RESTAURANT OF THE WEEK Who's your Dough Daddy?

Dough Daddy's Hot Pepperoni pizza, Oct. 20. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

By Jon Dunbar

• Published Jan 1, 2025 4:39 PM KST
• Updated Jan 1, 2025 4:39 PM KST

Korea's pizza scene is having a golden age right now, as Detroit-style pizza joints are popping up all over the place.

Don't mistake Detroit pizza for Chicago deep dish, another pizza trend that seems to have been run into the ground here, at least going by quality and authenticity. Detroit pizza is baked in high-sided, rectangular steel sheets, originally intended for use as drip pans in the city's once-booming automotive factories. The resulting pie is thick, crispy and satisfyingly caramelized. You can pick it up with your hands, unlike the hot soupy mess that Chicago's signature pizza is served as here.

Of all the Detroit pizza places out there, all of them deserve their turn in the sun that is The Korea Times' Restaurant of the Week column. Two have already been named — 8Mile in Daejeon and Motown Pizza in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

Among Seoul's handful of Detroit pizzerias, it's a little hard to pick just one, because they all deserve the spotlight. However, I decided the one that needs to be picked first is Dough Daddy, located over in eastern Seoul's Sindang-dong.

It has the most awkward name among them all, by a lot, but it stands out for a lot of reasons.

The pizzas are priced noticeably lower than its competitors, and the reason for this is simple: they're served as squares cut into four pieces, noticeably smaller than the usually more rectangular pizzas of other places, which are usually cut into slices of six or eight.

This is good because it means one pizza won't fill you up. And if you're hungry or with more people, you can simply order many different pizzas.

I've worked my way through half the pizza menu, and everything I've had has been great. The pepperoni is a classic done right, but I wanted to try some of the weirder-sounding pizzas, as in my experience these kinds of pizza places often have a few really weird ones that don't appeal to me.

First I tried the Super Bowl, an unlikely-sounding pizza topped with chili. My takeout order also came with a bag of Fritos, which I mistakenly ate on the side, not realizing they're supposed to be mixed in with the toppings — I couldn't have imagined that's what they were for. Regardless, the odd-sounding pizza turned out to be a hit, and I'll have to order it again so I can eat it properly. The flavors certainly seemed like they would complement each other. Dough Daddy claims on Instagram that it's becoming their top seller, and I can see why.

On a later visit, I got the I'm Fine-apple, a groan-worthy dad-joke of a name for what's basically a Hawaiian pizza. It came with caramelized pineapple, American bacon and a variety of other toppings, and as far as Hawaiian pizzas go, it was more than fine.

Dough Daddy also does wings, and once when I was feeling hungry, I got the orange wings. These are basically just regular wings, coated with a glaze taken from a Chinese restaurant's orange chicken. I was not disappointed.

There's a lot more to the menu, including some pastas that look pretty savory, and fried broccoli, which I'm very curious about. And of course, there are plenty of drinks, with beer ranging from cheap Budweiser to local greats like Magpie Pale Ale and Gorilla India pale ale, although every time I've stopped by I've been driving. I'm looking forward to going back sometime and sitting down for a meal and drinks there.

Located halfway between Line 6's Yaksu and Cheonggu stations, which are also transfer points with Lines 3 and 5, respectively, Dough Daddy is open every Wednesday to Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., with a rest break from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Follow @doughdaddy_official on Instagram for more information.