So, big chain pizza delivery is what it is, not great healthy food but convenient and, on its best days, tasty. I think we probably get delivery once a month or so and used to go Papa John’s. Decided to try the new Pizza Hut menu and I was surprised at how much I liked it. A lot of it seems gimmicky (your choice of sauce, crust flavor, topping drizzle), but everything we have tried has been good.
I especially like the balsamic topping drizzle and the Peruvian Cherry Pepper. Peruvian Cherry Pepper? The name reminds me of Corinthian Leather. It sounds like marketing BS, and maybe it is, but damned if it isn’t the best veggie topping I’ve ever had on a pizza.
It certainly is kinda cool how two of the biggest national chains decided to go to war over…quality. Dominos fired the first shots two years ago when they admitted “Our pizza tastes bad” and completely overhauled the crust, sauce, cheese, and quality of the toppings. It translated into a huge rebound in market share for Dominos based on…crazy as it may seem…offering better food. As consumers, it’s pretty awesome, which ever you prefer.
Looking forward to trying a Pizza Hut here in the future. The one thing I will say by comparison: Dominos was a lot more aggressive in rolling out their new menu than Pizza Hut, at least as far as coupons and online deals, but that may have been a factor of Dominos market share being in free-fall prior to their changeover.
They just put a Dominos in down the road from me, so I tried their pizza recently for the first time in years. I liked it well enough. I’d put Dominos/Pizza Hut/Jets pretty much even, above Little Caesars but below good Chicago-style or wood-fired. Haven’t had Papa Johns in years since they’re nowhere near me, but from what I remember from college days they’d be down in the lower tier.
Dominos charges more than Pizza Hut, though, at least if you order just one pizza at a time. So they probably won’t get a lot of my business as long as Pizza Hut keeps offering large 2-toppings for $7.99.
Dominos is ok. They did improve their pizza and they are relatively cheap, especially if you go and pick it up and avoid the delivery cost and tip, which we normally don’t, but it’s there for cost-cutters. They usually have a $5.99 each for a two-topping medium deal going if you order two or more, and who doesn’t want pizza leftovers?
Haven’t done Pizza Hut in awhile but I may check them out.
There was a time when buying a frozen pizza saved you some money, but it’s almost as cheap to order Dominos as it is to buy a couple of nice frozen pies.
Love my ShopRunner subscription. Free shipping from Newegg and free delivery from Dominos! We can get two medium 2-topping pies for $13.00 delivered. Tough to beat.
I like some of Pizza Hut’s ingredients more, though. Especially their bacon, which tastes and looks like honest-to-god diced pork belly, and is delicious.
People tend to call me crazy, but my absolute favorite 2-topping combo is bacon & pepperoni from a place that bakes long and hot enough to make both browned and crispy. PH, when cooked by someone good on-staff, is the best chain joint for this.
Dominios two medium pizza deal is so ridiculous. It is literally cheaper to get two pizzas than it is to get one. Not cheaper-per-pizza either, just straight cheaper. I don’t understand it.
Dominos must read this thread! (Or, you know, actually read their opposition’s specials.) The day after I posted this, along comes an email offering large 3-topping for $7.99. Carryout only, but for me that’s no big deal. Restricted to Mon-Thurs, so they must figure people on the weekend won’t be shopping on price…probably mostly true.
So the other day, based on recommendations in this thread, I ordered from Pizza Hut. For the wife and I, a bacon and olive thin crust, extra bacon. For the “kids” some kind of white sauce, chicken and ham thing. They eat PH all the time, so they loved it. Our thin crust was overcooked and dry. Pretty much flavorless cardboard. Maybe not a lot of people order thin crust? I dunno. But we were not happy. Especially considering that the pizzas were 40 minutes past the alleged delivery time.
Anyway, they sent me a survey via email and I answered it honestly. This got me a discount code for $10 off of my next $20 purchase. Just when I thought I was safe they drag me back in. :-)
I will probably use this code and order again. This time, no thin crust. They have one more chance to win me over.
My gf and I would always get a deep dish pan pepperoni while my folks would get a plain cheese thin crust each time we went out there together (semi-regular one summer of college, IIRC). I always kinda liked the thin crust, as it was sort of like a delightful pizza cracker, but dunno if that’s what it’s still like. The pan was far better, however, soaked as it was in Corpo-Proved Butter Substitute No. 7. Hnnnngh.
Yeah, if I had to do pan deep dish, for years I’d just do Pizza Hut. It is what it is, but it was a damn sight better than Dominos.
Then when Dominos changed their recipes a few years back, they waited like an extra 8 months before they did that with their pans…
…but it was totally worth it. I haven’t had a new Pizza Hut pan pizza, but I can tell you that Dominos new pan pizza just blow every other chain’s out of the water.
I admit to being sort of baffled why people actually get anything from a chain pizza place. Mind you, in the past I’ve eaten more than my share of college-day Dominos and Pizza Hut stuff, and sometimes it was decent, but where I live there are more local pizza places than there are, well, damn near anything else, and pretty much each and every one has superb pies. We have I think one Pizza Hut and a couple of Dominos, the former apparently caters to seniors and the latter to the college crowd, but even that has to compete with the bajillion local places that also deliver.
Best I can tell is price is a big thing, which makes sense for college students. And it sure seems all the chains have vastly upped their game in terms of quality over the past few years. But I can’t for the life of me think of any case, ever, where I’d choose a chain over one of the local pizzerias. Granted, I only eat one type pretty much (New York-style thin crust cheese pizza), and no one delivers where I live, so I have to go get it anyhow, but still.
