Back in the day, there was nothing better than a pizza party at Pizza Hut after a soccer/baseball game. I remember the pan pizza was delicious and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. It was something "special" to look forward to. Fast forward 25-30 years, and when I hear the word "Pizza Hut", I immediately think of "cheap, low quality, cardboard tasting crust etc". I had ordered Pizza Hut maybe 10 years ago while living in San Diego, and it was the nastiest pizza I think I could have ordered (Later in life, Papa Johns has said, "Hold my beer!").
I was browsing through some websites, and found out that Tuesday September 5th was "National Cheese Pizza Day" and Pizza Hut had a Large Cheese Pizzas for only $5.00! Shit, for $5.00, even it was nasty and I only ate one slice, it wouldn't be horrible to take a flyer on it, right? I placed my order online and drove down to pick it up.
When I walked in, my name was lights.....literally! They have an electronic sign at the registers and it had my name in big bold letters "Pizza ready for Timothy S." It was like when you step off the plane and have a car service guy waiting there with a cardboard sign. I felt special ;-). I paid the man my $5.43, he opened up my pizza box to show me the goods, and I was on my way. I took it out to my car, found a shady spot to park in, and dug in. Here is how it was..............
Large Pan Cheese Pizza- I had gotten a glimpse of this pizza when the guy opened the box for me. It looked alright. It was 8 slices of plain cheese, pan pizza. I took a bite of my first slice and was actually decently surprised. It was different than what I had remembered it tasting like back in the day (the crust was thinner and not as dense, it had less cheese than normal, BUT it was less greasy also), but it was still ok. The sauce was alright...had a little sweetness to it. The cheese was nice and stringy and the crust had a light airy texture to it. I ate 4 slices of it and was full.
I had planned on giving away the other 4 slices to a homeless person but it did not work out...side rant....Why is it that whenever you WANT to give something to a homeless person (food, water, whatever...) you can never find one? I PURPOSELY drove around for a good 15 minutes in/around Bell between 35th and 19th Ave and didn't spot one freaking homeless dude (there are ALWAYS homeless people in this area). Lame. I wound up taking it back to work and giving it to one of my coworkers to polish off.
Overall, I liked it better than I thought I would have. For $5.00, it was one hell of a deal, and well worth it. Was it as good as Little Caesars Deep Dish lunch combo for $5.00? No. Was it better than a Little Caesars "Hot and Ready"? Yes! I don't know if I would pay over $5.00 for a Pizza Hut pizza, but for what it was, I was happy with it. It brought back some memories and was a filling lunch on the cheap! A-OK in my book!