We were out west a couple of years ago, stranded in a small town by an ice storm... nothing around but a pizza joint. YAY, we thought, until we trekked over and found that it was a they-make-it, you-take-and-bake-it pizza place. Fat lot of good that did us in a motel room. We just had to brave the ice and find a real restaurant.

the idea behind take and bake is to replicate restaurant quality at home. (take out seems to convert the highest quality pizza into a cardboard). this requires a pizza stone, pre-heating the oven to max. temp for a proper sear on the crust and patience. if none of the above applies, don't do it. if all applies, then you can have non-cardboard pizza(take out option) at home.

I agree with you however my husband likes his pizza "well-done" and for the most part even after requesting that it be cooked longer when we get home he needs to put it under the broiler for a few minutes. I don't think that any place should tell you to do this, they should cook it the way you like it, that is what you are paying for.

You can do a reasonable imitation of a pizza oven at home if you have an oven stone and an oven that will go up to 550 degrees or so. It takes awhile to heat the oven and stone to that temperature, though, making your take-home pizza no longer "fast food".

One problem with taking the uncooked pizza home is keeping the ingredients on top of the pizza where they belong, since the cheese isn't yet melted to glue it all into place.

I tried it once. The result was not bad, not great; I think maybe the oven wasn't hot enough or something because I ended up having to put undercooked pieces back into the oven.

Once it was appropriately baked, however, it was pretty good. I keep meaning to get a pizza stone and try it again.

My family has done this throughout the years with pizza from Squires and it is always good. Not the same as eating it there, but yummy nonetheless.