Many of us have probably had pizza hut at some point in life. I had pizza hut as a kid and every so often as an adult. I went through a recent craze with pizza 9 as a sometimes better quality and tasting pizza hut. Then, out of the blue, a friend asked if I wanted to try pizza hut again. Sure why not. It’s been several years. Might as well give it another try. Of course one of the first things that came back to mind was that the large now seems like what a medium was before. It just looks so much smaller than what I remember. I did do a search and you can find comment after comment from people who experienced the same thing. There are claims that the large used to be 16″ and is now 14″ or that the pizza just shrinks a lot and if you take a measuring tape with you, you might find it is still smaller than 14″ across.

Regardless, it tasted soooo good. Just like I remember. The somewhat greasy crusty pan pizza. Slightly thick and every bite a joy in the mouth.

Then last night (Feb 23rd for whenever I do post this) we decided to go again this time to a different location. You have a craving sometimes and the idea builds up over and over until you just want to satisfy it. (Ladies, it’s like the way you want chocolate.) We went to the pizza hut near constitution and juan tabo. All excited and giddy we ordered a large pan pineapple, black olives and green chili (instead of jalapenos). Oh the horror! Below are pictures I HAD to take. We got the pizza and immediately did a double take. This surely wasn’t a pan pizza. It was in a pan and it was a pizza but was it a normal pizza hut pan pizza? It wasn’t greasy and it wasn’t crunchy.

never seen a crust that wasn’t this clean before

It’s in a pan but is it a Pan Pizza?

Pizza Hut Pan Single Slice

Pizza Hut Pan Underside

I stopped the waitress to see what had gone wrong. Surely she must see that it wasn’t what they usually look and taste like. At first she said that it was a normal looking pan pizza. When pressed she gave possible reasons for the way it was. It didn’t proof right or wasn’t stretched out or didn’t cook long enough or that it just came out that way. She did offer to have it put back into the cooking machine. I can’t remember if she gave any other reasons. I was in shock at that point. We tried eating it and as expected it wasn’t anything like what we were expecting. I would agree that it didn’t seem to have been cooked long enough. It was a little chewy at times on the bottom. At some point another person came over, the manager I would presume, and also stated emphatically that this was a normal looking pan pizza and he could take off $2. We tried to explain again what our concerns and problems were but he kept insisting that the pizza shown in the pictures above was a normal pan pizza that they serve and it felt to me that our years of pizza hut experience wasn’t worth anything.

We probably won’t be returning to that location. The event was so anti-climatic that the night seemed ruined. A memory tarnished with such a bland tasting crust. I should have taken a video of putting the crust on a napkin to show how clean the crust was. I didn’t really even need to use a napkin to wipe my fingers after the fact. I ate because I was hungry, not for the bite by bite joy.

The The Ravenous Princess has some pictures she has taken of some pan pizza crusts. I was waiting for permission to post them but I haven’t heard back yet and I don’t feel like waiting so the link is there so you can see for yourself. The two pictures links below are from the Common section on Flickr. I think you would agree the crusts don’t look the same as mine. I do wonder if anyone else has experienced the difference in crusts and sizes. Leave a comment and let the me and world know. Maybe it was a normal pizza and this was simply the first time in our combined histories that we came across one like it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sklathill/3884446427/lightbox/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oxborrow/177697152/lightbox/

Maybe I’ll go for best 2 out of 3 and make a decision from there.

-Santa’s Fallen Angel