I loved Pizza Hut.As a kid, as a treat, my mom would drive me and my grandma to the Pizza Hut in Flourtown. Sometimes it was after going to K-Mart, and other times it was to celebrate a birthday. It was fun, and I loved playing the jukebox or playing the arcade machines in the back. It was a little dark in there, but there was a great old-world wood feel, as if it was from a different time and era. It was back when Pizza Hut was trying to be like your classic pizza parlor, the one you grew up with. Even as I write this, I can still vividly remember the sights, the smell, the taste of the pizza and the fizz of the root beer pitcher on the table and the smiles on my parent's faces.
Sadly the Pizza Hut shut its door around 2000, and it came as the service there was slowly getting worse. K-Mart was soon gone, and the entire shopping Piazza across the street began a massive change down the food chain.
In the 10-years since, I've still held a high place in both my heart and my memory for Pizza Hut. I've heard more and more people voice their disdain for them, mostly calling it "not real pizza". I always cried foul and I used to get about 4 pies a week in college. I even lost weight! But, sadly, the service at the Pizza Hut near me has gotten worse in the last 3 years. There used to be a great staff there... until the tore it down to rebuild it. The old one was the classic "old-world" style. The new one tries too hard to be contemporary.
I had periodically been to Domino's the entire time. I hated it as a kid, but in the last 5 years I've grown to enjoy it. It's rarely an option for me; there was never a Domino's near me. The deals, the taste... it was never quite in my grasps.
Until this month when one opened not too far from my house.
The difference in the delivery has been night-and-day. Whereas Pizza Hut had constantly under-cooked my pizzas for years, forcing me to ask them to "overcook" them (They said they got complaints for COOKING the pizzas!), Domino's made an effort to cook them properly and thoroughly. While Pizza Hut would hint at a delivery time, Domino's ACTUALLY TRACKS THE PROCESS OF THE ORDER! Pizza Tacker? I think I love you!
And the taste? OH, THE TASTE! Domino's actually does taste better than Pizza Hut!... at least on a local level. Part of the joy I had at Pizza Hut actually was the grease. Not a ton of it, but just enough. Domino's is drier, but it adds to the quality of the overall pizza! Plus, I'm actually full eating their pizza!
Photo courtesy of WalletPop
