Review: Worlds of Fun Gold Standard Pizza

When Gold Rush Pizza opened this season at Worlds of Fun, you have to make a special pie for the occasion. That is where the new Gold Standard Pizza comes into the equation.

The pizza features macaroni and cheese along with fries to make this interesting new concoction.

This is a very unusual pizza; mac and cheese, French fries, cheddar cheese, a little pizza spice flavoring, built on a pita-type crust. Really not a pizza but in a class by itself.

The combination of toppings, while not incompatible, did not meld well together to form any distinctive taste.

The French Fries had been traditionally fried and then placed on the pizza during the oven baking process, and were crunchy, almost like shoe-string potatoes. This was not unpleasant, but different.

The macaroni and cheese was tender and had good flavoring, probably due to the inclusion of melted sharp cheddar cheese sprinkled on the pizza.

In between the mac and cheese and the pita bread crust, there was a white pizza sauce that imparted traditional pizza flavoring to the entrée. The pita style crust was thin and moist, but a little crusty around the edges due to its trip through the pizza oven.

After one bite of the entire concoction, it seemed much more natural to just pull off the ingredients and eat them by themselves as the combination of flavors seemed out of place.

We ordered the pizza again on another visit a couple weeks later to see if it changed or if our opinion could be swayed. The fact that there was none of the Gold Standard Pizza ready to be served and they looked at us weird upon ordering it made us wonder if this pizza is destined for failure.

We attempted to eat it as a regular slice of pizza, but because of all the white sauce in the macaroni, ingredients were sliding all over the place. We did manage to eat as much of it as we could, but our opinion did not change from the original review. There are several tasty ingredients on this pizza, but they do not go very well together. We will stick with pepperoni pizza when we eat there again.

Jeff from WorldsofFun.org also recently tried the Gold Standard Pizza and came to the same conclusion; pull the fries off and eat the mac and cheese pizza on its own.

While we are appreciative that Worlds of Fun is experimenting with some non-traditional options, this one just does not work well together.

The bread sticks served with the pizza though were fresh, with a nice garlic flavor from a small amount of oil brushed on the outside.

Fact Sheet

What: Gold Standard Pizza
Where: Gold Rush Pizza (Worlds of Fun)
Cost: $13.99
Calories: 844
Dining Plan: Yes
Pros: The individual pizza ingredients were of good quality and taste. The bread sticks were fresh and moist with nice garlic flavor.
Cons: Perhaps it is an acquired taste, but fries, mac and cheese, sharp cheddar cheese, white pizza sauce on pita bread is a very unusual combination of flavors, such that it tasted better to eat them individually rather than together.