Today, we are reviewing Pizza Hut’s Tossed Cheese Pizza. This is the final installment of a six-part series called the Cheese Pizza Challenge. The concept is simple: I visit six chain pizza shops and review six similar cheese pies. The goal is to rank how the cheese pies stack up.
Like many chain pizza restaurants, Pizza Hut has its roots in the Midwest United States—specifically Wichita, Kansas. It was founded in 1958 by Dan and Frank Carney. Today, it has become an absolute global monster in terms of restaurant chains, operating 19,866 restaurants worldwide as of 2023.
The Construction
The Cheese Pizza Challenge involves trying similar large round cheese pizza options from various pizza chains. There are usually several crust, cheese, and sauce options. As closely as possible, I tried to use the default choices used on previous installments of the pizza challenge. Normal amounts of sauce and mozzarella cheese were used. Since this is a cheese pizza challenge, no other toppings were used. This pizza was made to order.
- Crust: Hand Tossed
- Size: Large
- Cheese: Mozzarella (Normal Amount)
- Sauce: Marinara Sauce (No varied amounts available)
- Diameter: 14.0″
- Weight: 2.20 lbs (including box)
- Bake: Default
- Location Purchased: Monroe, NC
- Price: $13.99
- Pies Purchased: 1
Crust
The Hand Tossed Crust is primarily a wheat and malted barley-based flour crust. This was a thinner crust, which I didn’t mind. The big drawback of this crust is that it was on the floppy side. The overall flavor didn’t have me doing any handstands either.
Score: 0.50 out of 2.5 points
Sauce
The Marinara Sauce had a tomato paste base. I could detect some garlic and sugar. This wasn’t a bad sauce, but it wasn’t quite as robust as I would prefer.
Score: 1.25 out of 2.5 points
Cheese
Pizza Hut doesn’t get overly fancy with its cheese. It goes straight mozzarella, and it’s hard to mess that up. There was some crisping of the cheese, but I wish it were more consistent across the surface of the pie.
Score: 1.5 out of 2.5 points
Intangibles
If you follow the cheese pizza challenge, there are three specific intangibles I look for in a pie:
- “Orange Glow”: This is created when the cheese melts into the sauce with some of the oils blending in. It’s enhanced when the cheese is crisp. The Pizza Hut Hand Tossed Cheese Pizza had a slight orange glow and a near-satisfactory level of cheese crispness
- Well-defined Edge: This crust had a decent, well-defined edge. Some cheese overlayed, but it wasn’t bad.
- Firm Bottom Crust: The bottom pizza should not be floppy, nor should it taste doughy. As mentioned, Pizza Hut Hand Tossed Cheese Pizza had a floppy undercarriage with slightly doughy components. The undercarriage needed to be crisper.
While I liked the Pizza Hut cheese better than the sauce, I still felt this pie could have used more in the way of sauce.
Score: 1.00 out of 2.5 points
OVERALL ASSESSMENT
The Pizza Hut scored well on the cheese option, but when it came to the sauce, it was average, and the crust was too floppy and not great. The crust could have used some level of crispness, but there wasn’t an ordering option for a well bake, so it would have to be special order. This pizza didn’t have me doing handstands. Perhaps another crust can bolster the score.
One thing that I think Pizza Hut brings to the table is a better restaurant experience, so there are certainly other menu options to consider. That might be a better option than carryout.
We will have a wrap-up to the Cheese Pizza Challenge next week before starting up a new Challenge series.
Summary
| Crust | 0.50 |
| Sauce | 1.25 |
| Cheese | 1.50 |
| Intangibles | 1.00 |
| Total | 4.25 |
Score: 4.75 (out of 10 points)
Value: Slightly Below Average
Cheese Pizza Challenge Standings (Thru 5 Pies)
Each category is worth 2.5 points, with a maximum of 10 points per pizza.
| Pizza | Crust | Sauce | Cheese | Intangibles | Score | |
| 1 | Marco’s Original Crust | 1.50 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 1.50 | 6.50 |
| 2 | Papa Johns Original Crust | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 6.00 |
| 3 | Domino’s Hand Tossed | 1.00 | 1.50 | 1.25 | 1.25 | 5.00 |
| 4 | Godfather’s Original Crust | 0.75 | 1.75 | 1.50 | 0.75 | 4.75 |
| 5 | Pizza Hut Hand Tossed Cheese Pizza | 0.50 | 1.25 | 1.50 | 1.00 | 4.25 |
| 6 | Little Caesars Round Cheese Pie | 0.50 | 1.50 | 1.00 | 0.75 | 3.75 |
Acknowledgment
Special thanks to Charlie Minato at Halfwheel, who suggested including the measurements and weight of the food products and the store location. We will use this information in our future food product assessments.
Photo Credits: Cigar Coop
