Why doesn't homemade pizza taste the same as a restaurant pizza? Is there a secret ingredient or method missing?

There's a lot of psychic about food, and one is the joy of having a pizza in a cardboard box at your door.

Other than that, it's a lot of different stuff. Pastry is possibly one of the main things, as is the amount of oil that they add into the cheese they use. It's an art they've put a lot of thought and development into. One thing about fast food is the low quality mass ingredients they're using, while at home, you're using better quality ingredients. I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but it can be true, as a high-quality burger made from lean beef is often not as good as a cheap one cooked in old oil on a cooking surface that has not been properly cleaned since the beginning of the day (week, month, year).

You're missing only the knowledge that homemade food isn't always supposed to taste the same. This is the beauty of it. If you prepare your own food at home, it's different every time. The differences are based on the quality of the ingredients, slight differences in methods and procedures, some differences in cooking times and temperatures. Even weather often makes your food different in a subtle way (or not as subtle as we're talking about doughs).