Pizza Hut

The Facts:

Pizza: Pizza Hut

Business Category: National Chain

Website: www.pizzahut.com

Location: 1995 Barnett Shoals Rd. in Athens, GA (behind Taco Bell)

Date of Review Visit: December 9, 2012

What I Ordered: Large (14’’) pan pizza with Italian sausage, plus a regular order of breadsticks

Price: $14.98

The Micro:

Crust: The crust used to be a real strength of Pizza Hut’s pizza, but I could not say that at present, even with all of Pizza Hut’s gimmicky crusts (stuffed, cheese bites, etc.).  Good crust does not need to be gimmicked up.  Of their “ordinary” crusts, I always have preferred the pan, and I still do. The pan crust is golden brown on the outside and chewy on the inside, but when you pinch it orange grease oozes out.  That’s not a pleasant sight.  Score: 7/10.

Sauce: The pizza has sufficient sauce, but the sauce has no spices.  Also, the sauce tastes canned rather than fresh.  I have certainly tasted worse sauce, but there is room for improvement.  Score: 6/10.

Cheese: The pizza is slightly undercheesed, as evidenced by some of the bare spots that are absent any cheese.  Also, something on this pizza makes it taste very salty.  The breadsticks dipped in pizza sauce do not suffer from a salty taste, so I am thinking it is the cheese.  Score: 3/10.

Toppings: The pizza has sufficient toppings, but the pellet-style sausage has very little flavor.  Both the pork sausage and Italian sausage used to taste quite good here, but not any more.  Also, adding more than one meat topping makes the pizza very greasy; I know from experience.  Score: 5/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The pizza’s appearance is quite good except for the bare spots of crust and sauce.  I have not had any issues with the service at the Barnett Shoals Pizza Hut (the subject of this review), but I have at other locations.  I still have not forgotten the evening I waited 1 hour in the lobby of a Pizza Hut in Lynchburg, VA for them to hand me my take-out pizza that I had paid for as soon as I walked in.  Score: 7/10.

Value: At $10 for a large 1-topping pizza, the pizza alone offers good value: average quality for a cheap price.  The side items, on the other hand, are all overpriced.  This is a pizza blog, so I’ll weight the pizza more than the breadsticks on this metric.  Score: 7/10

Taste: The salty taste overrides almost everything else on my tongue and really brings this score down.  This is not the worst-tasting pizza I have ever eaten, but it is a far cry from the best.  Truth be told, the breadsticks taste better than the pizza.  How many times will you hear that?  Score: 13/20

The Final Judgment: 

Some people really like Pizza Hut while others really hate it.  I think it is OK at best, and I do not like it as much as I used to.  My fond memories of getting free personal pan pizzas through Pizza Hut’s Book-It program might make this score a little higher than it should be.  Score: 48/80

Little Caesars

The Facts:

Pizza: Little Caesars

Business Category: National Chain

Website: http://www.littlecaesars.com/

Location: 4375 Lexington Rd. in Athens, GA (beside Wal-Mart on the east side)

Date of Review Visit: November 18, 2012

What I Ordered: Large (14’’) Hot ‘n Ready pepperoni pizza, Crazy Bread, and Crazy Sauce

Price: $8.01

The Micro:

Crust: The crust has no real character, not real crispy and not real chewy.  Some corn meal baked into the bottom adds a little taste.  Overall, the crust is nothing to brag about, but it is not the real weakness of this pizza either.  Score: 4/10.

Sauce: What sauce?  The pizza is somewhat under-sauced, but what sauce there is has little texture and is over-spiced.  Even the Crazy Sauce had these qualities, and it came so cold that I had to microwave it to make it suitable for dipping.  Needless to say, not good.  Score: 2/10.

Cheese: What cheese?  The pizza is rather severely under-cheesed, and what cheese there is has little taste and much grease.  Even the Crazy bread is under-cheesed; very bad.  Score: 1/10.

Toppings: What toppings? (OK, this joke is getting old.) Truth be told, there is a fair amount of pepperoni here, and the taste is not that bad: a little spicy but not overly spicy.  Still, the pepperoni slices are thin, and the meat is low quality with high fat content.  Score: 5/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The pizza looks like a frozen Red Baron pizza that came out of my oven; that’s not a complement.  On the bright side, I have never had an issue with the service.  Score: 3/10.

Value: ...and now we finally arrive at the somewhat redeeming quality of this pizza.  Some people might say that pizza this bad should not be sold at any price, but others will say that poison can be sold if the price is cheap enough.  You can barely eat at Wendy’s for $5 these days, and here you get an entire large pizza.  I can dig this deal, on occasion at least.  Score: 9/10

Taste: I have to admit that I have eaten worse-tasting pizza than this, and most of it costs more than $5.  The pepperoni and crust save what would otherwise be a disaster.  Score: 10/20

The Final Judgment: 

If you are trying to feed a large group for small money, then this is a passable option.  If you are giving yourself a steady diet of this pizza, you need to elevate your standards.  Score: 34/80