Pizza Hut (Westwood)
1930 W. Main StreetFriday night is pizza night. It was always that way for J growing up and it’s pretty much become our way of life too.
J had a fantastic pizza place growing up. Palermo’s 95th in Oak Lawn was her family’s go to. J introduced me to it when we first started dating and it quickly became my all-time favorite pizza place too. It’s sooooo good.
We don’t quite have a Palermo’s by our place in Oshtemo. There are several good places but nothing like that.
Our go to is usually Cottage Inn. The pizza is good and it’s usually the quickest for delivery. Even on a busy Friday night, we can get pizza in under an hour.
The problem with eating the same pizza every week…unless it’s Palermo’s…is that eventually you grow tired of routine. It’s not that we all of a sudden don’t like the pizza. We just want something else every now and then.
We were struggling to come up with something different a few weeks ago. Kazoopy’s is Westwood is usually our number two but wait times there can be really long….it’s really the only reason we don’t order them every week.
I tried a Kazoopy’s order to pick up on my way home but it was still almost an hour and a half wait. We were frustrated and about to order Cottage Inn again. I suggested we just go with one of the mega chains we almost never order from. It’s been a while since we’ve done that so it would be something different for one week.
I picked Pizza Hut in Westwood because it was pretty easy to get to from work. The restaurant is a carry-out only building right on the corner of West Main and Dartmouth Street. They moved here in 2016 from their old location two doors down….which is now Kazoopy’s.
I put my order in online..which as I explained in my last blog, is something I really prefer to do. I went with a medium thin crust half pepperoni for the kids and J, a medium original pan meat lover’s for myself, an order of breadsticks, an order of cinnamon sticks and four 20 oz. Pepsi’s. The cost was just under $60 and I paid for it with a gift card from my kid’s fundraiser site…so I made a little cash back on the deal as well.
The Internet said the pizza would be ready in about 25 minutes and it was waiting for me when I got there. The public side of the restaurant isn’t much more than a pick up window. There is some seating to sit and wait but there’s no place to sit an eat. It’s always jarring to me that Pizza Hut became more of a pick up place. When I was a kid in the 80’s and 90’s, Pizza Hut was an experience.
The kids weren’t happy I didn’t get Cottage Inn again but they “suffered” through it. I got them both started with slices of the thin crust. We’ve always been a thin crust family so they really don’t like trying anything else. I just sticks with what works.
I did the Original Pan crust for myself. No one ever eats my “all meat” pizzas and I get tired of eating plain cheese so I’ve just taken to getting a specialty pizza for myself. The All Meat at Pizza Hut includes pepperoni, sausage, bacon, ham, and ground beef. The Original Pan crust is my throwback…to the days of getting free pizza through the Book-It program. The crust is thicker but it’s also soft and pillowy. There is a lot of meat on the All Meat pizza so you get a mouthful of it in every bite.
I got a double order of the Breadsticks because that is the reason I occasionally go to Pizza Hut. I think I’ve told this story in the past but we always argued over pizza in my house growing up. My family liked Monical’s Pizza but I always wanted to go to Pizza Hut. I loved the bread sticks. Still do. These were a little over cooked so they weren’t quite as good as they have been in the past but it’s still another nostalgia thing for me.
The cinnamon sticks are always the highlight from Cottage Inn. We’ll get the biggest one they have, eat a little bit for dessert and save the rest for breakfast on Saturday. They’re sooooo good. Pizza Hut’s were…um….not good. The bread itself was fine but didn’t have a lot of cinnamon sugar. The frosting was weak. It was very liquidy and really didn’t have much flavor. The cinnamon sticks are why my kids love Cottage Inn so much and these really did nothing for us.
Pizza Hut is always a good back up for me. I don’t know if the family really enjoys it but it’s a lot of nostalgia for me. Pizza Hut has changed over the years but the pizza has stayed pretty consistent. It’s not going to become our Friday night pizza place but it’s an easy substitute when we need something different.
SW Michigan Dining 