Bachelor on the Cheap

By Mike Thayer

Generous portion of cheese, but not so much on the pepperoni, mushrooms or onion

You've probably seen the TV commercials, Pizza Hut has brought back and is pushing their Stuffed Crust Pizza.  Originally introduced in 1995, the Original Stuffed Crust Pizza features a large pizza with your choice of toppings and a crust that's stuffed with mozzarella cheese.  It's like cheesy bread and pizza, all in one slice.

I remember ordering these back in the day and appreciating them, so in seeing the latest Pizza Hut marketing hype, decided to order one for a trip down Pizza Memory Lane.

I went with my favorite pizza toppings, pepperoni, mushroom and onion.  My delivery order took longer than you would think it should for a Tuesday night, taking more than an hour to arrive at my house.  The text updates you get on your phone... It was stuck on "Out for delivery" for a good 25 minutes and my pizza wasn't exactly piping hot when I got it.  Receiving a delivery pizza that was marginally warm enough knocks a few points off the score, but I had to wonder what the heck the delivery driver was thinking/doing, or was otherwise distracted by, allowing the temp to drop like he did.  If it was simply other deliveries, then this driver can't handle it.

Enough about the delivery, "How was the pizza?" you ask...

It was so-so.  A younger me remembers this pizza more fondly than what I got on this occasion.   Even with cheese in the crust, there's too much bread in this pizza, lacking enough toppings and sauce to balance things out.  And that temp, the cheese was not as ooey-gooey as it should have been.  You know how you're supposed to take that first bite with this kind of pizza from the crust and not the point, right?  Well I didn't get the stringy, pull away bite like you see on TV.  This was more like somebody who has never baked before threw a mozzarella string cheese stick in some pre-packaged pizza dough and didn't bake it long enough.  The cheese was firming back up thanks to a slow delivery time.  I was looking forward to stepping into the pizza time machine back to 1995, but I have to say this was a disappointing pizza experience.  Then again, it's Pizza Hut, which for the most part serves up average pizza considering all the stepped up competition around these days.

A lot of bread, and cheese that wasn't so ooey-gooey thanks to super slow delivery

I'm giving the Pizza Hut Stuffed Crust Pizza 3 out of 5 Bachelor on the Cheap stars.  The pizza was marginally warm at time of delivery, Pizza Hut is less-than-generous with the toppings and trying to compensate for a lack of sauce and toppings with cheese just doesn't cut it.  This is NOT a repeat buy and the Pizza Hut delivery option is NOT wallet friendly.  They advertise a 1 topping Stuffed Crust Pizza for $12.99, but that price is only good if you order carry out and stick to one topping.  Who sticks to one topping?  My pizza cost me just under $25 after delivery fee and driver tip (which had I known the driver was going to take his silly-ass time, I wouldn't have tipped at all but you have to pre-tip for contactless delivery).

Pizza Hut continues to serve up very average pizza.

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