The Internet Can't Stop Craving the Old School Dine-In Pizza Hut Experience

When people think of Pizza Hut in 2020 they are probably thinking about delivery. Go online, choose your pie and other treats -- like maybe a delicious P'Zone -- and just wait for the delivery person to show up with your hot cheesy goodness and hope that they're liberal with the cheese and pepper packets. But it didn't used to be that way. Back in the day -- and by "the day" we mean the 1980s and 1990s -- Pizza Hut was an actual dine-in experience, complete with tablecloths, fancy lights, music, and pizza served up hot right to your table. The Pizza Hut experience was one that left quite an impression and now, people are getting nostalgic about it on social media.

Remember when Pizza Hut pan pizzas were basically a goddamn culinary delicacy? They’d bring them out in a real fucking skillet that was piping at about 700 degrees Fahrenheit right as your third song kicked in on the jukebox after you’d played a game of Galaga. We were kings. pic.twitter.com/G7dQBRd3qQ

— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) June 20, 2020

On Twitter, @Super70sSports posted a "remember when?" post on Saturday reflecting on the Pizza Hut experience of the past, when they were served extremely hot in little skillets with music and video games enhancing the whole dining experience. The post declared that "we were kings" back in those days and fans on social media quickly chimed in to agree. Pizza fans soon chimed in en masse to share their memories of those vintage Pizza Hut moments. As it turns out, there are quite a few iconic things most people recall fondly from the dine-in Pizza Hut experience. Book-It was a popular mention, as was the "pebbled" red drink cups, and everyone it seemed remembered the insane temperature the pizzas were served at -- or at least remembered the way they burned the mouth.

There's no shortage of fond memories of the dine-in Pizza Hut experience, but it's one that is sadly just not a factor in childhood today. In 2019 Pizza Hut announced plans to shutter 500 of the older dine-in locations as the company shifted towards carryout and delivery-oriented storefronts. It's a move that saw some locations transitioned to the new model but saw others completely closed. Even for those dine-in locations that continue to exist, people's nostalgic reflections revealed that the experience didn't quite hold up to memory.

But those memories? Well, let's just say dine-in Pizza Hut back in the day was magical. Read on to see for yourself.

Did you get to enjoy the dine-in Pizza Hut experience in the 1980s and 1990s? Let us know in the comments below.

Photo by Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images