What in the heck is a "Priazzo"? Is pizza a lasagna?
How do you turn a Cheez-It into a pizza? We answer all of these questions and more
in our review of the biggest flops in Pizza Hut’s history!
In 2014, Pizza Hut announced that it was updating its logo,
its websites, its uniforms, and arguably most importantly of all, its menu. The menu
upgrade was set to launch with 11 new "specialty recipes," but not all of them won diners over.
Take, for instance, Pizza Hut's BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger pizza, which reviewers were less than
impressed by. A review of the pizza by GrubGrade found that, despite its name, the pie didn't
have enough barbecue sauce. The outlet also felt that it suffered from too many Roma tomatoes and
red onions, dry meatballs, and not enough cheese. The result was an overpriced specialty pizza that
wasn't worth ordering, which probably explains why you can't get it at your local Pizza Hut anymore.
Hot dogs and pizza are two iconic food items, so what happens when you combine them? Pizza Hut
decided to find out in 2015 when it opted to introduce a pizza crust with hot dogs
stuffed inside. The company even upped the ante by making the option of a pretzel-style crust.
After the crust arrived in stores, Business Insider tapped some taste testers to get the
scoop. And according to them, the version which featured just hot dogs in the crusts was tasty,
but just not as good as it could've been. The pretzel version was even less well-received,
as taste testers complained that the salt on the pretzel crust
made the already salt-saturated dish almost unbearable. Plus, the crust
itself was soggy. Turns out these American classics don't go together so well after all.
In 2006, Pizza Hut decided to introduce the Sicilian Lasagna Pizza, which attempted to marry
the convenience and fun of pizza with the classic flavors of its namesake Italian pasta dish.
At the time, the Houston Chronicle reviewed the pie and actually gave it
a fair number of compliments, praising the pizza's flavor and cheesy texture.
The problem, as the Chronicle pointed out, is that pizza is not lasagna,
and no matter how hard you try, you're never really going to make it into lasagna.
The pizza was missing the layered structure of pasta that makes the original dish work. Plus,
if you really want lasagna, you can just go to your local Italian restaurant and
eat some lasagna. No wonder this pizza didn't stick around long.
In Australia, savory meat pies are still a favorite meal, and one of the most famous
brands of meat pies is called "Four'N Twenty" — named after the nursery rhyme. With that in mind,
Pizza Hut's Australia branch decided to partner with the company by basically attaching a bunch
of Four'N Twenty pies to their pizza crust. This … didn't exactly go well.
According to taste testers at Lifehacker, there wasn't necessarily anything wrong with the flavor
of the pizza, but the very existence of the combination didn't make much sense.
They were two foods that didn't appear to belong together, and mashing them up seemed to detract
from both the pizza and the meat pie. So, good luck finding one at a Pizza Hut now.
In 1985, Pizza Hut released a new creation it dubbed the "Priazzo." But while the name
was maybe supposed to evoke some kind of classic Italian food … it's really just a made-up word.
"In America, there is a special Italian pie. We call it ‘Priazzo.’"
The dish was basically a double-decker pizza with two layers of dough crammed full of tomatoes,
mushrooms, onions, spinach, pepperoni, ham, bacon, and of course, tons of cheese.
According to Pizza Hut's parent company, PepsiCo,
the Priazzo did actually help boost the company's profit margins for a year or so.
But once the decline started, it didn't really stop. Like other creations in this video, pizza
fans really just wanted more traditional pizza, and by the early 90s, the Priazzo was no more.
Doritos are one of the most popular snack foods around,
generating billions of dollars in revenue and consistently ranking among the
most-loved chips in the world. It makes perfect sense, then, to pair them up with
another super popular food item: Pizza Hut pizza. Or at least, it made sense of paper.
In 2014, Pizza Hut teamed up with Doritos for a combo dubbed the Doritos Crunchy Crust,
which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It's a pizza with a rim
of crushed-up Doritos dusted around the edge. Sounds good, right? Well,
according to taste testers, it worked better in theory than in practice.
When Lifehacker reviewed the product, they pinpointed the problem as a strange
mash-up of flavors that detracted from both items.
Sadly, these two beloved American foods just weren't meant to be together.
Debuting in 2014 as part of Pizza Hut's rebranding effort,
the Pretzel Piggy Pizza featured parmesan sauce, balsamic drizzle, bacon, mushrooms,
and spinach on a salted pretzel crust. Plus, it was fun to say! What could go wrong?
In Brand Eating's review of the pizza, the publication lamented that while
the ingredients themselves all seemed like they would work,
when combined into a pizza it all just went wrong. There were too many flavors happening on top,
leaving some ingredients completely overshadowed. Plus, Brand Eating's
report on the pizza noted that the parmesan and balsamic sauces seemed to clash with one another.
Maybe this pizza would've stuck around longer if Pizza Hut had tried fewer flavors.
In 2012, Pizza Hut decided to take aim at rival franchises like Subway with
its own take on the sandwich. Dubbed the P'Zolo, the dish was a sandwich roll that
looked not unlike a Hot Pocket, filled with various ingredients and topped with cheese.
When they first arrived you could buy one for three dollars or two for five,
which set the P'Zolo up in direct competition with Subway's five-dollar Footlong subs.
However, while Subway's footlongs are still around, the P'Zolo is not. A review from The
Impulse Buy at the time of their release called the sandwiches far too greasy,
with an overwhelming black pepper flavor from the type of sausage used. So, no more P'Zolos.
After the success of its regular stuffed crust pizza,
Pizza Hut decided to up the ante by trying out a version that included both cheese and bacon.
It sounds like a no-brainer, but it didn't exactly work out.
According to Business Insider, the big problem with this item was actually the addition of the
bacon. Reviewers called the bacon flavor both weak and not particularly good,
while others complained it was too greasy and too heavy to be crammed
into a pizza crust. Maybe just stick with the traditional stuffed crust.
Cheez-Its first hit the market back in 1921, and since then,
they've become an iconic American snack. So, like many other successful brands throughout history,
Cheez-It partnered with Pizza Hut to create the Stuffed Cheese-It Pizza. This item consisted of
four Cheez-It-inspired baked squares that were filled with either cheese or cheese
and pepperoni. It seemed like a match made in snack food heaven ... right up until it wasn't.
GrubGrade's review of the Stuffed Cheez-It Pizza called it a, quote, "mediocre Hot Pocket," then
listed off a number of complaints about the item. It was too dry, it wasn't melted enough,
and perhaps worst of all, it didn't taste at all like a Cheez-It. At least it was fun to look at.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus,
even more Mashed videos about your favorite restaurants are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.