Best Trader Joe’s Frozen Pizza, Ranked

Trader Joe’s pizza has a dedicated fandom—and rightfully so, for the most part. Trader Joe’s frozen pizza is usually pretty great and affordable. It’s one of the things you should actually be buying at Trader Joe’s, along with niche snacks and bagged salads. And there’s a pretty big selection, too. You can get everything from BBQ chicken pizza to fried pizza to mini pizzas! 

But there’s definitely a Trader Joe’s frozen pizza hierarchy—some are far superior to others. Over the course of two separate taste tests, we cleared out the pizzas in Trader Joe’s frozen section, cooked them up in the office oven, and ranked the best. 

What we look for in the best Trader Joe’s pizza: 

• Crust: We want crust that’s crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. And, ideally, the outer crust shouldn’t just be a handle—it should actually taste good. Bonus points if the crust still tastes good after the pizza cools rather than turning into a fossil. 
• Sauce: If it’s tomato sauce, we want it to taste like tomatoes—not sugar, not ketchup, but real tomatoes. And we want there to be a decent amount of it, too. Any other sauce should support the toppings rather than clash. And no slime allowed. 
• Toppings: Toppings should be plentiful and well distributed. They should be good quality and taste good eaten alone. And no soggy vegetables, please. 

Here they all are (Trader Joe’s flatbread pizza included), the best Trader Joe’s frozen pizzas. 

Best for a Crowd

Trader Joe’s Cheese & Tomato Pizza Family Size

This is big. It is savory. (Sometimes frozen pizza tomato sauce can be sweet, but that’s not the case at all with this big boy.) And it gets crispy fast, so be sure to watch the time. It’s a totally acceptable pizza for family pizza night. But it’s definitely a great blank canvas for your choice of toppings.

Related: Best Frozen Cheese Pizza

Credit: Merc

Rating:

6.5/10

Sporks

Best Supreme

Trader Joe’s Trader Joe’s Pizza Parlanno

Trader Joe’s

What does Pizza Parlanno mean? Pizza Parlano (with one n) would translate to Pizza They Talk in Italian. But Parlanno (with two n’s) doesn’t mean anything—not that I’ve been able to find, at least. Nonsense name aside, this is a great frozen pizza. It’s essentially Trader Joe’s frozen pizza supreme. Made with a stone baked wheat flour crust imported from Italy, it’s topped with roasted bell peppers, onions, Italian sausage crumbles, uncured pepperoni slices, and a trio of cheeses: mozzarella, parmesan, romano. Everything works together and there’s a balanced spread of toppings across the pizza. If you really want it all, this is the best Trader Joe’s pizza to buy.

Credit: Merc / Trader Joe’s

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

Best Vegetable Pizza

Trader Joe’s Organic Roasted Vegetable Pizza

We’ve waxed poetic about this vegetable pizza before. It came in on top of our best frozen veggie pizza taste test. It is just so flavorful and the vegetables don’t immediately turn to mush. The eggplant spears, in particular, are quite well-seasoned and delicious. And the cheese sauce adds a ton of zest and creaminess. Hot tip: Turn the oven to broil right at the end to really make sure the veggies roast up right.

Credit: Merc

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

Best for Lunch

Trader Joe’s Bambino Pepperoni Pizza

I wrote in my notes that this Trader Joe’s mini pizza was “perfect for a six year old.” By that I mean the crust is doughy. The sauce is savory. The pepperoni is mild. And the size is smaller than a personal pan pizza but bigger than a Bagel Bite. I would recommend you also keep a box of them in your work freezer. 

Related: All the Totino’s Pizza Roll Flavors, Ranked

Credit: Merc

Rating:

7/10

Sporks

Best Base for Toppings

Trader Joe’s 3 Cheese Pizza

You might not have high expectations from the picture on the box, which looks like something off a pizza parlor menu from the ‘90s, but this is a pretty darn good frozen cheese pizza. The sauce is wonderfully thick and tomato-y and the cheese is stretchy and gooey. There’s a really good amount of oregano in the sauce that takes this to the next level. The crust is sturdy enough to handle any toppings you want to pile on top. It’s the perfect Trader Joe’s pizza to bake up and eat while watching some schlocky movie on TV. This is sleepover pizza!

Credit: Merc

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

Best Sauce

Trader Joe’s Pizza Margherita

Here’s the thing, Trader Joe’s margherita pizza isn’t a super traditional margherita pizza—but it’s good all the same. It’s wonderfully savory with thick, gooey cheese and lots of sauce that ends on a tangy, tomato-y note. That said, there are just better Trader Joe’s pizzas out there. There’s even a better Trader Joe’s cheese pizza. Still, if you have your heart set on the more Italian sounding margherita pizza over a cheese pizza, then this is a perfectly fine option.

Credit: Merc

Rating:

6.5/10

Sporks

Best Flatbread

Trader Joe’s Shrimp & Garlic Flatbread

Trader Joe’s

This Trader Joe’s flatbread pizza tastes like shrimp scampi pizza. The little shrimp come out tender and firm—not mushy at all. And the overall flavor is bright and garlicky and herby and even a little tangy. The crust is somewhere between standard pizza crust and flaky tart crust. While a whole one of these would be a lot to consume, a couple of slices and a crisp salad would make for a lovely light dinner, or it would also be great cut up into little squares and passed out at a cocktail party.

Related: Best Frozen White Pizza

Credit: Merc

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

Best Mushroom

Trader Joe’s Mushroom & Black Truffle Flatbread

Trader Joe’s

We didn’t love this pizza the first time we tried it a couple of years ago, but Trader Joe’s seems to have improved the recipe. It has a subtle truffle flavor—so many truffled products are way over truffled—and the finely diced mushroom topping (which takes the place of a sauce) is pleasantly earthy. Along with the Shrimp & Garlic Flatbread, this is one of the best Trader Joe’s pizzas to serve at a dinner party—perhaps drizzled in some flavorful olive oil, with a handful of arugula salad plopped on top.

Credit: Merc

Rating:

5/10

Sporks

Best Gluten Free

Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Cheese

Trader Joe’s

Would you believe it? We like Trader Joe’s gluten free cheese pizza better than their gluten-full cheese pizza! And it’s because of the crust! It’s chewy and crispy all at once—really satisfying. The sauce is savory, the cheese is good. There’s rosemary involved, which is unconventional, but it adds a level of sophistication that we really enjoy. This is an extremely noshable pizza.

Related: Best Gluten Free Frozen Pizza

Credit: Merc / Trader Joe’s

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

Best Vegetarian

Trader Joe’s Vegetarian Meatless Cheeseburger Pizza

Trader Joe’s

I can’t believe how much this Trader Joe’s vegan pizza tastes like a McDonald’s cheeseburger! You’d never know it was fake meat. And you’d never expect pickles to be so good on pizza. This is Trader Joe’s really doing what Trader Joe’s does best. It’s a unique, weird product that they have executed extremely well. You’ll buy it once out of curiosity but you’ll come back again because it’s just so darn good.

Related: Best Vegan Frozen Pizza

Credit: Merc

Rating:

9.5/10

Sporks

Best Nouveau

Trader Joe’s BBQ Chicken Pizza

I’ll just come out and say it: Trader Joe’s BBQ chicken pizza tastes more like an in-restaurant California Pizza Kitchen BBQ chicken pizza than a frozen CPK BBQ chicken pizza. The gouda cheese gives it a smoky, almost bacon-y flavor. The BBQ sauce is sweet but not too sweet, it’s tangy but not too tangy. The chicken tastes like real chicken. And there are little bits of onion that really put it over the edge into delicious town, population you and this pizza.

Related: All the Best California Pizza Kitchen Products, Ranked

Credit: Merc

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

Best Unconventional

Trader Joe’s Roasted Garlic & Pesto Pizza with Deep Fried Crust

Trader Joe’s

Why isn’t all pizza deep fried? That’s what you’ll be asking yourself after you try this Trader Joe’s pizza. The crust is the real star here. It’s doughy and stretchy and crispy all at once. The cheese does its job being gooey cheese. The pesto does its job being salty and savory. The garlic is roasty and rich and not burnt at all. It’s different from any other Trader Joe’s frozen pizza you’ll try—and it’s also the best Trader Joe’s pizza if you’re looking for something a bit unconventional.

Credit: Merc

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

Best of the Best

Trader Joe’s Uncured Pepperoni Pizza

The best Trader Joe’s frozen pizza is this Trader Joe’s pepperoni pizza. The cheese and the peps are spread almost all the way to the edge of the crust and there is even more cheese sprinkled onto the pepperoni slices, which helps keep them in place. Brilliant! The sauce is bright and zingy, which complements the spicy, zesty pepperoni. What little crust exists is puffy and well-seasoned—no bland bits of bread here! This is simply a great pepperoni pizza and the best of all the Trader Joe’s frozen pizzas we tried.

Credit: Merc

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Want more? Check out our list of the best frozen pizza you can buy beyond Trader Joe’s shelves.