Power Ranking Iowa’s Gas Station Breakfast Pizzas

Photos by Sean Dengler

By Sean Dengler

July 15, 2022

Gas station breakfast pizza is the immortal King of Breakfast in Iowa.

For the longest time, Casey’s breakfast pizza has been the gold standard, but a slate of challengers have come for the crown in recent years. Many Iowans have debated if any of these new offerings match up with the state’s iconic slice.

As the resident food writer at Starting Line, I took it upon myself to find an answer to this most pressing question: Who has the best breakfast pizza?

Here are the competitors, which I’ll go through one-by-one, with the power ranking at the end:

Casey’s

A slice of Casey’s breakfast pizza with sausage and cheese sauce. Apologies to the bacon and/or white gravy fans.

What I Got: Sausage Breakfast Pizza – $2.99

While most of the pizza possessed a bland flavor, the sausage seasoning woke me up in the morning. The very thin crust was wonderfully cooked and not too crispy nor too doughy. The best part was the cheese sauce. With its warm ooze, the cheese sauce made for the perfect comfort food to make me excited to roll out of bed. The worst part, however, was that the sausage was not evenly spaced out on the pizza.

What I did not enjoy about the pizza was how it was as flat as Nebraska. It did not have variability on its pizza landscape, making it less appealing. The pizza was also very greasy, but that comes with the territory. While I saw eggs, I did not taste them. There was also supposed to be mozzarella and cheddar cheese on this pizza, but I never tasted them either. Although the flavor was not as strong as I hoped, the larger slice made up for this difference. At the beginning of my day, all I want is a portion of food that will fill me up. 

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Kum & Go

Kum & Go is generous with the toppings.

What I Got: Breakfast Pizza – $2.59

The Kum & Go breakfast pizza is great if you want to be filled up in the morning. This pizza is covered in pork sausage, Canadian bacon, and bacon bits. Of the meats, the bacon bits packed a mighty punch despite their small size and they were flawlessly cooked. Unlike the Casey’s slice, there was no seasoning to this sausage. This and the Canadian bacon were bland. Despite the blandness, the meats, fortunately, were evenly spread out across the slice. While the Kum & Go slice was smaller than the one from Casey’s, the immense amount of protein makes up for it.

Not surprisingly, this pizza slice was greasy. The crust felt like it might have been cooked too long as it was extra crispy. However, the good part about this crust was it was not as thin as the Casey’s pizza crust. The cheese was thick and, like the eggs, was not memorable. The worst part was the lack of cheese sauce.

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QuikTrip

Yes, Quick Trip has breakfast pizza.

What I Got: Sausage Breakfast Pizza – $3.29

The presentation of this slice was very aesthetically pleasing. Served in a cardboard box, I understand why they protected this pizza slice.

I love this box!

On a cold, Iowa morning, this is the ideal pizza to bring me warmth and comfort. It was magnificently cooked. The melted cheddar jack cheese combined with the sausage gravy blended to perform a party in my mouth. It was the best combination. 

The cheese and gravy create a delicious concoction of thick, creamy, and warm goodness. The sausage had a hint of seasoning while the crust was the best I tried so far. The size of the slice was ideal. It did not feel like too much or too little. The square cut, flawlessly cooked bacon bits were the perfect complement to the softness of the eggs. 

Unfortunately, mediocre eggs across breakfast pizzas are a running theme. Like Casey’s and Kum & Go, these eggs were below average. Fortunately for QT, the eggs were the only thing I could really nitpick.

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Kwik Star

The Kwik Star Sunrise Breakfast Pizza.

What I Got: Sunrise Breakfast Pizza – $2.49

With being the cheapest option, it was also the smallest size. Unfortunately, it did not fill me up. Bad start, Kwik Star, bad start. While Kwik Star used a cheese sauce, it did not go well with the pizza’s smoky flavor. The taste of the entire breakfast pizza, possibly caused by this sauce, made it different from all other breakfast pizza, and not in a positive way. The cheese sauce took away from the pizza’s quality. While this taste might tickle someone’s fancy, it didn’t work with me. In addition, the sausage and eggs also did not stand out.

I enjoyed the bacon bits’ smoothness and their taste. The box for the pizza was actually the best part as it provided a nice look and feel to this sad pizza slice.

My second-favorite breakfast pizza box.

The worst part is I still preferred the QT box. 

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The Final, Everlasting, Never Going to Be Changed Ever for the Rest of Humanity Power Rankings*

With each ranking, comes a brief reason for its spot. Not surprisingly, the better the ranking, the more expensive the slice.

  1. Kwik Star: The slice was too small, and the cheese sauce didn’t match the rest of the slice’s taste.
  1. Kum & Go: Where is the sauce?
  1. Casey’s: Too bland.
  1. QuikTrip: The perfect size with the perfect combination of sausage, eggs, melted cheese, and sausage gravy.

Do you think I am wrong? I am not. Deal with it.

*Maybe not forever.

 

by Sean Dengler
07/15/22

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