Reading the comments tells me that most people here do not appreciate exactly how far Pizza Hut fell. For many Gen-X's 1980's Pizza Hut was peak dining. The pizza was buttery deliciousness with full table service like a fancy restaurant, complimentary salad bar for my mom, fancy booths or tables, mood lighting for the folks on a date, and a video game arcade. Going to Pizza Hut was an event. I tried Pizza Hut again in the 2010's and vowed to never attempt to soil my memories like that ever again.
I never tasted a more delicious pizza than the personal pan pepperoni I earned from absolutely crushing the Book-It program. That big holographic button, covered in achievement stars. The pizza. Pure bliss.
Pretty much any big name pizza place is the same story. A cycle of "make it smaller", "make it out of cheaper ingredients", "put less on it" and "make it cost more" has left most of them barely recognisable as pizza.
The best pizza near any of us is probably from a local family run pizza place.
The best value pizza is probably Costco.
I don't know why everybody else continues to exist. A mountain of brand recognition heading towards oblivion.
Pizza Hut buffet was a good deal for the price and quality, if you wanted to go have a lunch of real pizza.
Our local one is still here but they sold the big red roof building and moved into a strip mall. No inside dining, carry out only. I miss the drive-through though - used to be able to just order online or call and not have to get out of my car to get it. Now I have to park and walk inside and my precious convenience is reduced. But I still refuse to pay for Doordash type bullshit.
pizza hut in the small town i grew up in stayed like that until the 2018 when the sole owner died and his inheritors outsourced its management rather than returning to bfe to run it (i don't blame them) and i feel like that's how most older establishments enshittify.
there was no way he was making money, but he CLEARLY loved pizza & people and was happy doing it.
They still exist, but the Pizza Hut chain and it's remain restaraunts are shadows of what they used to be. Pizza Hut was awesome in the 80's. Now the old one near my house is a church.
Apparently Yum! Foods Inc (the owners of Taco Bell, KFC, A&W, Long John Silvers, and of course Pizza Hut), has been going around buying back a bunch of the old Red Roof stores (as they're known internally, they're actually a different district than a "regular" store right down the street, too) with plans to reopen them, salad bars and all.
I love seeing places that were clearly something else. Plenty of places in old Pizza Huts. But I really wanna see the Wienerschnitzel in my city that operates out of a giant hot dog go out of business and then have, like, a cigarette store open up inside the giant hot dog.
Taco Bell and Pizza Hut are both owned by the same corporate conglomerate that owns Pepsi, KFC, and every other fast food chain that only serves Pepsi.
The Pizza Hut in my city is still open, but it looks incredibly run-down with weeds all over the almost-always-empty parking lot. Never been there myself, as Pizza Hut had long lost its good reputation before I ever considered going there.