hello everyone this is running on empty Food review well hello ladies gentlemen
and everyone watching welcome one and all to this newest edition of The Running on
Empty Food review series I'm your host the report of the week thanks for checking in
well finally after what seemed like an eternity of one item that was just being resurrected and
re-released after the next after the next after the next finally that trend has come to an end
for now and you have so many new releases coming out all at once I guess all these establishments
we're waiting for the month of May to come about because sure of enough you've got new releases
from Pizza Hut Papa John's Popeyes I think you also have a new release coming out from Wendy's
and I believe Shake Shack might also have another new release out so you have all these new releases
that are coming out and it's a bit refreshing if I may say so myself because I was getting a
bit tired of of re-reviewing the nacho fries for the 15th time or whatever it might be so
starting it off with Pizza Hut they have released a new pizza and a new melt originally I was going
to go with the pizza but it seems like they are really pushing the Melt for some reason I don't
know if that's just coincidence I don't know if that's what they're advertising team is focusing
on I don't know if that's what people like these days but either way I decided all right what the
heck they're really putting a lot of emphasis on the Melt so that's what I am going to try
so specifically they have released the cheese steak melt and I know what you're thinking you're
thinking finally right because I know when I think about Pizza Hut I always think when are they going
to finally incorporate cheese steaks onto the menu and they finally did it it took until 2023
but they went ahead and they finally did it so the cheese steak melt all right it takes the
form of their previous Pizza melt where a lot of people say it's like a combination of both
a glorified calzone and also like a kind of like a quesadilla almost where it's essentially like a
pizza slice but it's folded over in half and then you have the toppings in the middle you'll see in
a moment so it's got the outer crust it's folded over and then inside is grilled sirloin steak
bell peppers onions a garlic Parmesan sauce it is then topped the outside that is is topped
with Parmesan oregano blend and it comes with ranch dipping sauce to of course dip it in or
I mean I guess if you really wanted to you could pour the the ranch sauce in like a shot glass and
just pound it down but that's up to you the price for it the recommended price is seven dollars for
the Melt but again that's the recommended price it will vary based on region for instance I wound up
paying eight dollars and 53 cents for this but generally speaking they say it should be about
seven dollars or so all right that said comes in the Melt packaging right here as you can see
I believe this is the same box the same type of box it's obviously not the same
identical box from when I last tried out there melts a number of months ago
crispy cheesy and loaded right there no one out pizzas the hut
immediately we focus the camera in immediately I could smell The Onion
and I could actually smell the garlic from that garlic Parmesan sauce that's
what I smell right now it's very potent as soon as I opened up the box it just hit me
hopefully a little better look you can see the seasoning there and here is the Ranch
now let's take one of these melts so this one here and let's get a better look let's try to
focus in the there we go all right so you could see well seasoned right there you could see the
blend of the cheese I bet there's some of that sauce mixed in the seasoning all those onions
and peppers right there that of course that brown thing is not uh decaying matter but it
is actually what they call a grilled sirloin steak so we've got that right there and uh
and then there's the seasoning that they were talking about atop
you could see how it is folded over on this side a little bake on the bottom but then
it's like it's pinched shut but open on this side so that's a that's the cavern right there
they call that the cheese steak melt Cavern and no one actually knows how far back it goes
that planning an expedition in there but they really don't know it's unmapped so I mean it's
it's a bit dangerous quite frankly so you know what it looks like I know what it looks like I
think we know everything there is to know about it obviously except how far back that actually goes
I bet there's like a whole cave system in there and aside from that we know the price recommended
seven dollars comes with the ranch dipping I shall eat us take a few bites I'll dip it in the vange
and then I'll let you know how good or bad it is The Cheesesteak Melt from Pizza Hut going in
I think
and now just to try it out right now right here I'll take a sip of water
and I'll dip it in the ranch and we'll see how that is if it adds or detracts to it
right
now this is one of those items
I don't like it and I don't hate it all right that's that's really all that I could say about it
and that's the thing sometimes you get these sorts of items the way that
well from at least my experience anyway fast food is it's a it's a very broad spectrum in that it's
not like everything is absolutely exceptionally good or it's completely horrible sometimes you
you always do see this huge variation from one item to the next so a lot of the time it could be
that way but doesn't mean that's how it always is and this is a good example of it wherever I mean
it's it's not bad in that it's not grotesque or anything it's not uh disgusting you know
it's tolerable I could of course sit here and eat the whole thing yeah sure I could do that
but would I necessarily find an enjoyable experience no
if I were given the choice to eat this melt or let's say a pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut I'd
go with the pepperoni pizza every single time if I represented no alternative though or if I
were forced to yide I eat the mouth sure so it's like one of those things where yeah all right I
could tolerate it am I going to go out of my way again just to get this no of course not here's the
problem with it that I noticed it's very this is the weird thing you open up the box and you
immediately I think as I mentioned you you are met with this scent of just these really potent onions
the garlic you name it and you could obviously see that it's loaded with the toppings you can see all
the cheese in there you could see the steak you could see the peppers and the onions and all the
seasoning on it so it's not like you're you're looking for all the ingredients right you could
see them right there in front of you and you could smell it so you think wow this is going to be this
is going to be packed with flavor you know this is going to be really there's a lot to this so I mean
this is going to be really really flavorful right so then imagine my confusion when I bite into this
chewing away chewing away and what do I taste essentially nothing it is extremely Bland and
I'm amazed actually that they that they managed to do that given the ingredients the potency thereof
and the overall appearance that this item has it's actually amazing to me that they managed
to do what they did that takes that takes some skill I don't know what it is about
this but there's just not a lot of flavor to this at all the grilled sirloin steak it
just doesn't work either it clashes that's the thing it I can't go as far as to say
that it tastes off or anything like that but it just doesn't work it just doesn't
it clashes with everything else it just doesn't work with the with the garlic sauce something
about it with the cheese it just doesn't blend it doesn't blend together and when
you have that clash and what ingredients you can taste then that's a big problem so it's just like
nothing is really blending together you could taste a few of the distinct ingredients here
or there but they're not really working with each other nothing's coming together and then
you get all these bites where you're just biting in and it's like all right well I could feel all
this matter in my mouth but why can't I taste any of it you know and it's it's not like the
problem is with me because in addition to this I also got some sides I got some wings and I got
some of their cheese sticks and I tried a couple of those before I turned on the camera and those
were delicious I mean they were just great they were flavorful they were good the wings spicy but
uh again very good well breaded and obviously when I dip this in the branch dressing I could
taste that sharpness of the ranch immediately so it's not as though the problem is on my end you
know your mouth is all messed up Etc because obviously I could taste these various things
so it's something with this uh with this cheese steak melt and then here's the weird thing right
it's a cheese steaks you think this is going to be a bit cheesy you think oh yeah it tastes those
fresh onions and it's just there the stuff is just there but I can't really taste any of it at all
and the garlic Parmesan sauce is another bizarre thing it's just barely there either this is just
it's uh it's confounding in a way how can it look one way and smell one way and then taste totally
different it is utterly bizarre but it's really not flavorful at all uh very lackluster very
disappointing and when I dip it in the ranch dressing essentially I'm tasting a mouthful
of ranch dressing with some Globs of relatively tasteless matter uh surrounding it and that's it
you know so the vanish dressing doesn't really add any because it's just all right
it tastes like Ranch now and that's all that there is to it
so uh it doesn't taste bad it just doesn't really taste like all that much either
it's just very flavorless you know consistency wise sure it has a nice little crisp to it and
you know like I said does it taste all right yeah yeah it tastes alright does it taste good no
is it bad to the point where I'm spitting it out and I'm you know that's that it disgusts
me no it's like like I said yeah I could eat this all because it doesn't really taste like anything
it's just disappointing because this isn't supposed to be the Bland flavorless matter Melt
from Pizza Hut this is supposed to be the cheese steak melt so when it's marketed and portrayed as
having a very distinct flavor and then despite the appearance has none of that that's disappointing
this by far is not the worst item not even close but it's not good either so
this is the thing if I were to rate this purely on taste this would get a
5 out of 10. because it's not great it's not horrible it's edible and it's doable
but here's the thing this is a limited time item specifically flavored to be a cheese steak melt
so when they dropped the ball on that and it wasn't what they said that it was going to be
not even close and you're paying a premium for this only to be let down then focusing with the
flavor as well as the idea and the execution thereof then I'm going to have to lower the
score of this item from a 5 out of 10. to a 3.5 out of 10 because it's supposed to be something
and they just did a bad job with it so on a final note it's not the greatest item not the
rarest item but obviously it's not what they were going for here and that is a bit disappointing
on to the next there's plenty more items to try out so I'll be getting to it thank
you for watching and until next time I'm your host the report of the week