CiCi's Pizza: Creating a Better Pizza Experience

Disclosure:  This post is sponsored by CiCi's Pizza.  While I was not compensated for this post, I did attend a tasting event and received a swag bag.  All opinions expressed are 100% my own.

A few weeks ago, I was offered an opportunity to attend a tasting event at CiCi's Pizza to sample and learn about some of the new changes and improvements they were making to offer customers a better pizza experience, effective as of November 5th.  Being the food lover that I am, of course I said yes.   Plus, I was going to have the chance to hang out with some of my favorite ladies. I was first introduced to CiCi's Pizza when I was 13 years old.  My Ma (aunt), whom y'all know passed away a few years ago, took me and every time I visit a CiCi's Pizza, I think back on that and what a great time we had.  But enough with the mushy stuff, let's talk about the food.

via Facebook

When it comes to pizza, the sauce is everything!  Have toppings on your pizza you don't like?  Just pick them off.  Have a yucky or bland tasting sauce base on your pizza?  Then, you're up a creek.  And while CiCi's already had one of the best pizza sauce bases around (in my opinion), they decided to change it and give the sauce a zestier taste created by using crushed tomatoes and Mediterranean oregano seasoning.

Hands down I am even more of a fan of their sauce base now.  It has a rich, zesty Italian flavor that screams of fresh ingredients.  Their pizzas are made with 100% real cheese and they're using almost 50% more cheese on each pizza now.  Trust me you can never have too much cheese on a pizza.  And now that they've upgraded their buffet pizza size from 12 inches (medium) to 14 inches (large), that's more gooey goodness to chow down on.

One of my favorite pizza toppings is three meats- pepperoni, sausage and beef.  Well, they've made the pepperoni thicker and added more spice, but not too much that kids wouldn't enjoy it.  The beef crumbles are meatier and the sausage has a bolder flavor that really explodes in your mouth (in a delicious way).  

Aside from having a create sauce, having a great crust also key to making yummy pizza.  CiCi's makes their each and every crust from scratch, brushing it with their own garlic butter sauce.  The outer crust has been reduced from 1 inch to a half-inch in thickness to allow more room for toppings and sauce.

The salad bar is bigger and offers new options like sunflower seeds and sliced beets depending on your location.  Other changes you'll notice at CiCi's is that they brought back the Garlic Cheesy Bread!!  I can't even begin to talk about how happy I was to hear that.

But the change, I was most excited to hear about is that they now offer wings!!!  They come in four different flavors- Garlic Parmesan, Mild Buffalo, Hot Buffalo and BBQ.   And y'all better believe it, those wings were on point.  They're baked not fried, which loved because I've worked hard decreasing the amount of fried foods I consume.

While at the event, we got to try our hands at crafting our own pizzas.  Check out mine below.  I topped it with sauce, a few handfuls of cheese, red onion, black olives, pepperoni, sausage and beef.  It was fun because I don't get make pizza at home often having two kids with gluten allergies (gluten-free pizza crusts sell out quick). 

I am keeping my fingers crossed that CiCi's Pizza will one day offer gluten-free pizza crusts as well as soy cheese options for those with food allergies.  Until then  I'll continue to enjoy treating myself to a mom's day out lunch every now and then.  However, when my was here visiting last week, I did treat her to lunch at CiCi's and she gave everything two thumbs up.  We did get nice swag bag that came with a tote, apron, tumbler, buffet vouchers and a gift card.

Lastly, I was delighted to find out how involved CiCi's Pizza is in the community like hosting Spirit Night Fundraisers for schools, Lunch & Learns for parents with children who stay at home and Pizza Pass Key Tags Fundraisers for sports organizations.  I love it when businesses give back to the community. It shows that they're interested in more than just collecting our coins.

If you haven't checked out your local CiCi's Pizza in a while, stop by and see for yourself the yummy goodness they have going on.  Also, make sure to follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay updated on all new changes and special discounts.