Hounddog’s Pizza – Spiciest Dish in Columbus Series

Hounddog’s is a legendary name in the pizza game in Columbus and one that is in such a spot that we don’t get to it too often.

On this particular occasion, we wanted pizza, a bit of spice, and a fat chicken parm, all of which Hounddog’s menu had.

Hounddog’s Pizza comes in 12″, 14″, 16″ with three crust options and five pizza sauce options. Along with custom selections, Hounddog’s also holds a list of Specialty Pizzas including Breakfast Pizza, Backyard Dog, and The Russell. Along with standard pizza fare, you can also get a variety of apps from boneless wings and pretzel bites to stuffed mushrooms and lasagna bites.

On top of all that they also host a list of nine different subs to snag if you prefer your bread on top and on bottom instead of just the underside of your slice of ‘za. For notes on the heat, carry on dear reader.

Pizza. The universal sign of friendship, peace, and cheat days. While the pizza options at Hounddog’s may not be on the spicy side (they’ve got a Hot Mama with hot cajun links, or Señor Dog with jalapeños), they have two universal spicy ingredients for any and all pizzas; their sauces. Now, as a hot sauce creator, eater, and explorer, when my dumb brain sees “Our Delicious sauces” of varying levels of heat, I think “that’s gotta be their hot sauces” right? Wrong. Dumb brain is dumb again. With Hounddog’s Pizza, when they say “sauces” they mean their pizza sauce. When you say it out loud, it makes total sense.

As part of their sauce list, sitting high atop the 5-sauce scale is the “Howlin’ Hot” sauce, which notifies you is HOT! on the menu. Along with a cheeseburger pizza and chicken parm, we got a side of the Howlin’ Hot, just in case it was too much for The Lady of the Farm. Dumb brain again was like “I bet it’s a little side cup.” WRONG. Hounddog’s gives you a massive container full of their sauce. I dipped in my fries, I dipped in the chicken parm, I slathered it on the pizza and still there was more. It was like a Mary Poppins container of sawce.

Unsure of what to expect and untrusting of my brain at this point, a handful of fries were the first spicy tester vessels. Several dredged bites in, I noticed a subtle hint of heat. It’s a direct on your tongue heat with a bit of sweetness to it, making it a great compliment to the chicken parm. A few more tests of the sauce and same thing, slight tongue heat, a little sweetness, then gone. The Lady of the Farm dipped in a fry, same cycle. Tongue heat, sweet, gone. If I had to guess the pepper powder used, I’d lean toward cayenne, smoked paprika, or maybe a hint of serrano.

Fully tested, I thought of where it sat on our list. As a pizza sauce and dipping sauce, I enjoyed my time with the Howlin’ Hot, but it could definitely use some extra kick (I ended up adding some Scorpion Garlic sauce to it later). As such, we’re placing Hounddog’s Pizza at #120 on our list, in the lower echelon of spicy items, giving it a stamp of approachable for any tolerance level over the base.

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