Remember when Pizza Hut was a sit-down restaurant? Prepare to head back in time to that magical place because Redditor u/bencm518 posted a picture of a 1984 Pizza Hut menu to the r/mildlyinteresting subreddit, and we're all totally enthralled while also wiping drool off our chins.
Let's start with the obvious: This is an actual menu that you get a sit-down restaurant, because going to Pizza Hut used to be special. "A server came to take your order, then brought it to your table. A real table, not a picnic bench," said one melancholic Redditor. "Then one day, sit-down Pizza Hut was no more." That tragedy is foreshadowed in the "Carryout" section of the menu, tucked away in a bottom corner, which reminds you that yes, you can order your pizza and eat it at home in front of the TV. How novel.
There was no damn salad bar at home like there was at Pizza Hut, though, nor were there those pebbly, dark red plastic soda cups. Those two random things are forever linked together in the minds of Millennials and Gen Xers who chose Pizza Hut for every birthday meal or got their free Book It! personal pizzas every summer.
The prices are also a trip, too. That salad bar, complete with ridiculous decorative kale, was only $1.89 to add to a meal. A large Super Supreme pan pizza was $12.20, with the thin crust a buck less. You want a beer while the Pac-Man table entertains your kids for you? That'll only set you back 75 cents, or $3.25 a pitcher. "Ahhh. The good ole days ... you could feed your entire family plus some friends for $20," says one Redditor. "Damn, I hate aging." Big same.
Today, a large Super Supreme pizza will cost you $25, and you don't even get a discount for thin crust anymore. But as some Redditors point out, that $12.20 pizza in 1984 would be $35 today, adjusted for inflation. So maybe we're actually getting a better deal than we thought?
No matter the price, commenters are unanimously pining for the Pizza Hut pizza of their youth. "I miss those days of simpler menus. Man, when that pan pizza came out, sausage, onions, mushrooms, green peppers, crispy fried crust … hot and steamy," said u/jjjijjji. "I’m all horny now for 80s Pizza Hut."
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