Pizza is magical. It can’t really be explained. It is the perfect fewd. It has everything you need: bread, cheese, vegetables, meat, and sometimes more. In fact, this site was essentially started around our love of pizza. A main part of our site design is even pizza! You get the idea.
Our readers know that we like ALL kinds of pizza. And we mean ALL kinds, people. From $2 mini frozen pizzas all the way up to something homemade, we love it all.
Our readers also know that we like Pizza Hut. There have been some significant Pizza Hut missteps, but overall, we like it.
So, when we discovered Pizza Hut’s new Twisted Crust pizza, we knew we had a duty to you to review it. Or something. Just roll with it.
It should be noted that our regular test location for Pizza Hut, we suspect, isn’t as good as others. The pizzas we have gotten there haven’t been that great. This was the location where we got our test Hot Dog Bites pizza. Blech. So, for this review, we picked a different location.
Pizza Hut describes this pie as, “Pizza and breadsticks in one.” Herman gets the breadsticks at Pizza Hut’s buffet. He doesn’t order them when he just orders pizza; he would rather focus on the pizza itself. Plus, he doesn’t like paying extra for breadsticks when he could just eat the pizza crust. Denny, however, orders breadsticks EVERY time he gets pizza hut. He loves them. So, right off the bat, this pizza sounds good to both of the Snobs.
Once again, off to pizzahut.com…
Pizza Hut is offering this pizza with 1 topping in the large size for $11.99. Not bad. We ordered ours with pepperoni, because all the promo material always shows pepperoni.
When you go through the ordering process online, you see that the default crust edge flavor is “Hut Favorite.” This flavor is described as, “A garlic buttery blend with a sprinkle of grated parmesan and Italian herbs.” This would make sense, since the crust is a breadstick. We recommend staying with the default on this one.
Finally, Pizza Hut is offering dipping sauce with the pizza. Again, this makes sense since the crust is a breadstick. The regular breadsticks come with marinara sauce. Three options are given when ordering online. You can get cheddar cheese sauce and a marinara cup. You can get buffalo ranch made with Frank’s RedHot Sauce and a marinara cup. Or, you can get two cups of marinara sauce.
It seemed to us in the promo pics that the sauce shown was the cheddar. When we got to the store, the sauce in the big poster outside looked like it had specs of seasoning in it. It looked like the buffalo ranch. We ordered the cheddar cheese and marinara sauce package. But, we were certainly intrigued by the buffalo ranch because it has the Frank’s RedHot sauce in it. We got a cup of that sauce, too. The pizza hut rep was really cool, too. She threw in the ranch up for free!! Winning. We think we are in love. Or something.
15 minutes later, we picked it up.
Oh look, a pizza box!
But we need to tell you this. The entire way home, this box was killing us. Because the smell coming from it was AMAZING. We hate the word amazing, because everything these days is so amazing. But seriously, the smell of garlic and cheese was unbelievable. This was a LONG 7 minute trip home!
Time to unbox (HO HO!)…
OK. Take a good look. Because that looks good, people.
Time for a closer look…
You can get a good idea of the sauces in the pic above. The marinara is the red one, people! This is a revelation! The one next to the red one is the buffalo ranch (note the seasonings in the sauce). The cheddar is on the right.
And now it is time for an extreme closeup…
Let’s get the pizza part done first. The pizza is typical Pizza Hut. You either like it, or you don’t. There was plenty of pepperoni on our pie. We like Pizza Hut’s pepperoni. It has a nice, strong flavor with a little zip.
The pizza was NOT too greasy. This is a huge plus. You can see some standing grease on the pie above, but that is from the pepperoni. It wasn’t too much. It just happens. There was plenty of cheese and sauce on our pie. It was very good, actually. We would even say it was a perfect Pizza Hut pizza.
The bottom crust is essentially the standard hand-tossed, medium crust. Although, we think it is a little thicker than the regular hand-tossed. You can see it above. It was actually perfect for the pizza. Considering how large the breadstick crust is, the bottom crust does need to be a little thicker.
The pizza part itself, overall, was very good. No complaints at all.
Now, on to the main point of this pizza…
There is a bit of a twisted pattern to the crust as you can see above. It certainly is basically a large breadstick. It is VERY thick. This crust is MUCH thicker than the standard Pizza Hut breadstick.
You can see the parmesan and seasonings in the pic above.
Simply put, the crust is HUGE. And, it is AWESOME. The outside was cooked to a nice, golden color. It was cooked evenly.
We tore apart the breadstick crust so you can see the inside. It has a nice, soft consistency. Not too soft, though. We think it is perfect for a breadstick of this size.
Finally, check out the picture above. No extra charge for Herman’s hand! HA HA! Notice how the bottom crust kind of curls up where it meets the breadstick. The breadstick part of the crust seems like it is completely attached to the bottom crust. It is hard to say exactly if it really is, or if the breadstick part is placed up against the bottom of the crust, and it kind of cooks together. Either way, it is awesome.
The flavor of the breadstick crust is perfectly balanced. You get a nice, bread taste mixed with the buttery garlic flavor. It is seasoned nicely, but not overpoweringly. It is truly perfect. It tastes as good as it smelled on the way home.
Overall, the pizza and the new crust is excellent. Once again, despite it being our job to explain the flavor, it is very hard to do. You need to try this pizza. Our only hope is that your Pizza Hut does as good of a job as ours did. We suspect, like with all fast food, the biggest problem will be consistency. This pizza is great; now, will it be great at all locations all the time?
OK, people. Stick with us. We need to talk about the sauces.
The cheddar cheese sauce is on the top, the buffalo ranch is on the left, and the marinara is on the right.
Cheddar Cheese Sauce: The taste is really good here. It isn’t too salty. It has a nice cheddar cheese flavor. Great for a breadstick. Our only complaint is that it wasn’t warmed through. It was not hot. So, the consistency was kind of gloppy. If it had been heated properly, it would be perfect.
Buffalo Ranch made with Frank’s RedHot Sauce: This must be new, because we haven’t seen it before. This was REALLY GOOD. There is just enough heat. But not too much heat. You can taste the RedHot sauce, but you can also taste the ranch. The ranch brings the heat down to a manageable level. It has a nice consistency; it isn’t too runny or too thick. It was cold, like a ranch should be. Overall, this is our favorite of the available sauces. This stuff is great, and you MUST try it.
Marinara: It is Pizza Hut’s standard marinara. What can we say? It is good. Again though, our only complaint is that it was cold. Denny has noticed this lately when ordering breadsticks. Pizza Hut needs to go back to heating the marinara sauce all the way through.
Finally, this pizza is a GREAT value. You get WAY more crust with this pizza as opposed to a regular pizza, and it is a breadstick crust! The breadstick crust is also much bigger than the regular breadsticks Pizza Hut has. An order of regular breadsticks is $4.25. This entire large pizza, with 1 topping, is $11.99. Considering the standard pizza prices, this is a HELL of a deal. You can buy additional sauces for 50 cents each. Finally, when you order this pizza, you have the option of getting a Pepsi product 2-liter for $1. You cannot beat this deal, people.
Overall, we LOVE this pizza. Pizza Hut hasn’t always been great with their specialty pizzas, but they NAILED it this time. We will DEFINITELY be getting it again. In fact, we would like to see Pizza Hut add this to the regular menu. Get one this weekend for football, people! In fact, get two. We will.
