Are any pizza chains any good anymore? I have fond memories of Pizza Hut (and Dominoes and Pizza Haven to a slightly lesser extent) but everything seems to taste like cardboard and be made to the lowest possible budget these days.
Pizza Parlours are great if you want to spend $20 but even then it's almost like an entirely different category of product. I want a 1990 Pizza Hut Pizza. Please.
Dine in Pizza hut was awesome as a kid.
One of my earliest memories, early 80s, Pizza Hut used to have a seafood pizza.
Dine in Pizza hut was the absolute best
I remember as a family going there
Dine in Sizzler was not too far off although its turned to shite these days
All you need is the pumpkin soup and sizzler toast breads mmm.. Diy nachos if you are still hungry from the salad bar
Agreed.
The Hunter ones all had staff who would walk around asking customers what pizza they'd like cooked along with a few randoms…really awesome.
…and then there's the bacon chips, OMFG I miss those little beauties! ;)
Sizzler absolutely destroyed pizza hut back in the day, do you remember the line ups?
I took my wife to sizzler a few years ago for nostalgia purposes and it was one of the worst meals I've had lol.
I have fond memories of the "all you can eat' pizza hut upstairs on bourke street in Melbourne from when I was a teenager. We'd go out all day skateboarding then would go there in the afternoon (before 6pm so you got charged the lunch price instead of dinner price) to pig out on all you can eat for like $8.
I also remember when pizza hut introduced their dippers box. It was a rectangular margarita pizza that was cut into tiny rectangles and came with dipping sauces. Cheese pizza + bbq or ranch dressing omnomnom.
Oh yeah… all you can eat buffet at Pizza Hut was the bomb…
Went there for lunch when we were meant to be at the State Library studying for uni. Not a single piece of studying was done that day.
Your post brings tears to my eyes. I think about this quite often. No one did it like pizza hut but we all sold out to Pizza Haven and then Dominoes. Pizza hut trying to follow suit with the cost cutting was a very sad affair.
Crunchy yet soft pan crust you could eat on its own (most likely cooked with an animal based fat), the ham that had its own distinct smokey flavour, with cheese that would string out as you pulled the slices apart.
Real junk simple hamburgers have made a comeback here's hoping deep Pan pizzas will follow suit.
The yuppy wood fired pizzas are alright for quality but not the same.
I think they are and always have been fast food junk all of which tasted 'good' to us when we were kids whose primary eating purpose was to ingest as much energy as possible. I propose that the fond memories are more derived from the excitement of dining in to the restaurant, hooking into that all you can eat desert bar and the fun times had with family and friends than from the actual taste or quality of the food product.
yeah it is unfortunate but pizza is probably the only thing that has gone backwards in price over the years, I guess you can't expect too much for $5 - $8 (I used to pay more then that for a Hawaiian at Pizza Hut 20 years ago)
We have a chain called Big Al's near us. Pizzas from there are what I remember Pizza Hut to be like in the 1990s.
We make it ourselves now, toppings so thick you need a knife and fork.
Do miss all you can eat Pizza Hut at Strathpine (Brisbane)
Don't mention any of that to any Italians.
Sam's Pizza - Kuraby Qld. Amazing pizza's for $10 each :)
Pizza Hut didn't change. You changed in one or both of the following ways:
1, your 'tastes' evolved towards more gourmet/exotic/expensive options.
2, you have become more cynical and less open to joy.
Re number 1, some people argue this is a good thing (developed palette, taste for the finer things). Others argue that you've merely trapped yourself into making it more expensive/difficult to obtain utility. I tend to lean to the latter but it's complicated and trying to 'fix it' is also very complicated.
Re number 2…I dunno dude. Maybe watch the South Park episode 'You're Getting Old'. It probably won't make you feel better though.
Fact: Large pizzas used to be 12 inch, they are now 11 inch.
Fact: The deep pan crust used to be crisp and golden on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside. No longer.
Fact: The cheese used to be mozzarella and would stretch when you pulled a slice from the box. Today it is a cheap blend and scattered in such small quantity that each bit of cheese barely touches another.
Fact: The pizzas used to be properly cooked. Now they are cooked for a shorter time at a higher temp.
Your cavalier use of the term fact hurts my feelings.
Yeah i think its the cheese also , my favourite store pizza's " not a chain " still put a heap of toppings on but much less cheese " im guessing to bring the cost down " they look the same from the top but are so dry now which makes the crust taste like carboard on the bright side im eating less unhealthier food than i used too.
Fact pizza is cheaper than what it used to be.
Anyone remember Pizza Haven?
The store that I lived near had really bad pizzas that had oil in the crust that tasted like it had some detergent in it. Perhaps their pans weren't properly cleaned?
La Porchetta was awesome! Is it just me or have they dipped in quality too?
Pizza Haven isn't around anymore?
I think I'm getting old.
Dine in Pizza Hut was the best and all you psychologists who claim my nostalgia is blurring my memories that the food was better - ARE DEAD WRONG.
The food was far better - fact. Everything from the crust to the toppings and cheese, they used better tomato sauce and spices. They were cooked more closely to perfection.
Perhaps Pizza Hut's new owners will bring back the nostalgic parlors - Pizza Hut goes retro with dine-in stores poised to make a comeback
$5 for a Dominos Pepperoni/Americano/Beef & onion or Spicy Veg Trio. You can collect it hot and straight out of the oven. C'mon, its hard to whinge about that?
I ordered the other day and the spicy beef is gone. That was my favourite $5 pizza. :'(
Word! That was a damn fine pizza!
Was a big fan of Silvio's before the Dominos brand came in. They were cheap as though.
They also gave me a free copy of this as a kid:
Had completely forgotten about that game! Thanks for the link. :)
131 888 brings Silvios to your door!
I remember a day when BBQ Meat Loves actually had a decent amount of meat on Domino's/Pizza Hut pizzas!
Now they just sprinkle it; especially when using coupons shakes fist at air
I have no idea what people are talking about. I wish my health was better so that eating them wasn't so bad for me. I love pizza and I don't think you can do better than the price of Dominos in particular but even Pizza Hut.
I'm a huuuge pizza fan " literally and figuretively " the only food to complete the food pyramid :-) and my goto junk/takeaway food , but with all the food tv shows im making better food at home , asian , italian etc etc " except pizza lol , cant get the crust right or the oven hot enough ".
My wife makes a beautiful pizza starting from dough in her bread maker. Takes a lot longer than ordering and buying online, especially with the whole family to feed.
yeah I remember the old style pizza hut from when I was a kid, the chequered table cloths, table service and awesome pizza's, it was more a dining out experience than a cheap takeaway
But reading the comments on this post, aren't we all just remembering the past through rose-tinted glasses? Our memories aren't 100% foolproof, we all remember the good things and good times to be better than what they actually were and that makes us feel good.
But for the best pizza's - home made cooked on a pizza oven or on a weber using a pizza stone
Nah, it's not just wishful thinking; there really have been tangible changes in the product since the early days…but understandably so; we have nobody to blame but ourselves as consumers, the push for perennially cheaper prices can only result in a lower standard of product (including ingredients) & service, that's their only wiggle room.
The actual price for a PH pizza in the halcyon days was higher, so in relative terms that disparity is even greater…so naturally you got a better quality pizza.
I had Pizza Hut for the first time in years about 3 years ago. Had gastro for a week+.
Definitely worse than they used to be.
Never again.
You have to get gastro a few times before you can get used to the hygeine levels really appreciate a modern take out pizza.
So it's a much more sensory experience now. I see.
So you bought from one pizza store, once in 3 years, had gastro, blamed the pizza store and have decided never to try it again?
How have you not starved to death?
There's such a thing as other stores and chains and completely different food.
Keep downvoting, and avoiding delicious food and missing out then. What can I say. Some people are stubborn.
My only positive experience at Pizza Hut was the Battlefield 2 promotion.
I played that game for 5-6 years and was the best money I ever spent.
mine was need for speed underground. good times.
TO THE WINDOOOOWWWWS
Bacon double cheeseburger at Dominos is awesome. Close 2nd goes to Godfather
Double bacon cheeseburger still tops the chain pizza!!
But always felt crap after eat those :(
Worth it
All you can eat at the local Pizza Hut, carbonara and the desert bar 481 11 11 Pizza Hut Delivery!
My only gripe about Pizza Hut was back in the day, when you use to have to do phone orders, you could ring up and ask for extra pepperoni on a pepperoni pizza and it was free. I think their use to be a coupon in 2000/2001 where you could get two larges delivered for $14 and with the extra pepperoni it was the business.
Ohh yeah. Its all coming back to me. The roofs, paper placemats, crushed ice and THAT smell.
Anyone remember being hit by the smell after a swim at Kirra beach?
9481 1111 9481 1111 9481 1111
There never used to be a 9 young padawan.
In Sydney it was 9481 1111.
Gosh I miss the Pizza Hut buffet and the Dessert Bar :)
Nope, only since approx 1996.
Pizza Inn is still awesmome.
The pizzas use to be bigger and pizza hut had those little plastic 3 legged pieces to keep the box from squashing the pizza in the middle. Do they still use those?
Pizza hut was the place to goto for pizza in the 80s and 90s, but their prices were double or triple what they are today.
Go to La Lupa's in Tyabb, VIC if you want to experience delicious and THICK pizzas at great value.
i always go local stores now, as they actually (to some extent) care about what they are making, versus a chain store with just a few teenagers on $5 an hour who couldnt care less about what they are making
Went to Hawaii and had pizza hut. I have never had a pizza so good. We really miss out down here.
We certainly do. Did you also go to a Philly Cheese Steak joint? The yanks really know how to eat.
did you order a hawaiian?
thats racist! Its a maoli pizza
Pepperoni. Not a fan of Hawaiian, nether were the people there. Every tour guide mentioned its a canadian pizza.
Over there, they just call it pizza. ;)
There are still All you can eat dine in Pizza Huts around but very few and far between: https://www.pizzahut.com.au/dine-in-stores
I remember N64 sleepovers and 4 pizzas for 19.95 from dominos using shopper dockets.. meatlovers.. always.
I still have good experiences with Domino's. Not Pizza Hut though.
I don't remember the chains ever being good - the local 'mum and dad' run shop was always miles ahead and roughly the same price.
Had Domino's first time in years. Still as small as I remembered but surprisingly decent - not good; decent :)
I stay away from any chain (and lots of local stores) that use shredded ham. That's my yardstick. It's absolutely disgusting mass produced salty junk. Most normal ham is highly processed anyway but still 100 times better than the sh**t out of a bag. Make it at home, not that hard and much better… although not cheap but your heart would thank you.
DOC in Melbourne is nice!
$5 dominos pepperoni pizza on thin base…. can't go wrong.
I don't remember them being better, mind you I remember maybe 15 years ago pizzas were more expensive. You can't say that about a lot of products, so maybe quality gave way to price a bit.
You probably have to go back 25 years for them to be significantly better
Two pages, and no one has mentioned the Bigfoot from Pizza Hut?
Ate a fantastic pizza from a relatively new place in Randwick called Benvenuti, Woodfired 13" for 18 bucks for a supreme, best pizza I have had in ages
I just hit up the mom & pop pizza shop closeby and I'm always happy!
A good pizza is the base and cheese, rest of the toppings can be cat food..
I've pretty much given up on eating Pizza, I never enjoy it anymore. Last one I enjoyed was actually American style so if I could find something like that in Eastern Melbourne I would stick to it.
I'm not sure what it is with "Aussie" pizza these days. Either the sauce is wrong, there is too much, too little or the toppings suck. Maybe I've just changed, who knows.
A Little Ceasars opened up near me in Sydney, it's an American chain but is surprisingly tasty and pretty cheap. Not exactly high end or gourmet but definitely decent quality and tasted pretty fresh.
Not sure if they're in other states but worth a try if you're sick of Domino's.
I have fond memories of Pizza Haven. Used to work as a driver and would frequently see the owner scoop up the cheese from the floor to put on the pizza. Fun times.
Does anyone remember years ago when Dominos had the Nacho Grande pizza? It was amazing, had corn chips on top and came with a little tub of sour cream. I have often tried to replicate it.
I do remember it! It was awesome, but it seems like no one else knows what I'm talking about. I feel like Skinner talking about the rice he had in the POW camp.
Not saying is bad but it's not real pizza, more like kebab toppings on pide dough made to look like pizza…