Donatos Campus

I love Donato’s! I miss having their pizza since leaving college at Ohio State. We ordered a pepperoni (each pepperoni was perfectly cooked to be crispy on the edges, as I remember nearly 20 years later) and a sausage and olive pizza. They have a bar in here (husband had a draft beer), and the kids and I had soda from the fountain. Their pizza is a very thin crispy pizza with toppings all the way to the edge. Perfect!

Went for the lunch buffet. It wasn’t too crowded and the selection of pizza was on point. All the pizzas were thin so you can have your fill without feeling too full off of dough. Cost was about $ 8 – 9 and came with a small drink. Definitely will be back!

The Pizza: 3.5 stars (I’ll round up to 4)
I have been a fan of Donato’s Pizza since I first had it, whenever that was. Thin, cracker Columbus style crust is my favorite, and Donato’s is midling among such restaurants. We shared a pie and had sausage and tomato. We were supposed to have onion, but apparently the counter chick didn’t hear me. Toppings were good, but the onion would have helped. Nothing else particularly stands out about this pizza.
The restaurant: 3.5 Stars (I’ll round up to 4)
This location has some things going for it. First is location. Just a few doors down from Lane and High and across the street from the Ohio State campus make this a great place to pop in for a pie and some refreshments when on or near campus. This location also has a little more ambiance than the other locations in the chain as this is in an older building rather than one of the corporate built-​to-​spec buildings. In fact, if my memory serves (and it often doesn’t) this may have been a bar back in the day when the legal drinking in age in Ohio was 18, and thus the demand for campus bars was sky high. Mix in a mostly student clientele and this is an alright place to hang out for a while.

I ordered a 14″ grilled chicken pizza. It was thin-​crusted, and cut into rectangles.
The guy on the phone was nice & somewhat friendly. When I got there, I had to wait like 2 – 3 minutes before someone came to assist me… I was the only one in line. It’s like half-​pizza shop, half-​bar, with a handful of people in there drinking away. The girl that came out from the kitchen was nice & quick at getting my pizza to me.
The pizza was good. I like the seasoning of the grilled chicken. It was spot on. Tasted like garlic with some spices. The chicken was a little on the dry side, but not too dry. The cheese was the usual. Only negative thing I can say is the greasiness of it. They should cut down the oil/​grease.
All in all, it was a good pizza. =)

For a corporate chain, Donatos is really not so bad. It beats the hell out of Papa Johns, Pizza Hut, and Dominos. If I do have the option to eat some boutique, gourmet pizza, or some good NY and Chicago style pizza from a mom and pop shop, I’d rather eat that – though I don’t think I’d actually pay gourmet prices for gourmet pizza. Anyways, Donatos was convenient for me since I lived on Frambes. I ordered the pizza, walked past four houses, and BAM. Very convenient, quick, reliable, and decent.

Your pizza isn’t all that great, but you are located to where I have to walk past you daily. You are fairly clean and don’t seem like you will give me diseases. You sell pizza by da slice. You leave newspapers scattered about for me to read (who reads textbooks anyways?)
But you screwed that all up.
Maybe I’m just too far beyond the typical college-​aged student, but when I want to grab a quick bite to eat, I’m not grabbing a quick WHOLE pizza. You are the only marginally decent food stop between my car and Fisher. And you no longer serve pizza by the slice.
Yeah, I could just walk down to Flying PIzza for my requisite slice… but damnit, I’d rather just Unilocal about it.
Donato, you are dead to me.