Big Italy from Pizza Hut: Small, Bad Pizza

The other night we were headed back from car shopping and needed a quick meal. I suggested we pick up a new Big Italy pizza from Pizza Hut. We had just seen one advertised on TV and it looked great. It's billed as three toppings on an "almost 2-feet" in length pizza for only $12. What's not to love, right?

So we ordered one, picked it up, and took it home. Here's what's not to love:

• It looks big on TV, but isn't that big in person. I'm estimating that it's the size of 1 1/4 large Papa John's pizzas. We normally get two of those for $12. It was the first time in a long time that we had eaten the entire pizza and wanted more. In short, it just wasn't big enough.
• Too much and not enough dough. Too much dough on the corners (there were pieces that were almost all dough) and not enough in the center (there was barely anything to hold the meat and cheese on the pizza -- and what was there was soggy.) Yuck!
• They charged us $12.99 versus $12. Not a big deal, but we called and the cost was not as advertised on the site and TV. Didn't find out why, but it made the total cost closer to $14.

Overall, not a great experience and one we won't be reliving again. Just thought I'd pass my opinion on to you. As always, your mileage may vary.

Comments

[Paul]

Pizza Hut's site says pricing may vary depending on location. So I guess you chose a bad location. :-)

[Travis@Plain Money Talk]

They've been doing a large 3 topping pizza for a long time. We recently purchased a discount card from the local football team which gives us $3 a large pizza. What is even better than getting the large 3 topping pizza for $7 is that they will also do 1/2 and 1/2. Then my wife can get her onions and I get my meat and we're both happy.

[Steve]

I got the Big Italy last weekend and was also disappointed. Yes, it's a large pizza; the problem is it's too thin. I ate half of it in one sitting, which equates to a $6 meal. Normally I can only eat half of a medium pizza, which is a $3 meal at most.

[rdub98]

I stopped eating at Pizza Hut a couple years ago. Every one of the past six times we ate at one (and it was not any particular store), we would get very sick. The quality of the pizza has gone down to the point that it is not worth it, and if you eat there, the service is just as bad (again, at several stores we went to). I will stick to the Boli crusts and making my own. I get exactly what I want and the service is the best. ;-)

[Texas Wahoo]

Wendys constantly runs adds for their 99 cent chicken nuggets. The three closest to me all sell them for between $1.35 and $1.50. It annoys me so much I will not eat at Wendys anymore.

[brooklyn money]

Just say no to fast food! I guarantee buying a premade pizza crust in the supermarket and making your own pizza would have tasted a lot better and been healthier.

[Darsi]

We had one the other weekend and it was fabulous! Not all Pizza Huts are created equal though. Sure it is a thin crust Pizza, so it does take more to fill you up. Ours had toppings almost all the way to the edge. The particular Pizza Hut that we go to has NEVER let us down in service, quality or anything! I have however been to Pizza Huts that are hardly ever good. My suggestion, try a different one.

[Crystal@BFS]

We got hit and miss pizzas from Pizza Hut...sometimes awesome and sometimes blah. We pretty much eat 80% Digiorno, 10% homemade, and 10% Papa John's or Dominoes now. I wish there was a Little Caesar closer since I actually like their large one-topping for $5. :-)

[kjaxx]

$12 plus tax (8.25% here) equals $12.99 for us. We liked it. I agree it's hit and miss. I actually preferred the middle pieces (I'm not huge on crust.) We probably wouldn't order it all the time but it was fun to try. I normally do homemade pizzas, but I have an 8 week old baby and my cooking time is a little less these days.

[Real Pizza]

I dunno...I live in NJ and I can't imagine eating at a chain pizza place...too much local pizza to choose from that's far superior...

It would be like getting a bagel from Dunkin' Donuts...yuck!

[Pop]

Sometimes that cheap mortgage comes back to bite ya.

[Squirrelers]

Name of the game is to stay away from chain pizzas, in my opinion. Living here in Chicago, we have a large number of locally owned Italian places that are 10 times better than the national brands. It's not even close. Maybe that's one advantage of living in a larger city vs lower cost small market:)

I do think it's a bit misleading to advertise one price and then try to charge another. Reminds me of being on spring break in Florida when I was a junior in college. We went into this bar that offered "$1 drinks", but when we got inside, they said that the dollar drinks sold out. Hmmmmm....

[Matt]

Bummer.

Bad food is just plain bad.

[Ugly American]

bland undercooked pizza & deceptive pricing

There's several local places near me that stomp all the major chains. It's not even funny how much better they are.

People should really shop around.

[Finance4youth.com]

Funny, I just had dealing with a local PH as well. The food was exceedingly mediocre, but when you are hungry enough...,

If I'm forced into a big chain pizza, Domino's has it over the others easily.

[Tarah]

Here in Omaha, the chains are much better than the local fare, especially Godfathers. I guess it depends on where you are.