I like the way their pizza tastes. Both “Pan” and “Thin Crust” styles.
But on many occasions, I have seen conversations here on the dope where it is generally presupposed that Pizza Hut is nearly the worst example of “pizza” there is.
I don’t think Pizza Hut is the best pizza. I am not even committed to claiming it’s “good pizza.” My experience with pizzas is very limited. I am sure I wouldn’t know a “good pizza” if it hit me in the face.
But I maintain that Pizza Hut pizzas are not obviously gross. This seems to run counter to a certain general sentiment on the board here.
Explain to me why I am not supposed to like Pizza Hut pizzas. What is wrong with them? I mean this in two senses: First, what is it about them that leads people to think they actually taste bad compared to other pizzas, and second, what is it about them which makes them not “good pizza.”
I like pizza hut pizza and in fact I have yet to find a pizza (with toppings I like) that I don’t like. Even the Little Ceaser’s $5 pepperoni pizza I like. It’s good pizza for only $5.
Some people are just pizza snobs and if it was not made by an Italian guy in a mom and pop pizza place in Chicago/New York then it sucks.
The only pizza that I think is just “ok” is store bought frozen pizza.
I personally think their pizza is way too greasy, and the crust somehow always manages to taste old and stale, even when it’s fresh out of the oven. It tastes like a cheapo grocery store frozen pizza. I’d definitely agree that Pizza Hut is at the bottom rung of the “fast food pizza” ladder. Even Domino’s is a lot better.
I like Pizza Hut pizza in the same way that I like McDonald’s food. Yeah, I think they add extra grease – but, like McDonald’s, I eat it when I want something greasy and really, really bad for me.
I find Domino’s and Little Caesar’s less enjoyable in that bad-food-you-like way, and I’ll often just go with drinking water or soda instead of partaking if offered.
Imo’s pizza (for St.Louisians) is akin to twice-digested Domino’s puked up by a cat onto greasy cardboard. It’s the only pizza that’s actually worse than both frozen grocery pizza and those horrible rectangular “pizzas” we used to get served in school cafeterias fifteen-twenty years back. shudder
Whoa buddy. Don’t go dissing your city like that. Next you’ll be saying you don’t like toasted ravioli. :eek:
In all honesty, I wasn’t a big fan of Imo’s for a long time (they used too much cheese for my taste), but recently I’ve come around. I finally feel like a true St. Louisan.
Yep, pizza snobs will tell you it’s not “real” pizza and turn their noses up but I’d say it’s just a “different” kind of pizza. And there are a lot of “different” kinds of pizza out there. Sometimes I want a real pizza joint thin crust from a local italian named place, sometimes I want a thick slice of Rocky Rococos, sometimes I want Pizza Hut.
Although I haven’t had a pizza I didn’t like I’d be more likely to slam a place like Sbarro’s or Costco/Sams Club. That’s some pretty generic tasting pizza right there.
My son LOVES Pizza Hut. Me, eh - it’s fine. As long as I can cut really thin crust and the sauce isn’t too sweet, I’m good. My all time favorite is one my husband doesn’t really like, so we never order from there.
Frozen store pizzas - Jewel Chef’s Kitchen Thin & Crispy are the bomb.
Wow. I haven’t seen a Pizza Inn in years. We used to have Pizza Hut and Mr. Gatti’s delivered on a regular basis but recently the kids have revolted. Now I have to pickup Double Dave’s or Austin’s Pizza.
Most locally owned restaurants in Buffalo can’t cook a decent a steak to save their lives. Chains fill the void; the slabs of meat that come off the grill at places like Outback Steakhouse and Montana’s are far superior. Even steak from Applebee’s is better than what’s served in all but the highest-end steakhouses in Buffalo. I’d imagine that in a place like … oh, Amarillo, where there’s not a large upper-middle-class foodie population or Italian-American community, the modal pizza is probably going to be just edible. Pizza Hut, by comparison, will be pretty good.
The pizza of my hometown generally tromps Pizza Hut – there’s very few franchise or national chain pizzerias in Buffalo. However, I’ve been in a lot of cities and towns where the mom & pop pizza is universally mediocre or bad. Pizza Hut pizza isn’t bad, but compared to some of the small town indie pizza I’ve had, it’s really, really good. When I was living in Las Cruces, Pizza Hut had the best pie in town; the few locally owned pizzerias baked pies what weren’t even up to high school cafeteria quality.
Why diss Pizza Hut? Sometimes, it’s geography. If you’re in a good pizza town, like Chicago, New York, or Buffalo, it’s because PH pizza is different than the dominant local style. Sometimes it’s elitism; the belief that chain restaurants are always, without exception, always worse than those that are locally owned.
Well, part of the “pizza snobbery” is regional. Here in the Midwest, individual Mom and Pop pizzarias are rare. It is the land of the thousand pizza chains, all of which have comparable-quality pizzas for the most part (other than a few, like Home Team and Gumby’s, which make really cheap pizza).
However, you just can’t get New York style pizza here! (Nor can you get decent Chicago-style deep dish pizza, either.) It is all chain pizza, which is okay I guess, but really is not as good as the pizza I could get out East. Plus, it tends to be the same price, or often more!
There’s nothing wrong with Pizza Hut. I don’t order it on my own - too greasy and I don’t care for the crust - but I eat it if that’s what people are getting at work or whatever. Still, if I lived in NJ again, I would scoff at the people who insisted on Domino’s when you can get the real thing at the same price. It’s like buying Kraft cheese when you can get aged cheddar. Nothing is inherently inedible about Kraft cheese, but gigantic chain products tend to be blander and inoffensive to all, rather than focusing on being really good.
Pizza Hut’s thin crust is my favorite; I don’t like their thick crust at all.
Papa John’s is good, but too filling.
Sicily’s is better than Pizza Hut, but gives me raging heartburn.
Gatti’s is too bland.
Little Caesar’s is just sort of meh.
Domino’s sucks.
There were local places where I grew up (NE Ohio, in a heavily Italian town) that had wonderful pizza. None of the chains even come close. In Houston, the only good local pizza I’ve found is Fuzzy’s. People here swear by Star, but I can’t stand it.
I like Pizza Hut just fine. Nope, they aren’t in the same league as that Italian joint down the street, but I love their thin crust pepperoni. It’s almost a different dish than pizza altogether; more like a really salty hors d’oeuvres.
Oh yeah, Houston had an Uno’s for a while. It was quite good (when they didn’t screw up and make the crust soggy), especially the seafood pizza. But they charged something in the neighborhood of a car payment for them, and soon folded.
You can’t get good non-chain pizza around here; the only place that has decent pizza is ninety miles away from me, though when we do venture down there, we generally eat nowhere else. I have always liked Pizza Hut Pizza though, ever since I was a child and got free personal pan pizzas for reading books.
I’m spoiled by access to enough privately-owned pizza shops that I can even turn my nose up at mom-and-pop shops that aren’t up to snuff.
Pizza is the food of the gods, and Pizza Hut / Domino’s / Papa John’s are all angels cast down to the underworld. When you buy and eat national chain pizza, you provide aid and support to Satan’s (Hades’ / Hela’s / fill-in-the-blank’s) army.
Chicagoan checking in: Pizza Hut pizza is too greasy and the crust is totally tasteless, and most of the time it’s half raw in the center. Other than that, it’s not too bad. I’ve been known to indulge, after mopping the layer of grease off the top of the cheese with some paper napkins. But I think it’s the crust that really loses me - perfect pizza crust is really hard to get right: not too thin (I’m looking at you, Candelight!) not to thick (Giordano’s) but just right and with actual flavor to it; pizza crust is not merely an edible delivery device for toppings.
But the reason we get snobby about it is that even if it’s not terrible FOOD, it’s pretty bad pizza - in the same way that McDonald’s makes a yummy food, but it’s pretty bad BURGER - if by burger you’re expecting a 1/3 pound hand formed patty cooked over a charcoal grill with freshly sliced toppings on a whole grain bun.
If you want real honest to gosh good PIZZA, you go to a place with a brick oven and shakers of cheese, oregano and red pepper flakes on the table when you walk in. The more tables, the less good the pizza, in my experience. (OK, I’ll except Gulliver’s from that rule of thumb.) If you want decent tasting pizza of a lower tier, then Papa John’s is my recommendation, followed by Philly’s Best and then Pizza Hut way down near the end.
I even like supermarket frozen pizza, but there we’re getting more into a mashed potato from whole potatoes vs. mashed potatoes from flakes or baked mac ‘n’ cheese vs. stovetop sort of divide. It’s not the pizza’s fault - if you took it to your local brick oven place, that supermarket pizza wouldn’t be half bad. Some of them would even come close to stacking up to the chain pizzas. The fault is with the home oven, which won’t get hot enough or hold the heat steady enough for a good pizza.
hork I once asked (on the Hill) what type of raviolli they were, and had to explain that I wanted to know what the filling was. “Um, raviolli meat?” Yeesh; no thanks.
I don’t eat slingers or fried brain sandwiches, either, and those are specialties of my city, too.
Whereas Pizzle Hut has reduced pizza to an inoffensive blandness of grease, some regional foods are just offensive offensivenesses.
What is wrong with them? I mean this in two senses: First, what is it about them that leads people to think they actually taste bad compared to other pizzas, and second, what is it about them which makes them not “good pizza.”