I remember the Pizza Hut of the ‘90s. A large sit down restaurant, families, a salad bar, fresh made pizzas and cheap pitchers of beer.
When I went again around 2010 it was a small sit down restaurant, no families and no salad bar. The pizza was covered in aluminum foil. It was reheated and in a rectangular pan which was dropped off at the table with all the grace of a prison meal. The pizza was pre-made and obviously simply reheated in an oven. It tasted like crap. The whole place said “minimal effort”. It struck me as one-step away from a vending machine restaurant.
But my 5 and 8 y.o.s loved the pizza so... okay then.
In the ‘90s, they had a better tasting pizza with a succulent sauce and mozzarella that oozed in white strings when you pulled the wedge away from the pie. I would go there for lunch and order those sizzling pan pizzas that came in a cast iron pan. They were priced, as I remember, at $5 and perfectly portioned for lunch. Those were the days.
Now the sauce is a bland, tasteless sauce. Gone are the garlic overtones and the distinct Italian seasoning. Gone is the salad bar that made those pan pizzas into dinner. No longer do you find those spacious dining areas where you could take the whole family. Pizza Hut became a small room with a order counter. You might be lucky to have a bench to sit on while you waited for your pizza. Otherwise, you walk back to your car and wait 15 minutes.
I just saw a Pizza Hut crammed into the back of a gas station. This is reducing overhead for maximum profit.
I describe this to show how far pathetic Pizza Hut has fallen.
If the Seahawks win a game, Papa Johns will sell their on line pizza orders for half price on Tuesday. I wonder if they have had a decline in these orders?