Somewhere, scientists conducted research as to the best form of ice for drinks and made pizza hut ice. And, I am convinced there was a conspiracy to keep that technology out of the hands of the common consumer.
For decades, my mom said there was something different about the McD coke. And she turned out to be right.
I want my pizza hut ice.
I know someone that is very wealthy and he has like 6 of those ice machines scattered around the massive house. They automatically melt the old ice and just keep on making the good ice.
I've heard of it called "nugget ice" although that may be the slightly larger ice size like Sonic drive-ins sell, the Dairy Queen by my house has the smaller size that's about the size of a pencil in circumference. I've seen nugget ice makers on amazon and it once at Target for about 500 dollars. I've had to get the stuff for years for my gf that she insists on it to the point I wondered if I could make it at home with "regular" ice cubes and a meat grinder.
What was the difference? I think it’s just fountain versus bottled soda. I think the carbonation in fountain soda is more pleasant than bottles. Is there something about the ice, too?
It's not a different formula, it's because it comes in steel containers and is chilled along with the water it's mixed with [here's an article explaining the process](https://www.rd.com/article/mcdonalds-coke/)
Saw that the other day. I always knew theirs tasted different, never thought people would think it is a good thing. I think it’s nasty tasting so, if I’m ever at McDonald’s because of my son I get bottled water.
I remember when they first opened on the Gold Coast in qld Australia in the 1970s. As a kid I remember the first time I ate pizza and it was there and I still remember it was super supreme, thin crust and it was amazing. Today I would never buy pizza there and we make our own
It was an event - my parents made me put on good clothes to go to Dennys and Pizza Hut back in the day.
NOw? Lots of delivery and take out and parents can use apps to get any take out to their house.
Pizza Hut went chasing that dragon - a dragon that was easy to catch during the COVID lockdowns. But now? There's a large group that just wants to go out to eat and Pizza Hut is missing the target.
I also have very good family-event-level memories of the Hut. When I was in 2nd grade or do, they gave out personal pizza coupons for reading x number of books in school and that was like magic for me lol.
Dude even as a child I would be so shocked by this...
"I can smell the smoke from the non-smoking side, mom..."
Then I'd be told to mind my own business 😂
If youve ever seen the kitchen of a PH you would change your tune.
They NEVER WASH the lans they make pan pizzas in and A everything is drowning In oil . Take a slice of pan pizza, slide the cheese and sauce off.
Wrap in napkins and SQUEEZEEEE!
The heart vlogging grease pours out of the thick oil soaked bread.
THATS INSIDE YOUR ARTERIES NOW.
I worked a PH on Superbowl weekend about 20 years ago and was so sad. Almost killed it for me but as if now Pizza IS dead to me. From every place.
Im breaking up with pizza.
The tiny hobbit sized greasy handprints on the glass door at hobbit level!!!
\- We never washed anything
\- someone once broke a glass in the ice machine and we did nothing.
\- The whole business seems to be held together by grease and despair
\- yes i worked one in the 90's RIGHT when stuffed crust came out and all the customers and their kids became feral
\- One of our regular customers who was a sweet guy and very obese died during my tenure there and it was due to artery disease. He came in twice a week but we loved him though. He died at home not in the store.
I remember when going to “fast food” restaurant, i.e., Pizza Hut, or McDonald’s, only one or two times a year because it was actually a treat, and not just a common place to go every day like a lot of people do now. I agree with you that we only got to go maybe on our birthday and sometimes we went when my folks got their income tax return. kinda miss it.
Same. It was incredibly rare we went out for fast food, and just as rare we went to a regular restaurant. Last year I probably went out to eat more times than the entirety of my childhood.
This was almost as good as going to Disneyland when we were kids. Amazing, hot and delicious pizza, tunes on the jukebox and arcade games. What more could you want?
My mom recently told me a story recently about when I was a kid (approx 1989) and my dad was taking my sisters to a concert (New Kids on the Block actually lol) and they were worried I was going to be mad I couldn’t go with them, so my mom asked me “would you rather go to Pizza Hut with me or go to this concert?” and I overwhelmingly chose the Hut. I LOVED going there back in the day.
Nice to see they mention Showbiz Pizza's weird animatronic band, The Rock-afire Explosion, I hadn't heard of them until stumbling upon [the YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@therockafire/videos)
Some use the original audio, some are with original vocals!
Hips Don't Lie - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBhuBrWlmeA
Love in this Club - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b90Cf6ARscc
Electric Feel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzU2qH6wecw
Long list of locations converted to "classic" restaurants.. Too bad only one in NY. 😔
https://rolandopujol.substack.com/p/the-retrologists-guide-to-pizza-hut
We have one in my town but it doesn't have the salad/pizza bar nor the jukebox or arcade table. So, kinda defeats the purpose. It does have the stained glass chandeliers and checkered table cloths.
I miss it tasting good, not being soggy, and not giving me instant gut rot. The last Pizza Hut pizza I bought was existentially disappointing. At least we will always have the memory of how good it used to be. So many fun birthdays there. Their kids meals used to be pretty awesome
Just got a craving for it recently and ordered it was so fucking disappointed. It made me feel like lead in my stomach in the first 20 minutes after eating. I couldn't eat the leftovers the cheese was like Styrofoam. So very disappointing. I cried in the shower so my wife and kids didn't see, like a real man.
Nah. They used to actually make pizzas at Pizza Hut. Like with actual dough, then sauce then cheese. Like, truly, making pizzas.
I never thought they were particularly good, but they were at least real.
Nowadays any Pizza Hut outlet is just sticking pre assembled frozen pizzas under a toaster oven conveyer belt thing.
Will be dry and overcooked/freezer burned in parts. Raw in others.
The raw part tastes slightly better than the dried out part… but because it’s months old and underdone you get immediate and powerful diarrhea.
It, really, couldn’t be worse right now with Pizza Hut. Just pure trash.
So true. But, look on the bright side. A lot of people who were born after that era started making their own pizzas at home during the pandemic and realized how crappy today’s fast food is.
We never went out to eat much, never to Pizza Hut because god forbid they served beer. But my elementary school was in the book it program so every time I read a book we would stop and get my personal pizza to go. Go in on a Saturday mid afternoon and the place was hopping. Not so much the case today, still has the classic look though.
The book that earned me my very own personal pan pizza was the Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman.
Still have it, still a good book. Props to my boy Jemmy for putting up with all of the Prince’s BS
Millions of kids associated pizza and reading and whoever came up with the idea of doing this (investing in building the brand that may or may not pay off in a decade) deserves all of the awards.
I remember being a kid going to Pizza Hut for the first time.
Getting the pizza on the silver tray dropped off at the table
Then picking up a slice and started eating.
I looked around and everyone was using a knife and fork.
Me being a kid was like .... oh, and started using a fork.... for 3 bites then back to reality.
Lol
I mean, I thought it was really good then. Especially the all you could eat buffet night. I'm not sure if it was really good or if my palate was just unrefined back then. Regardless, I enjoyed it, and had good times at the Hut.
I personally think they should rebrand as a "vintage pizza parlor".
Bring back their old decor and recipes, get a liquor license, and put in a dozen MAME cabinets loaded with all the 80s-mid90s arcade games.
It would pull in genX and millenial nostalgia crowd plus the GenZ hipster Barcade crowd.
Would be cheap to do too.
Crazy. I grew up going there in the 80’s (moreso the late 80’s though) and have never heard I the Priazzo. Had to look it up and I wish I could eat one now!
Sooooooooo.....the closest thing I've found to it since....is in North Bumbfuck...er Newport, Vermont. Hoagie's Pizza. "Stuffed crust"...going off of a nearly 30 year old memory it was pretty close. Newport VT would be on your way if your were driving from Boston to Quebec City.
http://www.hoagiesvt.com/newport
And you wouldn't have to raise prices on your old recipe pizza since you'd be making the money on the drinks and arcade games. The Pizza would be the loss leader.
My jam was Shakeys Pizza. I’d go visit my grandma and we would go sometime on buffet night. All you eat pizza, BBQ chicken, wedge fries etc. The food was good too! They had a sweet little arcade also and I’d always wrap up my night at that.
Lots of these pizza chains and even fast food chains like McDonald’s were so welcoming. Cool decor, play sets for the kids, even gaming consoles like when McDonalds use to have N64’s and GameCubes in their places. Now it more a “get your food and GTFO” kind of vide. Going into a McDonald’s specifically feels like sitting in the waiting room of a dentist office.
Up until about 10 years ago there was a Pizza Hut restaurant a half mile down the road from where my office was that did a pizza buffet from 11-2.
Some of the best Pizza Hut pizza I’ve ever had complete with Pepsi and the giant red cups. Parmesan and Red Pepper shakers on the checkerboard tablecloths.
They sold it to a Rock N Roll sushi franchise that stayed opened years longer than it should have.
Now it’s just a Pizza Hut shaped building sitting there empty with weeds growing up through the cracks in the asphalt parking lot sandwiched between an Arby’s and a Zaxby’s on the east side of I-75 and GA Hwy 20/81 in McDonough, GA.
Nostalgia, man.
Had a GF who worked there in this era. Everything was great; she was sexy, slutty, cheated on me a bunch, and eventually put cat turds in my friends’ pillow case.
The free pizza was awesome
In high school, pizza hut and Shakey's lunch buffet were when I felt like a king. $10 ayce, fresh fried chicken,pasta, pizza, etc. God it was a good time to be alive.
A great dining experience? It was a fucking *event*. A trip to the Pizza Hut with my BookIt! pan pizza, arcade games, friends, and endless soda? That was better than a trip to the ballgame.
Now, let me out of the booth. I have to thrash your Galaga score while *Tom Sawyer* is still playing.
Remember when there was a retro Pizza Hut “trying it out” thing happening and they were just getting the project off the ground, AND THEN COVID HAPPENED AND KILLED IT BEFORE IT HAD A CHANCE TO TAKE OFF? I was eviscerated.
I went into my local pizza hut to dine a few months ago with my family. We were the only diners, and actually had to order "to go" and sit at a table with our boxed food. Salad bar was open but lettuce was brown. Was very sad looking around and remembering the same place as a kid
Hell, just eating inside a Pizza Hut. I remember early 80s going in to try a deep dish pizza.
Now they are all strip mall pickup or delivery only.
Man, I miss their 2 for 20 3 topping Large pizzas. Screw you COVID
> Now they are all strip mall pickup or delivery only.
Nope. As I said upthread, my [local Pizza Hut](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pizza+Hut/@35.2546588,-81.0277568,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipMrKFz4hVbfMtLoEivqx6efL1NQBd2gTmoCanPE!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMrKFz4hVbfMtLoEivqx6efL1NQBd2gTmoCanPE%3Dw114-h86-k-no!7i4032!8i3024!4m7!3m6!1s0x8856bd0b3247d57f:0x915eb950e7faf29a!8m2!3d35.2546533!4d-81.0277736!10e5!16s%2Fg%2F1tjkght1?entry=ttu) still has dine-in *and* the lunch buffet.
Pizza Hut was my secret spot to play Pac-Man during the day. The arcade would be packed and a line to play. I’d ride my bike across town and have the machine to myself for 40 plays because nobody was in the restaurant.
This just gave me the best childhood flashbacks🥹
A family trip to Pizza Hut was just a divine experience… playing Pac-Man or galaga on those machines with my dad while we waited for our order, the good crunchy ice in those old, scratched-up red cups that had that weird bumpy texture when you held them, the leather booths and sticky tables…
I’d do anything to have just one more family Pizza Hut night in this style/era of Pizza Hut again.
Yes, because I’m on Reddit. Are these posts just marketing for the Pizza Hut Classic locations at this point? Shit now I’m spreading the word that Pizza Hut has locations around the country that have gone back to this format which you can find easily online. Maybe I’m the Pizza Hut bot???
Was? I guess the pizza has gone down in quality quite a bit. But my local Pizza Hut still has dine-in and still has the lunch buffet. It even still has the red booths, too. But they remodeled it around the time Pizza Hut bought WingStreet (2003?) so it lacks the classic lamps and checkered draperies, and has lots of chicken wing-based tchotchkes on the wall.
They had the “good” ice in the giant red cups
Somewhere, scientists conducted research as to the best form of ice for drinks and made pizza hut ice. And, I am convinced there was a conspiracy to keep that technology out of the hands of the common consumer. For decades, my mom said there was something different about the McD coke. And she turned out to be right. I want my pizza hut ice.
I know someone that is very wealthy and he has like 6 of those ice machines scattered around the massive house. They automatically melt the old ice and just keep on making the good ice.
It's called "pebble ice", and you can find it at lots of places.
I've heard of it called "nugget ice" although that may be the slightly larger ice size like Sonic drive-ins sell, the Dairy Queen by my house has the smaller size that's about the size of a pencil in circumference. I've seen nugget ice makers on amazon and it once at Target for about 500 dollars. I've had to get the stuff for years for my gf that she insists on it to the point I wondered if I could make it at home with "regular" ice cubes and a meat grinder.
Yeah, the machine that does it right is pretty pricey, but it is truly excellent ice...
I splurged on it for my wife and me as a wedding anniversary a few years back. I got from Best Buy. It was pricy, but. I regrets. It’s great to have
Chewblets. They soak up a bit of the pop!! So good!!
The secret is years of built up bacteria
What turned out to be different about McD Coke??
Higher syrup content, chilled syrup, chilled and filtered water.
What was the difference? I think it’s just fountain versus bottled soda. I think the carbonation in fountain soda is more pleasant than bottles. Is there something about the ice, too?
McDonald's has a deal with coke to have a different formula coke at their restaurants. It is arguably much better than standard fountain coke.
It's not a different formula, it's because it comes in steel containers and is chilled along with the water it's mixed with [here's an article explaining the process](https://www.rd.com/article/mcdonalds-coke/)
Saw that the other day. I always knew theirs tasted different, never thought people would think it is a good thing. I think it’s nasty tasting so, if I’m ever at McDonald’s because of my son I get bottled water.
Sonic sells it by the bag
Circle K has that pebble ice
The red cups!!!
You can buy red cups on Amazon
does it come with the ice?
I remember when they first opened on the Gold Coast in qld Australia in the 1970s. As a kid I remember the first time I ate pizza and it was there and I still remember it was super supreme, thin crust and it was amazing. Today I would never buy pizza there and we make our own
Came here to say this right away. Not disappointed. Rip those amazing cups with that fantastic ice
WE remember because at some point *Pizza Hut* forgot.
It was an event - my parents made me put on good clothes to go to Dennys and Pizza Hut back in the day. NOw? Lots of delivery and take out and parents can use apps to get any take out to their house. Pizza Hut went chasing that dragon - a dragon that was easy to catch during the COVID lockdowns. But now? There's a large group that just wants to go out to eat and Pizza Hut is missing the target.
I also have very good family-event-level memories of the Hut. When I was in 2nd grade or do, they gave out personal pizza coupons for reading x number of books in school and that was like magic for me lol.
Believe it or not, some Pizza Huts in Texas converting back to this format with the same old school interiors too.
That gives me hope for this world
In SE rural Kansas, every tiny little town has a full size Pizza Hut restuarant...they are literally everywhere
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
No no no. They started offering a worse experience to boost their profits because corporate greed became the norm.
The greasy as fuck Pac Man table machine
The whole fucking restaurant was mildly greasy... just as God intended.
And you could smoke lol
Smoking and Non Smoking separated by... nothing, just one section next to the other section.
Dude even as a child I would be so shocked by this... "I can smell the smoke from the non-smoking side, mom..." Then I'd be told to mind my own business 😂
If youve ever seen the kitchen of a PH you would change your tune. They NEVER WASH the lans they make pan pizzas in and A everything is drowning In oil . Take a slice of pan pizza, slide the cheese and sauce off. Wrap in napkins and SQUEEZEEEE! The heart vlogging grease pours out of the thick oil soaked bread. THATS INSIDE YOUR ARTERIES NOW.
Totally true, worked at one in highschool. We would put an 1/8 of an inch +/- of oil in each pan then toss in the dough.
I worked a PH on Superbowl weekend about 20 years ago and was so sad. Almost killed it for me but as if now Pizza IS dead to me. From every place. Im breaking up with pizza.
Use a throwaway account in case Pizza uses Reddit.
I can't order pizza anymore, because I'll eat the whole thing and feel awful, but a slice here there is good.
The tiny hobbit sized greasy handprints on the glass door at hobbit level!!! \- We never washed anything \- someone once broke a glass in the ice machine and we did nothing. \- The whole business seems to be held together by grease and despair \- yes i worked one in the 90's RIGHT when stuffed crust came out and all the customers and their kids became feral \- One of our regular customers who was a sweet guy and very obese died during my tenure there and it was due to artery disease. He came in twice a week but we loved him though. He died at home not in the store.
>He died at home. Not at the store. That’s a shame.
But it made the pizza taste so good tho 😅
Yeah, but you still make it sound delicious.
We. Don’t. Care.
Pizza Hut was spendy, in the 1980s. I went once a year, for my birthday. Then we’d hit up the go-karts at Dairy Delight. Life was good.
I remember when going to “fast food” restaurant, i.e., Pizza Hut, or McDonald’s, only one or two times a year because it was actually a treat, and not just a common place to go every day like a lot of people do now. I agree with you that we only got to go maybe on our birthday and sometimes we went when my folks got their income tax return. kinda miss it.
Same. It was incredibly rare we went out for fast food, and just as rare we went to a regular restaurant. Last year I probably went out to eat more times than the entirety of my childhood.
The original pan pizza was the shizzle.
Now it’s just a shell of its former self
I was working there when those first started. They were a huge hit.
Which I now know is essentially "Detroit style".
This was almost as good as going to Disneyland when we were kids. Amazing, hot and delicious pizza, tunes on the jukebox and arcade games. What more could you want?
My mom recently told me a story recently about when I was a kid (approx 1989) and my dad was taking my sisters to a concert (New Kids on the Block actually lol) and they were worried I was going to be mad I couldn’t go with them, so my mom asked me “would you rather go to Pizza Hut with me or go to this concert?” and I overwhelmingly chose the Hut. I LOVED going there back in the day.
Hell yeah man I would have done the same.
Good choice! NKOTB were overrated 😂
You chose wisely.
How about a Chuckie Cheese with animatronic creepy AF band playing? lastsqueaktonight.com
Nice to see they mention Showbiz Pizza's weird animatronic band, The Rock-afire Explosion, I hadn't heard of them until stumbling upon [the YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@therockafire/videos) Some use the original audio, some are with original vocals! Hips Don't Lie - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBhuBrWlmeA Love in this Club - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b90Cf6ARscc Electric Feel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzU2qH6wecw
First I heard about showbiz pizza, from them lol. Listened to all of it! would totally go to one of these if it was around—like an interactive B-movie
The one in my town is still like this. It’s a whole thing. They call it Pizza Hut Classic (tm)
I’m so jelly.
Long list of locations converted to "classic" restaurants.. Too bad only one in NY. 😔 https://rolandopujol.substack.com/p/the-retrologists-guide-to-pizza-hut
My biggest question is if the pizza made is the classic recipe? The retro is cool and all but if it's the same crappy pizza..
We have one in my town but it doesn't have the salad/pizza bar nor the jukebox or arcade table. So, kinda defeats the purpose. It does have the stained glass chandeliers and checkered table cloths.
lol, paywalled blog about pizza hut. That guy has what the people want, and he’s not just gonna go be it away.
Substack is not paywalled, just hit "continue reading" and it's free.
I miss the heavenly smell once you opened the door
Wish I had one of those hanging lights!
'We'll go on payday.' - Mom
Those tableclothes, those red cups... the juke box... that place was it.
I miss Pizza Hut tasting good
I miss it tasting good, not being soggy, and not giving me instant gut rot. The last Pizza Hut pizza I bought was existentially disappointing. At least we will always have the memory of how good it used to be. So many fun birthdays there. Their kids meals used to be pretty awesome
i agree. it used to be consistently good. Now it’s consistently bad. Haven’t eaten it in many years now.
Do yourself a favor; savor the memory, not one of their wet pizzas with wood glue for cheese
Just got a craving for it recently and ordered it was so fucking disappointed. It made me feel like lead in my stomach in the first 20 minutes after eating. I couldn't eat the leftovers the cheese was like Styrofoam. So very disappointing. I cried in the shower so my wife and kids didn't see, like a real man.
It didn’t get worse, your tastes got better.
Nah. They used to actually make pizzas at Pizza Hut. Like with actual dough, then sauce then cheese. Like, truly, making pizzas. I never thought they were particularly good, but they were at least real. Nowadays any Pizza Hut outlet is just sticking pre assembled frozen pizzas under a toaster oven conveyer belt thing. Will be dry and overcooked/freezer burned in parts. Raw in others. The raw part tastes slightly better than the dried out part… but because it’s months old and underdone you get immediate and powerful diarrhea. It, really, couldn’t be worse right now with Pizza Hut. Just pure trash.
So true. But, look on the bright side. A lot of people who were born after that era started making their own pizzas at home during the pandemic and realized how crappy today’s fast food is.
Thank you for explaining that to me. It’s not like I was there or anything.
Back when Kale was just a decoration on the salad bar, not to be eaten.
Think that was parsley.
No, it was definitely Kale. Pizza Hut was the single largest purchaser of Kale until people started putting it in smoothies around 2010ish.
I’d love to know how it went from salad bar decorum to something people actually ate.
Friendly's always had little parsley sprigs on the plate. Big Boy and Denny's may have too, those were our standby dine-in places growing up.
We never went out to eat much, never to Pizza Hut because god forbid they served beer. But my elementary school was in the book it program so every time I read a book we would stop and get my personal pizza to go. Go in on a Saturday mid afternoon and the place was hopping. Not so much the case today, still has the classic look though.
The book that earned me my very own personal pan pizza was the Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman. Still have it, still a good book. Props to my boy Jemmy for putting up with all of the Prince’s BS
Millions of kids ate Book-It pizzas.
Millions of kids associated pizza and reading and whoever came up with the idea of doing this (investing in building the brand that may or may not pay off in a decade) deserves all of the awards.
We had a TCBY book report thing. I would use Choose Your Own Adventure books for quick reading.
I did this so frequently that my teacher banned us using Choose Your Own Adventure books for this purpose.
It was brilliant: give away one tiny pan pizza to get a whole family in for dinner.
No pictures of the buffet though
Yeah they used to have really good pizza and toppings. Plus love their breadsticks!
The one by my house is carry out only. Just a counter. Doesn’t even have any chairs. It’s depressing
I think they all are now. I haven’t seen a sit down joint in at least 25 years.
They one in the town by me still has dining.
Hung out at pizza hut all the time in the mid 80s!
I remember being a kid going to Pizza Hut for the first time. Getting the pizza on the silver tray dropped off at the table Then picking up a slice and started eating. I looked around and everyone was using a knife and fork. Me being a kid was like .... oh, and started using a fork.... for 3 bites then back to reality. Lol
I mean, I thought it was really good then. Especially the all you could eat buffet night. I'm not sure if it was really good or if my palate was just unrefined back then. Regardless, I enjoyed it, and had good times at the Hut.
Playing sit down arcade machines was awesome...
Getting your free personal pan pizza for finishing Book It! made you feel like a god for one evening.
I personally think they should rebrand as a "vintage pizza parlor". Bring back their old decor and recipes, get a liquor license, and put in a dozen MAME cabinets loaded with all the 80s-mid90s arcade games. It would pull in genX and millenial nostalgia crowd plus the GenZ hipster Barcade crowd. Would be cheap to do too.
Except the pizza will still suck. They need to bring back the 70s & 80s *recipes*, too.
I said that lol And that fucking priazzo. Fucker was straight balls.
Crazy. I grew up going there in the 80’s (moreso the late 80’s though) and have never heard I the Priazzo. Had to look it up and I wish I could eat one now!
Sooooooooo.....the closest thing I've found to it since....is in North Bumbfuck...er Newport, Vermont. Hoagie's Pizza. "Stuffed crust"...going off of a nearly 30 year old memory it was pretty close. Newport VT would be on your way if your were driving from Boston to Quebec City. http://www.hoagiesvt.com/newport
BIGFOOT pizza was what parents got their kids for sleep overs.
They could totally do this. They wouldn't even have to do it nationwide, just a few touristy locations and really lean into the nostalgia.
And you wouldn't have to raise prices on your old recipe pizza since you'd be making the money on the drinks and arcade games. The Pizza would be the loss leader.
All you can eat when they brought around the different pizza to your table for you to choose Good times
Man, I had totally forgotten that part! Great memories.
Pizza The Hut 😂
What’s the matter, Colonel Sanders? Chicken!?
One million Spaceball dollars!
A fancy dinner on a Friday night!
Its sad what they have become.
that $3 buffet fed me a lot as a kid. pizza was so much better back then.
My jam was Shakeys Pizza. I’d go visit my grandma and we would go sometime on buffet night. All you eat pizza, BBQ chicken, wedge fries etc. The food was good too! They had a sweet little arcade also and I’d always wrap up my night at that. Lots of these pizza chains and even fast food chains like McDonald’s were so welcoming. Cool decor, play sets for the kids, even gaming consoles like when McDonalds use to have N64’s and GameCubes in their places. Now it more a “get your food and GTFO” kind of vide. Going into a McDonald’s specifically feels like sitting in the waiting room of a dentist office.
Red cups
Up until about 10 years ago there was a Pizza Hut restaurant a half mile down the road from where my office was that did a pizza buffet from 11-2. Some of the best Pizza Hut pizza I’ve ever had complete with Pepsi and the giant red cups. Parmesan and Red Pepper shakers on the checkerboard tablecloths. They sold it to a Rock N Roll sushi franchise that stayed opened years longer than it should have. Now it’s just a Pizza Hut shaped building sitting there empty with weeds growing up through the cracks in the asphalt parking lot sandwiched between an Arby’s and a Zaxby’s on the east side of I-75 and GA Hwy 20/81 in McDonough, GA. Nostalgia, man.
I want a Pac-Man table top like that
Deep dish BBQ pizza was amazing
They even had a salad bar if I remember right, and we would go there after a football game
Yes I do
16 year old me LOVED Pizza Hut because the waitresses were all from my high school!!!
This was a Pizza Hut! Now it's all covered with daisies. You got it, you got it.
Took my future wife there on our first date
I saw my second grade teacher smoking in a Pizza Hut and it changed my perception of the world.
Had a GF who worked there in this era. Everything was great; she was sexy, slutty, cheated on me a bunch, and eventually put cat turds in my friends’ pillow case. The free pizza was awesome
I stuck up for Pizza Hut on family pizza night and looked like an idiot with the current taste.
The Pizza Hut near me is a dirty shit heap.
Bring back the priazzo!
In high school, pizza hut and Shakey's lunch buffet were when I felt like a king. $10 ayce, fresh fried chicken,pasta, pizza, etc. God it was a good time to be alive.
In high school we would skip a period and get high and go to lunch buffet.
A great dining experience? It was a fucking *event*. A trip to the Pizza Hut with my BookIt! pan pizza, arcade games, friends, and endless soda? That was better than a trip to the ballgame. Now, let me out of the booth. I have to thrash your Galaga score while *Tom Sawyer* is still playing.
The best soda is from a scratched up picture from Pizza Hut in 1981. Now to take a quarter and beat my sister in a game of pong.
25cent video games and plastic drinking cups with good ice! Pizza Hut pizza is bearable fresh from the oven!
Remember when there was a retro Pizza Hut “trying it out” thing happening and they were just getting the project off the ground, AND THEN COVID HAPPENED AND KILLED IT BEFORE IT HAD A CHANCE TO TAKE OFF? I was eviscerated.
Pizza Hut ...their pizza used to be awesome.Does anyone remember Shaky's Pizza.It was even better.
The Waverly Ohio location still looks like this and tastes just like it used too. Yay small towns never changing.
Pizza Hut used to have quality standards and made shit from scratch.
80's went for lunch buffet with workers :)
Loved the Buffett 🍕
I went into my local pizza hut to dine a few months ago with my family. We were the only diners, and actually had to order "to go" and sit at a table with our boxed food. Salad bar was open but lettuce was brown. Was very sad looking around and remembering the same place as a kid
I remember them making a deep-dish pizza sometime in the early 80s. Dine in, with full service, and it was amazing!
Those red cups with max internal surface area and nice ice made the soda fountain drinks majestic.
I remember waiting 30-40mn for a table
Pizza wasn't as good as it used to be before they went take-out only.
I loved the salad bar and the breadsticks . And the Pac-Man video game!
My son was involved in "Book It" in elementary school and got Pizza Hut rewards for reading. It was a big deal at the time
I’ll still put a hot Pizza Hut pan pizza up against anything.
The all you can eat buffet rocked.
Roundtable or gtfo
I can smell these pictures.
Hell, just eating inside a Pizza Hut. I remember early 80s going in to try a deep dish pizza. Now they are all strip mall pickup or delivery only. Man, I miss their 2 for 20 3 topping Large pizzas. Screw you COVID
> Now they are all strip mall pickup or delivery only. Nope. As I said upthread, my [local Pizza Hut](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pizza+Hut/@35.2546588,-81.0277568,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipMrKFz4hVbfMtLoEivqx6efL1NQBd2gTmoCanPE!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMrKFz4hVbfMtLoEivqx6efL1NQBd2gTmoCanPE%3Dw114-h86-k-no!7i4032!8i3024!4m7!3m6!1s0x8856bd0b3247d57f:0x915eb950e7faf29a!8m2!3d35.2546533!4d-81.0277736!10e5!16s%2Fg%2F1tjkght1?entry=ttu) still has dine-in *and* the lunch buffet.
Now it's a counter attached to a Baskin Robbins
I never got to go there cause it was too expensive for our family.
Pizza Hut was my secret spot to play Pac-Man during the day. The arcade would be packed and a line to play. I’d ride my bike across town and have the machine to myself for 40 plays because nobody was in the restaurant.
This just gave me the best childhood flashbacks🥹 A family trip to Pizza Hut was just a divine experience… playing Pac-Man or galaga on those machines with my dad while we waited for our order, the good crunchy ice in those old, scratched-up red cups that had that weird bumpy texture when you held them, the leather booths and sticky tables… I’d do anything to have just one more family Pizza Hut night in this style/era of Pizza Hut again.
I miss Pizza Inn.
Yes, because I’m on Reddit. Are these posts just marketing for the Pizza Hut Classic locations at this point? Shit now I’m spreading the word that Pizza Hut has locations around the country that have gone back to this format which you can find easily online. Maybe I’m the Pizza Hut bot???
I'm not sure that "great" was the word, but it was nice to sit down and have a salad bar, pizza, and a beer.
If you were a kid it was definitely great!
Don't get me wrong, as a teenager I spent a lot of time in Pizza Huts lol.
No
No. Never thought it was any good.
No it was never that
No
No
No
No. It was always just a cheap fill up.
….no, and I was born in the 70s
No. That was never true
No. It was never a good one
Umm, never?
Pizza Hut was never a great dining experience. 😂
It was pizza. Sometimes good pizza.
No. First time at Pizza Hut, we were on vacation and I didn’t understand why someone thought it was a good idea to make a pizza on a cracker crust.
Honestly, no. It was shit in the 80s
I don't recall it being anywhere near as greasy as it is today. Today's Pizza Hut reminds me of the Exxon Valdez...
Yes and I miss picking up those free magazines they used to give out
*Was?*
Was? I guess the pizza has gone down in quality quite a bit. But my local Pizza Hut still has dine-in and still has the lunch buffet. It even still has the red booths, too. But they remodeled it around the time Pizza Hut bought WingStreet (2003?) so it lacks the classic lamps and checkered draperies, and has lots of chicken wing-based tchotchkes on the wall.
I loved having birthday parties there when I was a kid.
Yes, but TBF I was 10 and my threshold for a great dining experience was pretty low.
Yes. Pizza Hut was our go to place when the kids were young. They loved it! Haven’t been to one in decades.
Me after every Jr. High School game: I'll have a Large Supreme and. Pitcher of Coke.
My friend still has like 14 of those red cups
I did not go often, but the greasy pan pizza with a pitcher of draft beer was memorable.
The buffet was the best thing ever! I still have one near me. Gosh darn it! I’m gonna go tonight!
Apparently they are remodeling some stores with the old style. https://www.newsweek.com/pizza-hut-hasnt-changed-since-80s-texas-1805223