Restaurants Pizzerias Pizza Hut
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ByDeirdre Mundorf|
Pizza Hut's history dates back to 1958, when two brothers opened the first restaurant. When Frank and Dan Carney opened their pizza restaurant, it's unlikely that they would have been able to predict just how successful it would be. Today, there are over 19,000 Pizza Hut locations across the globe! With its over 60-year history, it's probably no surprise that Pizza Hut's menu has gone through several changes over the years. New items get added to the menu, while older ones are removed for various reasons.
Whether you're looking for a bit of nostalgia by reflecting on some of your old favorites from the chain or are just curious to see how the menu has evolved over the years, you're in the right place. We'll take a look at several items that have been discontinued. Do you remember the Bigfoot Pizza? How about the Fiesta Taco Pizza or yummy dessert pizzas?
1. P'Zolo
Do you remember the P'Zolo? It was Pizza Hut's take on a sub sandwich that was released in 2012. A P'Zolo featured various ingredients wrapped up in pizza dough. There were a few different recipe options available: Meat Triowith ham, pepperoni, and Italian sausage, Buffalo Chicken with grilled chicken strips with buffalo sauce, and Italian Steak with shaved steak, onions, peppers, and mushrooms. Pizza Hut seemed to be openly competing againstSubway's menuwith these items — the chain even had workers hand out free P'Zolos to people riding the red line on the Chicago subway to pull in extra publicity. While the P'Zolo concept was pretty interesting, the sandwiches just didn't make the cut; you won't find them on a Pizza Hut menu today.
2. Panormous Pizza
Even if you've never heard of the Panormous Pizza from Pizza Hut, its name gives you a big hint about what it was. The Panormous Pizza was marketed as an enormous pizza designed to give customers more for their money. The pizza was 40% larger than other items on the menu and was cut into 16 rectangular pieces, making it perfect for feeding a crowd. Customers could even choose toppings for each side of the pizza to meet the preferences of various individuals who would be digging in. However, the Panormous Pizza didn't stick around on the menu. Perhaps customers weren't that impressed since it was really just two pan pizzas rather than one really big pizza served side by side.
3. Triple Deckeroni Pizza
In 1996, Pizza Hut released the Triple Deckeroni Pizza. This unique pizza featured two thin crusts encasing a special blend of six different types of cheese and 90 pepperoni slices. The special pizza was released about one year after the highly popular Stuffed Crust Pizza and Pizza Hut expected it to share similar success. However, while you can still order a Stuffed Crust Pizza from Pizza Hut, the Triple Deckeroni Pizza is nowhere to be found on the menu. It will remain a mere memory for those who got a taste in the mid to late 90s.
4. Quepapas
Just a few years ago, you could have added an order of Quepapas on the side of your pizza from Pizza Hut. Today that won't be an option because they are no longer available. So, what exactly was Quepapas? You could think of them as tater tots with a twist. Regular tater tots are simply fried potatoes. Pizza Hut added cheddar and jalapeño to the inside of the Quepapas, making them a unique and more flavorful alternative to a standard tater tot. Each order included more than a dozen delicious tots, along with a side of ranch dressing for dipping.
5. The Big Italy
The Big Italy is another pizza you won't find on a Pizza Hut menu anymore. Released in 2010, this pizza lived up to its name. It was an almost 2-foot-long rectangle, making it larger than two medium pizzas from Pizza Hut. Because of its larger size, the pizza wouldn't fit in a standard box. So, it was delivered on a cardboard tray inside of a paper bag. The pizza also offered a twist to a standard Pizza Hut crust. Various Italian spices were added to the hand-tossed crust recipe to give it more of a unique flavor. Around the time of the Big Italy's release, the company ran a sweepstakes to award 1,000 Facebook fans with a $15 gift card.
6. Bigfoot Pizza
If you're sensing a theme here, you're not wrong. The Bigfoot Pizza was yet another attempt at a massively large pizza designed to feed a crowd. If you were around in 1993, you might even remember the commercials for this monstrosity. They set an ominous scene with several individuals talking about seeing a large and unidentified item. The commercials also warned people that they'd better not be alone when it arrives. Of course, this reference was to the size of the pizza meant for sharing, not that it was actually something scary. The Bigfoot pizza measured a massive 2 square feet and sold for just $10.99. It was clearly released in response to Little Caesar'sBig Big Cheesedeal from around the same time that offered two large pepperoni pizzas. However, the Big Foot was larger than these two pizzas from Little Caesars and drew a lot of business. It just wasn't enough for it to stick around on the menu.
7. Fiesta Taco Pizza
The Fiesta Taco Pizza was added to Pizza Hut's menu in 1979. Designed to send the message to customers that they didn't need to choose between pizza and tacos, the pizza was topped with everything you'd find on a traditional taco. One benefit of eating these items on top of a pizza — rather than inside of a taco shell — is that you didn't need to worry about the ground beef, lettuce, cheese, or diced tomatoes falling out when you took a bite, and the shell crumbled. If you are a fan of both pizza and Mexican food, you'll have to try your hand at making your own taco pizza since the item is no longer available from Pizza Hut.
8. Sicilian Lasagna Pizza
Did you ever get to try the Sicilian Lasagna Pizza from Pizza Hut? The pizza, which was released in 2006, featured two crusts, much like the different layers of noodles in a tray of lasagna. Around the two layers of crust, you would find ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, marinara sauce, and ground beef. The Sicilian Lasagna Pizza was definitely a hearty meal — each try was cut into eight rather hefty slices. It was designed to give customers the opportunity to enjoy two of their favorite Italian items at the same time: pizza and lasagna. Alas, if you're craving this combination of lasagna and pizza, you won't be able to find it at Pizza Hut anymore. It was advertised as a limited-time offer and is long gone today.
9. Hot Dog Stuffed Crust Pizza
You've undoubtedly heard of Pizza Hut's Stuffed Crust Pizza, featuring cheese inside the crust. But did you know that the chain offered a Hot Dog Stuffed Crust Pizza for a while? In 2012, the special pizza was released in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, but it took until 2015 for Pizza Hut to offer it in the United States. This exclusive item featured a crust of hot dog bitesor hot dogs covered with either traditional or pretzel crust. While the release of this pizza in the United States was much anticipated by many Americans, as it was already available years earlier in other locations, there wasn't enough enthusiasm for it to remain on the menu.
10. Hershey's Chocolate Dunkers
In 2008, Pizza Hut added a new item to its dessert menu: Hershey's Chocolate Dunkers. The dunkers were special breadsticks with a Hershey's milk chocolate topping. Chocolate lovers would be happy to know that in addition to the chocolate on top of the sweet breadsticks, they were also served with a side of chocolate dipping sauce. Sadly, if you think they'd make a scrumptious end to your pizza lunch or dinner, you won't find them on the dessert menu anymore. If you're truly heartbroken over the loss of Hershey'sChocolate Dunkers, there is a petition trying to convince Pizza Hut to bring them back.
11. Priazzo
Much like its name, the Priazzowas a strange concoction available from Pizza Hut in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Priazzo had two layers of pizza dough stuffed with sauce, cheese, and different combinations of ingredients. Initially, there were three other recipe options: the Roma with Italian sausage, pepperoni, pork, onions, mushrooms, and cheddar cheese; the Milano with Italian sausage, pepperoni, pork, beef, bacon, mozzarella cheese, and cheddar cheese; And finally, the Florentine with ham, spinach, mozzarella cheese, ricotta cheese, cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese, and Romano cheese. While these menu items — which Pizza Hut said were pies, not pizzas — were initially popular, the excitement wore off. By 1991, Pizza Hut decided that the Priazzos were not worth leaving on the menu, so they disappeared.
12. Triple Cheese Covered Stuffed Crust Pizza
The Triple Cheese Covered Stuffed Crust Pizza was another one of the chain's attempts to benefit off of the popularity of its traditional Stuffed Crust Pizza. As its name suggests, this menu item featured not one but three different cheese toppings over a scrumptious Stuffed Crust Pizza. It featured plenty of Parmesan, Asiago, and Cheddar cheese over the top — all the way up to the edge of the crust. A large Triple Cheese Covered Stuffed Crust Pizza sold for $11.99, though you won't be able to find one for any amount of money today.
13. Tuscani Bacon Mac and Cheese
Pizza Hut may primarily be a pizza restaurant, but that doesn't mean it only sells pizzas. The chain introduced the first of its Tuscani pasta dishes in 2003. A few years later, in 2008, the Tuscani Bacon Mac and Cheese was added to the lineup. The Bacon Mac and Cheese featured rotini pasta covered with cheddar cheese sauce. Bacon and more cheese were then added to top the pasta before it was baked in the oven. Five breadsticks were served alongside the pasta dish. Pizza Hut has since removed the Tuscani Bacon Mac and Cheese from its menu. In fact, none of the Tuscani Pastas are available anymore; they were replaced by Oven-Baked Pastas that are still on the menu today.
14. The Big Dipper
While the Big Dipper made a brief, limited reappearance on Pizza Hut's menu in 2020, you cannot order it today. Originally released in 2011, the Big Dipper was different from your traditional pizza: it did not have any sauce. Rather, it was cut into smaller strips and designed to be dipped in sauce. Three different dipping sauces — marinara, honey BBQ, and ranch — were included with each order. The pizza was also quite large, yielding 24 total strips for dipping. Between its larger size and the three dipping sauces that came with it, Pizza Hut was clearly trying to target larger groups by offering something that everyone could enjoy.
15. The Edge Pizza
The Edge pizza was introduced in 1997. The thin-crust pizza didn't waste any space with plain crust. Rather, the toppings were generously applied all the way to the edge of the pizza, allowing individuals to get their favorite flavors in every bite. The pizza also featured Pizza Hut's classic tomato sauce along with a special garlic and herb seasoning. If you were a fan of The Edge and sad to see it leave the menu, you were given a chance to try it once more. Pizza Hut briefly reintroduced it during the summer of 2021. However, it is not on the menu anymore, so if you missed the brief re-release, you'll have to wait and see if the pizza chain gives it a third shot on the menu.
16. Refillable Pepsi Jug
This next discontinued item from Pizza Hut isn't a pizza or even a food item at all. Way back in the 80s, Pizza Hut ran a special promotion where customers could purchase a ½ gallon Igloo jug filled with Pepsi for $1.99 when they ordered a medium or large to-go pizza. However, rather than just getting one jug-full of Pepsi, they had the potential to get it refilled for free. Every time customers came back and placed a new order during the promotion, their jug would be refilled with Pepsi for free. While the restaurant was giving away free Pepsi, it created an opportunity to sell more pizza.
17. Bacon Stuffed Crust Pizza
As one of the most successful menu additions, Pizza Hut's Stuffed Crust Pizza led to the creation of several other new items. One of these was the Bacon Stuffed Crust Pizza, which was released in 2014. It featured a crust stuffed with bacon and cheese blend — a winning combination. Customers could choose any one topping to add to their pizza. However, the pizza was only introduced as a limited-time offering. And, while it did briefly reappear in 2016 — this time with applewood smoked bacon, mozzarella, provolone, and white cheddar — in its crust, you can no longer find it on a Pizza Hut menu.
18. Bag Bag
The Bag Bag is another promotional item once offered by Pizza Hut that hasn't been around for several years. In 1983, Pizza Hut customers could add the Bag Bag to any order with a medium or large pizza for just $1. The Bag Bag was a small red duffel bag with a black Pizza Hut logo, giving the company some free advertising whenever customers carried it around with them. Hopefully, customers weren't expecting to be able to use the duffel bag to carry their leftover pizza home with them. It was too small to hold a pizza box, so they'd have to find other ways to use it.
19. Dessert Pizza
If you've ordered the all-you-can-eat buffet from Pizza Hut over the years, then you might remember the Dessert Pizzas. With a crust that was more similar to a cookie or pie than a pizza, dessert pizzas were a special treat. There were several different topping options that you could find, including apple and cherry. The dessert pizza also often featured a streusel top, making them even more delectable. Sadly, you won't find Dessert Pizzas on the Pizza Hut menu anymore. You'll have to settle for one of itscurrent offerings, such as the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie or Cinnabon Mini Rolls.
