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TASTE TEAM
Dayton restaurants — Best breadsticks in the Dayton area
Ever since the Taste Team tested area pizza places a few months back, we've been salivating for some breadsticks.
We ordered up sticks from eight different pizza and Italian restaurants and sampled them in a blind taste test with all the dipping sauces each location had to offer. Below are our very unscientific findings and opinions. The results are listed from the best overall to the worst.
— Katie Wedell, Staff Writer
Suggest your favorite breadstick finds below »
Cost How much dough do you get for your dough? |
Overall taste |
Flavoring 10 is too much, 5 is perfect, 1 is way too bland. |
Firmness 10 is way too hard, 5 is just right, 1 is mushy mushy. |
Sauces 10 is the best, most unique tasty sauces. 1 is bad sauces or no sauce at all. |
|
Pizza Hut |
$3.19 for a single order with marinara sauce included. |
Average rating: 7.3 The good: "I'm impressed that these were tasty even cold." — Nicole "Delicious!" — Carrie |
Average rating: 5.5 The good: "Lots of yummy seasoning." — Tony |
Average rating: 4.7 The good: "Just right." — Gerry "Crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside — the perfect mating." — Nicole |
Average rating: 3.5 Sauces offered: Marinara, ranch, garlic The good: "I enjoyed the garlic." — Nicole "Tasty sauces." — Carrie "Ranch was strong, garlic too buttery, marinara OK." — Gerry |
Domino's |
$5.94 with dipping sauce |
Average rating: 6.7 The good: "Greasy, oily, delicious," — Gerry "A little too buttery, but not too bad." — Carrie "I loved it! Takes me back to Italy…and gladiators." — Todd The bad: "Too much butter." — Mark |
Average rating: 6.3 The good: "Perfect flavoring." — Todd "Lots of yummy seasoning." — Tony |
Average rating: 4.8 The good: "The perfect blend of crunchy and chewy." — Nicole |
Average rating: 8.0 Sauces offered: Marinara, ranch, jalapeno cheese, garlic The good: "Crazy awesome selection." — Todd "I thought the cheese sauce would be weird, but it added a classy something." — Nicole The bad: "Garlic sauce was too thin and drippy." — Gerry |
Papa John's | $4.99 for single order with garlic and marinara sauce. Extra sauces $.50 each. |
Average rating: 6.5 The good: "Overall deliciousness." — Carrie "My second favorite." — Mark The bad: "Bland and floury." — Gerry |
Average rating: 3.3 The good: "It's just bread, but that's what I like about it." — Nicole The bad: "Breadstick has very little flavor. Sauces are a must-have." — Mark |
Average rating: 5.5 The good: "Perfect firmness." — Gerry |
Average rating: 9.0 Sauces offered: Pizza, garlic, blue cheese, ranch, barbecue, honey mustard, cheese, hot buffalo The good: "Sauce bonanza! Cheese sauce is awesome." — Carrie "Tons of colorful sauces. There's a great variety, and they all taste good." — Tony |
Fazoli's | $2.99 for a dozen |
Average rating: 5.5 The good: "Delicious! Not too salty." — Carrie The bad: "I really thought this breadstick was unimpressive." — Nicole "Very greasy and soggy." — Tony |
Average rating: 6.0 The good: "Just the right balance of salt and garlic." — Carrie The bad: "Garlic was overwhelming." — Mark "Nothing but garlic salt…amateurs." — Nicole |
Average rating: 5.2 The good: "Slightly crispy on the outside, soft on the inside." — Gerry "Not too soft, not too hard; just the way I like it." — Mark The bad: "It's a little mushy." — Todd "Very soggy." — Tony |
Average rating: 1.0 "No sauce! Blasphempy." — Nicole |
Olive Garden |
Call for cost |
Average rating: 5.0 The good: "Great taste." — Mark The bad: "Heavy and chewy." — Gerry "My tongue screams 'I am bored!'" — Todd |
Average rating: 5.0 The good: "Good seasoning, but not enough flavor." — Tony "A nice romance of garlic and bread." — Mark The bad: "Playdough is more salty. Think cold English muffin." — Todd |
Average rating: 7.2 The good: "Great firmness." — Mark The bad: "What's with the stale breadsticks?" — Nicole "Like chewing a leather shoe." — Tony |
Average rating: 1.0 The bad: "No sauce? This one would definitely benefit from sauce." — Gerry |
Donato's |
$2.44 for six |
Average rating: 3.7 The bad: "Generally flavorless. I wouldn't eat them again." — Carrie "Why does it taste like a crouton?" — Nicole |
Average rating: 3.8 The bad: "Bordering on bland." — Gerry "Tastes like the inside of an oven. Don't ask how I know what that tastes like." — Carrie |
Average rating: 8.5 The bad: "I almost chipped a tooth." — Nicole |
Average rating: 6.6 Sauces offered: Garlic, cheese, marinara The good: "Interesting cheese sauce. Spicy!" — Gerry "Cheese sauce is great." — Mark |
LaRosa's |
$5.59 for a single order |
Average rating: 3.7 The good: "I like the cheese baked onto it." — Tony The bad: "It tastes like wet feet." — Carrie "I think it was actually a year old hot dog bun covered in candle wax." — Todd |
Average rating: 4.8 The bad: "No flavor. No comment." — Todd |
Average rating: 5.0 The good: "A good soft. How I prefer my stick." — Nicole |
Average rating: 3.2 Sauces offered: Marinara, garlic The bad: "Two sauces, both gross." — Carrie "Garlic sauce was too thick, like margarine." — Gerry |
Cassano's |
$2.65 for six |
Average rating: 2.0 The bad: "Like a rotten garlic bagel." — Nicole "This must be what death tastes like." — Tony "Please take this out of my mouth." — Todd |
Average rating: 2.0 The bad: "Generally flavorless." — Carrie "Nasty." — Mark |
Average rating: 2.7 The bad: "Mushy, mushy, mushy." — Todd "Limp." — Mark |
Average rating: 1.7 Sauces offered: Marinara, cheese The bad: "Cheese like from the ballpark = nasty!" — Mark "Baby food squash. Eww!" — Nicole |
Where the breadsticks came from:
- Cassano's, Brown Street in Dayton
- Donato's, Wayne Avenue in Dayton
- LaRosa's, Wilmington Pike in Kettering
- Domino's, Wilmington Avenue in Dayton
- Pizza Hut, Far Hills in Kettering
- Papa Johns, Wilmington Avenue in Dayton
- Fazoli's, Cobblegate Boulevard in Moraine
- Olive Garden, Miamisburg-Centerville Road in Centerville
The taste team:
- Gerry, 24
- Carrie, 26
- Todd, 31
- Nicole, 22
- Mark, 22
- Tony, 24
Comments
By kevin
August 22, 2009 3:18 PM | Link to this
how can you say pizza hut is the best. I’d eat any of those other breadsticks over pizza huts. Everything from pizza hut just tastes fake. donatos dipped in the nacho cheese are by far the best.
By NYC
July 25, 2009 6:20 PM | Link to this
Try Johnny’s Pizzeria’s breadsticks… hey are so good. You have to get the butter sauce and marinara with it… to die for!
By jake
March 1, 2009 5:34 PM | Link to this
Mcgillicutty’s hands down, nothing compares.
By Jessica
January 2, 2009 12:30 AM | Link to this
If you want a really good batch of breadsticks and can travel 30-40 minutes, head to Richmond, IN and go to Pizza King. They have amazing breadsticks that have a dill butter on them and their cheese sauce is fabulous. I am a breadstick connoisseur and these are probably my favorite ever. Marco’s locally has decent sticks also, though their sauce is lackluster.
By Jessica
January 2, 2009 12:28 AM | Link to this
Well, I would like to point out a couple things. At Olive Garden, you can get sauce. If they serve the sauce on a dish, you can get a bowl of it. I always order a bowl of alfredo to dip my breadsticks in. Second, the thing with Donato’s breadsticks is that you absolutely MUST eat them straight out of the oven. If they sit for 15 minutes, the are no good. The comment Nicole made about nearly chipping a tooth on one tells me that either you had a very bad batch, or you didn’t eat them fresh.
By Mike O
December 29, 2008 9:08 AM | Link to this
I really like Noble Roman’s breadsticks with their Spicy Cheese Dip
By Chrissy
November 9, 2008 10:06 PM | Link to this
You must try McGillicutty’s breadsticks. They are great dipped in either the spicy nacho cheese or marinara sauce.
By Melanie White
November 5, 2008 9:27 AM | Link to this
What about Cousin Vinny’s? I love that they smother them in parmesan and butter!!