loyalty programmes are constructed. The sort of thing that helps once and then keeps helping.

How we research

Reader receipts are our best source and we ask for them constantly. Every one gets logged with the city, the date, the fulfilment method and the full line-by-line total. That database is why our cost breakdowns include the fee, the tax and the tip rather than stopping at the menu price like most price lists do.

Our own team runs price checks in the markets we live in — Columbus, Austin and Portland — which gives us a longitudinal view of how pricing moves over time in three quite different cost environments.

Publicly posted menu and nutrition information fills the rest. Where we are modelling rather than reporting — a typical rewards return, an illustrative deal structure — we label it clearly as an example.

What we will not do

We do not accept payment for coverage. We do not run sponsored posts dressed up as editorial. We have never taken free food from a restaurant in exchange for writing about it, and we do not intend to start.

We also do not publish live coupon codes, because we cannot verify them and stale codes are worse than no codes. What we publish are illustrative examples of deal structures, clearly labelled as such on every card.

How we make money

Display advertising, primarily Google AdSense. Ads are placed around the content, never inside a recommendation, and no advertiser has any input into what we write or how we rate anything. That separation is the whole basis on which any of this is worth reading.

Getting in touch

If we have a figure wrong, tell us — ideally with a receipt. If there is a city you want covered, ask. Reader requests drive a large share of what we publish. The contact page is here.