It may well surprise people to learn that this weekend I visited a Pizza Hut restaurant for the first time in my life, and I am now in my mid 50s. I had always stayed away from such a restaurant before, for the same reason that I never patronise Burger King, McDonalds, Subway, and other similar fast food chains. However, necessity and hunger - and a very busy city centre with the independent restaurants already full - forced me inside.
My first surprise was that the menu was so minimalist. Being a multi-national chain with branches in every town and city UK-wide, I would have expected much more choice. Two main courses which were not pizzas,[a mac 'n' cheese or a lasagna], a choice of 4 flat-bread pizza, and, if memory serves me correctly, 8 listed pizzas, or 'design-your-own'. Basta! There was nothing really on the menu which either I or my companion that evening wanted particularly, but we ordered nevertheless.
The second surprise came with ordering. I am uncertain if this is a post-pandemic thing or whether all Pizza Huts have been doing it this way in any case; but each table is given a unique QR code and you use an app on your phone to order and pay for your food. Not ideal in any way, especially if you want to change an ingredient or create your own pizza as I did.
Each main course comes with unimited salad from the salad bar. My companion and I found the salad bar minimalist in the extreme. Poor quality vegetables - been left out too long - were offered with tortilla chips, potato salad, coleslaw, and a few different sweet and fatty dressings. I was unable to find any simple vinegarette or Italian dressing. The plates / bowls are made of plastic.
The atmosphere was stuffy, cramped and loud. We did not feel comfortable being there, and indeed, after eating our pizzas, left as soon as possible. Whether coincidence or not, both myself and companion had stomach problems following our visit there, and my taste buds are still full of the fat and smell of my pizza. [I had ordered a create-your-own with four toppings: the amount of which would have fit easily onto just one slice of my pizza - it was 99% bread!] One thing I can guarantee, that was my first and absolutely my last visit to a Pizza Hut!
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
My first surprise was that the menu was so minimalist. Being a multi-national chain with branches in every town and city UK-wide, I would have expected much more choice. Two main courses which were not pizzas,[a mac 'n' cheese or a lasagna], a choice of 4 flat-bread pizza, and, if memory serves me correctly, 8 listed pizzas, or 'design-your-own'. Basta! There was nothing really on the menu which either I or my companion that evening wanted particularly, but we ordered nevertheless.
The second surprise came with ordering. I am uncertain if this is a post-pandemic thing or whether all Pizza Huts have been doing it this way in any case; but each table is given a unique QR code and you use an app on your phone to order and pay for your food. Not ideal in any way, especially if you want to change an ingredient or create your own pizza as I did.
Each main course comes with unimited salad from the salad bar. My companion and I found the salad bar minimalist in the extreme. Poor quality vegetables - been left out too long - were offered with tortilla chips, potato salad, coleslaw, and a few different sweet and fatty dressings. I was unable to find any simple vinegarette or Italian dressing. The plates / bowls are made of plastic.
The atmosphere was stuffy, cramped and loud. We did not feel comfortable being there, and indeed, after eating our pizzas, left as soon as possible. Whether coincidence or not, both myself and companion had stomach problems following our visit there, and my taste buds are still full of the fat and smell of my pizza. [I had ordered a create-your-own with four toppings: the amount of which would have fit easily onto just one slice of my pizza - it was 99% bread!] One thing I can guarantee, that was my first and absolutely my last visit to a Pizza Hut!
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
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