Pizza is my personal favorite food; I find myself getting some every few weeks. I think most people would agree that Pizza Hut and Dominos are two of the largest and most iconic “fast food” pizza companies. They have been in competition with each other since the early 70’s and people have debated for years on who’s better. I want to chime in on this decade long argument and break down what specifically each company does better than the other to find the ultimate king of chain pizza.
SET UP AND BACKGROUND
Before we compare let's take a quick look at the background of each company and share some fun facts.
Pizza Hut: Pizza Hut began as a restaurant owned by 2 brothers the name came from the way the restaurant was shaped it was small and only had around 20 seats, the sign area for the building also could only hold up to 9 letters thus the name Pizza Hut was coined. Now Pizza Hut has over 20,000 locations worldwide.
Fun Fact: In 2001, Pizza Hut became the first company to deliver a pizza into space.
Dominos: Dominos originally was called DomiNick’s, this original name came from 2 brothers buying out a pizza store by that name in Michigan in the 60’s. It was later renamed to Dominos when one of the brothers sold his share of the store to his brother for a Volkswagen Beetle.
Fun Fact: Dominos founder Tom Monoghan created the first ever stackable pizza box in the 60s but never patented it.
Now that we have some fun information out the way let's get into what we’re really here for, the comparisons!
The Crust/Dough
The dough is arguably the most important part of a pizza, you can have a pizza without cheese, sauce or toppings but without the dough you just have a pile of slop.
Pizza Hut: I got a hand-tossed pizza from Pizza Hut. They offer other choices like Pan, Thin Crust, Stuffed Crust and Tavern style. Pizza Hut’s dough was very fresh; the undercarriage had a nice brown tint to it and some crispy bits on it as well. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was but regardless it added a nice texture to the dough. The pizza had a slight flop which I'm personally not a huge fan of but besides that the dough was nice. The crust though was dry and a little hard to chew, it also had no seasoning on it, and it tasted slightly cardboardy which was very disappointing.
Dominos: I also got a hand-tossed pizza from Dominos. They seem to have more crust options which include Pan, Crunchy Thin, New York Style, Stuffed Parmesan Crust and even a Gluten Free Crust option. Dominos dough was also very fresh; unlike Pizza Hut though the dough had 0 floppiness and had a flour-like coating on the underside which made it even better. The crust had a garlic and oil coating spread onto it and every bite I took of it was pillowy and airy. The garlic and oil coating tasted great it adds so much to the overall flavor of the crust and it makes it feel like you’re eating breadsticks instead of a plain crust.
Winner: Dominos takes Round 1. The dough and crust are miles better than Pizza Hut’s it’s not even a competition; I will admit that the Pizza Hut crust is rarely ever this bad but what did It for me specifically was the garlic on the crust from Dominos. Even if the crust and dough were better from Pizza Hut, I think I’d still prefer Dominos, it took the pizza to a whole other level flavor wise. Maybe Pizza Hut will step it up in the next category though.
The Sauce
The sauce can make or break a pizza, if you have a crappy sauce it's going to make everything else taste weird.
Pizza Hut: One thing that I want to mention is the options for sauces that Pizza Hut offers. They have 3 different types of marinara sauces as well as a pesto drizzle you can add on top of your pizza which was very surprising to me, I've never seen any other chain restaurants have something like that. I settled on just a regular marinara sauce, it was on the sweeter side, and I loved it. It still had those spices like basil and parsley that come from a marinara sauce but something was making it sweeter, maybe they use more sugar in their base? The only thing that sucked was that they didn't put a lot of it and it didn’t help that the sauce was pretty light and not hearty. Next time I’ll have to click the extra sauce option when placing an order.
Dominos: Dominos also offers a fair number of sauce options but they’re the typical sauces you’ll see anywhere else like BBQ, Alfredo, Garlic Parm ETC. I also just got the simple marinara sauce, it tasted like a typical marinara sauce you get the hints of Italian spices and tomatoiness of course but it was on the chunkier side compared to Pizza Huts. It also had more sauce slapped onto it than Pizza Huts, but it just didn’t overall taste as good in my opinion. But then again, I feel like the sauce at Dominos isn't its greatest aspect.
Winner: This round goes to Pizza Hut, while the Dominos pizza sauce wasn't bad, it just tasted like a basic sauce while on the other hand Pizza Hut’s marinara had a sweeter flavor to it which I really enjoyed.
The Cheese
Pizza Hut: I want to start by addressing the greasiness of mozzarella, it could have come from a combination of pepperoni and mozzarella, but you could visibility see the oil on the top layer of the actual cheese, I wasn't a huge fan of that. Once I took a bite though the mozzarella was nice and gooey, I could taste the milkiness of it but it also tasted kind of artificial and just overall oily. I don’t know exactly how to describe it, but it just didn’t taste as fresh as you’d expect and I also couldn't help but have that oily feeling and taste stuck in my mouth after a few bites. One nice thing that I’ll mention though is that there was mozzarella melted onto the crust, making the pizza look very appealing.
Dominos: The cheese at Dominos was also very gooey (also got mozzarella), it even had a slight cheese pull, it wasn't overly greasy and the cheese just tasted better and fresher, that slight tang and milkiness you get from a mozzarella cheese was a little more prominent in this cheese than in Pizza Huts. The pizza itself appeared to have more cheese than Pizza Hut’s which made the pizza look bigger and more risen. I was also getting that garlic crust flavor from the cheese which was a nice touch.
Winner: I'm giving this one to Dominos, I was expecting better from Pizza Hut’s cheese it looked nice besides all the oil, but it ended up ruining the flavors for me. The cheese pull that Dominos had was also really nice to see, To me that shows how fresh the cheese they use is.
The Toppings
This category was tough to choose a winner but let me break down exactly why I chose this company as the winner for this round.
Pizza Hut: The pepperonis on this pizza were super crisp and looked really appetizing. They had a dark hue which made the pizza look good, the pepperonis covered a nice portion of the pizza, on some slices the pepperoni was even on the crust. Again, that oil was a bit too much, I understand pizza is almost always going to be oily when you're using fresh ingredients but here it was just overbearing. The pepperoni still managed to taste pretty good though with almost every bite I was getting a piece of pepperoni. While putting the order in I got curious about what the variety of toppings that Pizza Hut offers looks like and I counted about 21 different choices. A couple that stuck out to me were caramelized onions, pesto drizzle, garlic and grape tomato’s.
Dominos: The pizza at Dominos had slightly less pepperoni on the whole thing but they tasted even better than Pizza Hut’s individually given that they weren’t drowning in oil. The colour of the pepperonis was a slightly brighter red, I don’t know if this has any meaning, but I just thought it was worth mentioning. The pepperonis had some slightly visible seasoning on the top, maybe oregano, which was something I didn’t see on Pizza Huts pepperonis. One other thing that I noticed was that some pepperonis were crispier than others giving it a nice textural balance. I also looked into the topping choices that Dominos offers, and I counted 20 which is 1 less than Pizza Huts. What stuck out to me in the Dominos options was the variety of cheeses you can add like Feta, Cheddar Blend and Parmesan Asiago. Plus they offer a Buffalo drizzle which is something I didn’t see on the Pizza Hut list.
Winner: This one was really close, Dominos pepperonis had different textures, and I think that's what made it better in my opinion, it made each bite feel a little different. I will say though what almost made me choose Pizza Hut was the types of things they offer as topping, I didn’t see things like grape tomatoes, garlic or roasted peppers on the Dominos menu.
Side Options
I think side options are another thing that both companies do well, let's compare the options they have to see who's are more diverse and better tasting.
Pizza Hut: Pizza Hut’s sides include desserts like Cinnabon's, donut holes, apple pies and many more. They also carry items like cheesy and normal breadsticks, pasta, wings, mozzarella sticks and even fries. My personal favorite side from Pizza Hut is their wings. I think they have the best wings out of all chain pizzas. I also didn't know they had fries, and mozzarella sticks on their menu until I was placing my order. Pizza Hut offers something for any mood. If you're not wanting pizza, why not get some wings and fries or a melt sandwich?
Dominos: Dominos' sides include stuffed cheesy bread, parm bites, loaded tater tots, garlic and cinnamon bread twists, cheese dips, pastas (can get in a bread bowl), wings, salads and even some sandwich options. While I do think dominos has some good side dishes, I don’t think they're as diverse or as good as Pizza Hut’s choices. That being said.
Winner: The winner of this round is definitely Pizza Hut, from what I've had in the past Pizza Huts sides are often better than their pizzas at time. They even offer Cinnabon's! Who else is doing that?
Delivery and Pricing
The Pizza Hut and Dominos that I ordered from aren't too far from each other, they're less than a mile apart from each other and I pretty much live in between them so let's see who can get their pizza to me first.
Pizza Hut: Pizza Hut took a total of 22 minutes to get the pepperoni pizza to my house, the grand total came out to $26.91, pretty steep for one large pepperoni pizza. But you're crazy if you think I'm going to pay over $25 dollars for a pizza so what I did was take a look at the deals and coupons that pizza hut offers. They had a deal that was a 1 topping large pizza for $11.99 which would have brought the total down to $19.19 but Pizza Hut has a $12.99 delivery minimum, so I had to add 2 ranches to bring the end total to 21.09. It was nice and fresh though as the driver delivered it in an airtight thermal bag that kept the pizza warm. I later found out that Pizza Hut had a deal called “7 Dollar Deal Lovers” where you can get a 1 topping medium pizza for 7 dollars which is pretty good, I tried using the deal and got 2 medium pizzas for delivery for a total of $21.21.
Dominos: Dominos took slightly longer to get the pizza delivered. Coming in at just over 25 minutes, the total for this pizza came out to $18.72 which is way cheaper than Pizza Hut WITH a deal. Which made me curious about what offers Dominos had and sure enough they were very good and also slightly similar in comparison to Pizza Hut. You can get 2 medium 2 topping pizzas for 6.99 each or you can get any of their sides for 6.99 in substitute for one of the pizzas! I checked the total for this deal and the price came out to $20.88, which is less than Pizza Huts 7 Dollar deal and you get an extra topping choice on each pizza. Besides that, the pizza I ordered was also delivered in a similar bag to Pizza Hut’s which kept the pizza nice and hot.
Winner: The winner for the final round is 1000% Dominos, Pizza Hut you guys got to step it up. In no world should a chain pizza pie be over $25. With that being said the winner of the whole competition is Dominos!
Wrap Up
Dominos is the definitive king of chain pizza in my opinion. They take the win over Pizza Hut with a final score of 4-2. While Pizza Hut has some pretty great sides the question is whose pizza was better, and in my opinion the answer is 100% Dominos. Pizza Huts pie was overall really greasy and that alone shoots down what it could’ve been. My favorite part of this whole thing was the crust from Dominos, it's so fresh and delicious tasting, I think they're the only chain pizza joint that coats their crust and I think that by itself takes the flavor up by so many levels. Another big part was just how much cheaper a pizza is with and without coupons from Dominos. The delivery may have been a little slower, but you can't beat that price! Overall, if you’re looking for sides and variety go with Pizza Hut but if you want a better tasting and cheaper pizza, it's a no brainer, go with Dominos
Works Cited
Sutton, Amber. “12 Things You Might Not Know about Pizza Hut.” Al, 24 June 2016, www.al.com/entertainment/2016/06/12_things_you_might_not_know_a_11.html.
“What’s Cookin’ in NYC.” Whats Cookin in NYC, eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/rosenberg14/history-of-pizza-chains/. Accessed 22 Apr. 2025.
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