Pizza is the ultimate delivery meal, fitting as easily into a family's wholesome Friday night tradition as a college dorm room party.
Customers rely on delivery pizza as a quick meal to help them celebrate birthdays, round out a picnic menu, and comfort them after a bad day — and the quality of your pizza matters. As a restaurant owner, you want all of your customers to experience your pizza the way it was meant to be experienced: hot and crispy.
5 tips for delivering high-quality delivery pizzas
There's an art to delivering the perfect pizza pie. The quality of your delivery pizza depends on timing, packaging, third-party delivery partners, and communication. Here are some tips from real-world restaurant owners on how to keep pizzas crispy during delivery.
1. Conduct a taste test
The best way to understand how to keep your pizza crispy for delivery is to first taste your offering for yourself. "The vast majority of our customers aren't going to eat our pizza fresh out of the oven," said Khanh Nguyen, CEO of Dallas-based Zalat Pizza. "This is how our customers are going to experience our product, and we have to execute it on a high level."
For the most accurate test, cook up a few fresh pies with a variety of toppings and package them up as you would for delivery. Wait at least 30 minutes before tasting. For extra credit, don't just leave the box on the counter — carry it around in the bag as the delivery driver would, and even swing side-to-side to mimic a winding drive.
Have your whole team take a slice, and assess the results together. Was the pizza hot? Was the crust crispy? Did the toppings hold up over time? If you answered no to any of these questions, don't worry — we have more tips for you.
2. Invest in the right pizza packaging
Did your test yield cold or mushy pizza? It's time to up your packaging game. "[Pizza] is affordable, it feeds the masses, and it travels well — as long as you invest in insulated, sturdy, well-vented pizza boxes," said Kevin Sugarman, Director of Operations Services for the Atlanta-based national pizza chain Mellow Mushroom.
Cold pizza means it's probably time to update your boxes or insulated delivery bags to hold heat for the full 30 to 45 minutes it might take your pies to go from oven to doorstep. Insulated food warming cabinets to store pizzas before pickup (and transfer to insulated bags) can also help keep your food hot for delivery.
Soggy pizza means you have a moisture problem. Cooked foods are crispy due to moisture that's escaped during the cooking process. The longer a pizza sits out at suboptimal temperatures, the more opportunity there is for moisture to redistribute into the dehydrated crust. Look into products like this Perfect Crust Pizza Liner that's popular among brands that deliver via DoorDash. Its raised bumps allow airflow and that enables moisture to escape, resulting in a crispier crust for delivery pizza.
3. Optimize topping options for travel
Just as it's helpful to optimize your delivery menu for items that can travel well, zeroing on the best travel-tested pizza toppings will pay off, too.
"Proteins maintain themselves better than vegetables," Sugarman said. And it's better to keep it simple when it comes to specialty options — the classics are classic for a reason. "As you get more sophisticated or complicated with a specialty type of a pizza, the deterioration is much faster," he added. "There's just no debating that, whether it's a swirl of aioli or sour cream or spinach or kale — you’re facing the wilt factor. These kinds of items have a tendency to break down as they sit in the heat and then become room temperature."
Tony Burgess of Mythical Pizza emphasizes the importance of using fresh ingredients whenever possible: "Different ingredients cook in different ways. Fresh tomatoes cook more nicely than canned ones — the skin softens, and there's a different taste and texture."
"We prep daily and make sure that everything is nice and fresh — not sitting in the back of the fridge for two weeks. Customers realize that makes a huge difference."
4. Train your staff on delivery best practices
So now that you've optimized your packaging and menu, it's time to take a look at your restaurant operations — how are these fresh, well-packed orders actually getting out the door?
It's important that your staff is trained in the measures you've put in place for how to prep pizza for delivery. Monitor feedback to understand your common delivery issues, such as missed canned drinks from the refrigerator, and implement new systems to fix the problem.
To handle their large delivery volume, Burgess created a "guest relations" role devoted to managing off-premise orders. Having a dedicated person on staff may be an investment but, for Burgess, it's paid off when it comes to shortened delivery times and, ultimately, customer satisfaction.
"Having a guest relations person in place really helps. They get the ticket, make sure the drinks are pulled, and then work with our boxing station," said Burgess. "Our avoidable wait times have dropped. We're getting orders out five minutes before the Dasher even arrives because someone is making sure this order of five pizzas, three salads, and four drinks is all together. Then they hand it off and everyone's happy."
5. Ensure a smooth pickup
Beyond hiring specialized staff, there are a few measures you can take to improve the experience of picking up your delivery orders.
Setting up a dedicated pickup area with clearly marked signage is crucial for getting delivery drivers (and pickup customers) in and out as quickly as possible. Have a staff member double check the contents of every order, and it always helps to confirm the identity of the driver to make sure they are taking the correct pizza.
It also helps to develop relationships with your Dashers, which may encourage them to take extra care with your orders. "Sometimes a restaurant will say, 'Hey, it's hot out there, would you like a drink?'" says Leo Ney, a Dasher in Houston. "It's these little gestures that make you glad to deliver their order, because the staff is nice and you want to do right by them."
How DoorDash helps restaurants keep delivery pizza crispy
Looking for a head start on the four steps above? DoorDash partners get access to tools to help ensure delivery customers get the freshest pie possible. Here's how to use them in your strategy for keeping pizza crispy for delivery.
Set realistic prep times
Sure, it would be great to get a pizza out the door in five minutes. But, if you're making it to order with fresh ingredients (and you should!), that's not nearly enough time — and no one wants an undercooked pie. Setting realistic prep times on DoorDash helps manage customer expectations and can save you from over-promising and under-delivering (or delivering a soggy slice).
Change store status to "Busy" during busy times like game days if needed
Getting slammed on game day? If you're experiencing an influx of orders, don't let your kitchen get overwhelmed. Simply update your DoorDash store status to "Busy" to adjust delivery times and give your team more time to prepare orders — or consider temporarily pausing new orders until your team can get out of the weeds.
Monitor Dasher status
Prioritize prepping orders by keeping tabs on your Dashers. Look out for the "Dasher Arriving" message to start pulling espresso beverages or grabbing cans from the fridge. Once the Dasher has arrived, ask their name and check the order on their phone.
Encourage Dashers to use insulated bags
Once a pie is out of your shop, the clock is ticking on maintaining the right temp for an optimal customer experience. Ensure orders stay warm as long as possible by encouraging Dashers to pop them into their insulated bags.
By following these five tips and taking advantage of the full suite of tools available to DoorDash Merchants, you'll be on your way to crispy-crusted success. Sign your restaurant up for DoorDash.
With additional reporting by Hilary Cadigan.
