Takeaway Truth is an occasional Lifehacker feature where we compare marketing images to what you actually get served. On today’s menu: Domino’s ultra-deluxe Wagyu Duet Pizza.
Fast food restaurants have been known to gild the lily when it comes to accurate depictions of their menu items. Far too often, the mouth-watering feast on the poster turns out to be a limp and oily morsel. In a bid to keep the fry-jockey overlords honest, we’ve decided to document the reality of fast food — it was either that, or go postal like Michael Douglas in Falling Down.
The Wagyu Duet is being billed by Domino’s as the most indulgent pizza it has ever created. As its name implies, it’s actually two pizzas tucked into a single, specially designed box — the Wagyu 3 Ways (wagyu rib fillet, air-dried wagyu bresaola, sliced wagyu sausage, smoked rasher bacon, ground beef, mozzarella on a BBQ base, finished with a drizzle of tomato capsicum sauce) and the Wagyu & Truffle Hollandaise (wagyu rib fillet, camembert slices, cherry tomatoes, sliced red onion, topped with mozzarella and a drizzle of truffle hollandaise).
The wagyu used on the pizzas has a marble score of ‘6+’ (wagyu beef can score between 4 and 12). According to Domino’s, the beef used on the pizzas commands an average price or around $100 per kilogram at the butchers. This goes some way to explaining the premium price tag: a single Duet box originally cost an eye-watering $50, although you can now order the pizzas individually for $19.95 each.
“It’s rare to get the same quantity of quality wagyu grade of six plus marble score from any leading restaurant for the same price,” Domino’s proclaimed at the time of release. “In most cases you’ll pay over $50 for a restaurant quality cut of wagyu – and that’s just for the steak alone!” Hmm.
You can watch Domino’s Australian CEO Don Meij waxing lyrical about the Crust Pizza-like concoction in the video below:
But anyway. This is what the Domino’s Wagyu Duet Pizza looks like on the poster:
And here’s what we got served:
Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the Wagyu 3 Ways:
Y’know, we really wanted to rag on this pizza but the comparison shots aren’t too bad. The Wagyu 3 Ways is nearly perfect — our only criticism is that the sauce and some of the toppings were a bit messy looking, although we suspect this may have happened during transit.
The Wagyu & Truffle Hollandaise isn’t quite as impressive: there are fewer cherry tomatoes, the wagyu is less abundant and the whole thing is drowning in hollandaise whereas the poster contained an artful drizzle.
If we were basing our score on the Wagyu & Truffle Hollandaise alone this would have scored a lot lower, but when judged together, the overall product is surprisingly honest. We’re not sure we’d pay $50 for it, mind. (Stay tuned for an in-depth taste-test, coming soon!)
Truth Rating: 7/10
Which fast food franchise or menu item would you like us to tackle next? Let us know in the comments section below.
Comments
4 responses to “Takeaway Truth: Domino’s Wagyu Duet Pizza”
FIFTY DOLLARYDOOS????
…but how’d it taste?
I don’t usually like Domino’s pizzas, but wow those photos are making me hungry!
In order to get that amount of marbling they need to effectively torture the animals.
Lock them in cages/boxes that they are unable to move in and feed them a high fat diet. At the end of it’s life the creature is often in pain from excess weight and weak muscles.
An ingredient like wagyu beef is absolutely wasted on a pizza. Especially a Domino’s one.