I Went To A Pizza Hut That's 'Untouched By Time' And It Was Indeed Classic

My family and I are not shy about our love for pizza. We've done a variety of different taste tests, and not too long ago, we had the pleasure of ranking Pizza Hut's various pizza styles from best to worst. So, naturally, we were delighted to have the opportunity to visit a Pizza Hut Classic and learn a little bit more about what this chain has to offer.

Pizza Hut Classics are just what they sound like: Pizza Hut franchises, but offering a retro experience, as well as the typical menu. The chain has proven itself very dedicated to pies, that much we can say. The company even put out a 2024 survey to determine how often the average person eats pizza (spoiler alert: about three times a month). So, we weren't surprised that the manager of the Pizza Hut Classic in Anaconda, Montana, through which we were passing, was delighted to welcome us to her establishment.

Nor were we surprised to find that the restaurant matched its surroundings perfectly. Anaconda is an old copper mining town with brick buildings, an old rail car in the park across the street, and a giant chalk letter A on the hillsides behind the settlement. In other words, it's everything you would want from a cute little pitstop a few miles from I-90. Pizza Hut Classic fit right in. Of course, we weren't just going to judge from the outside ... we tested its charm, ambience, prices, and food from every possible angle.

If you thought Pizza Hut was nothing but a giant national brand, think again. Although today it is one of the best-known pizza chains in the United States, if not the world, it was once a humble mom-and-pop (or rather brother-and-brother) establishment operating out of Wichita, Kansas. Founded in 1958 by two college boys on a shoestring budget of $600 loaned from their mama, it bloomed into a global franchise of more than 16,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries. Among the company's more entertaining gimmicks were the 2001 pizza delivery to the International Space Station and the 2016 delivery to Mount Kilimanjaro in honor of a location opening in the chain's 100^th country. (You know, because delivering things to space/Mount Kilimanjaro is always a great way to celebrate.)

Of course, with development comes a longing for the past. In 2019, Pizza Hut reinstated the logo it used from the '60s through the '90s: that classic red roof icon over the stylized, serif-rich "Pizza Hut" in black letters. As for the restaurants themselves, some began to lean toward the past as well. Although Pizza Hut did not respond to comments about whether they have a specific Pizza Hut Classic program, the chain definitely launched a campaign to bring back several of its old hallmarks, from the cups to the Tiffany lamps to the video games, around 2021. Now, the restaurants geared toward nostalgia are easy to identify from the vintage interior design and the often red roofs, as well as the "Classic" on the signs.

So, how classic was it? Well, very. Although Anaconda's roof is black, if you look at a picture of the original Pizza Hut and compare it to the one we took, you can see that the shapes are very similar. Indoors, the trend continued ... even the service seemed to hail from another time. Right away, when we walked through the door, we were greeted by Keri McNabney, the general manager. She's been with the chain for two years and was delightfully enthusiastic about the company in general, the Anaconda Pizza Hut Classic in particular, her job, and the food being served.

There were comfortable booths, which we had no trouble sitting in for an hour — as someone whose back starts to hurt after 15 minutes in a traditional dining room chair, this is noteworthy for me. There were televisions in every corner, which appealed to the children, and chairs and dining tables in the middle of the restaurant. According to the general manager and Darla Stembridge, who has worked there for two decades, the decorations have not changed in that time. Also, according to her, they used to have a salad bar, but they don't anymore. If you want to visit a traditional salad bar location in Montana, she says, you'll have to try the ones in Laurel or Bozeman.

As for those retro vibes we're all craving, this Pizza Hut Classic has them in spades. The carpets are green, the chairs are metal with vertical bars in back and wooden seats, and the tablecloths are checkered red and white with those darling little flowers in the squares. You know, the ones we all associate with picnics and grandmas? These are just the best addition to any vintage scene.

It's really the Tiffany-style lights that take it to the next level, though. They follow the traditional color scheme of red, white, and black, with "Pizza Hut" boldly emblazoned on the bottom of the shade and red-and-white checkers on top that match the tablecloths. I just love these lamps, and I'm not the only one; they're seriously a thing. Just the other day, when I was visiting my sister-in-law in Northeast Portland, I saw one hanging in Red Sauce Pizza, a hip establishment that I'm sure considers itself anything but a giant chain. So, you know, Pizza Hut's classic vibe pulls, you guys.

However widespread the return to Pizza Hut's roots is (and there appear to be dozens of Classic huts across the U.S.), we at least determined that the people in this restaurant, when we were there, liked the retro look. It's a fun treat for most, Keri McNabney explains, even though for her and her team, it's de rigueur. "People are traveling, and where they come from, they don't have the classic look. They have the normal restaurant style, but I had never seen a Pizza Hut any different," she explains, adding that the blast from the past is something that appeals to many folks who come in. "Everyone likes classic everything."

The only other customer in the restaurant, Richard Boone, didn't want to share where he was from but did want to share his appreciation for Pizza Hut Classics. He told us that he liked the restaurant and the decor, though for him, a bigger pull is that the restaurant is clean. (That wouldn't have occurred to us to report on, but there wasn't a speck of dirt anywhere, so it's worth noting.) In general, though, if you check the interwebz, you'll see a growing fanbase of folks who want to find and enjoy this vintage-est of Pizza Hut styles.

Before we could eat, we had to make sure we ordered a meal that would match the classic experience. A lot of today's favorite offerings weren't available back in the classic times — for example, wings, which were introduced in 2003 — so we checked online and spoke to the manager to design an order that was '80s-approved. We could confidently say that the breadsticks, pepperoni and cheese pizzas, taco pizza, and chocolate chip cookie were all around back in the day, so we loaded up on those and got down to business.

We didn't taste a wide variety of options this time, having already run the gamut during our Pizza Hut taste test. We knew to avoid gluten-free crust and stick to hand-tossed and pan pizza styles, because they were the tastiest. We were not disappointed to find that, this time, the crust experience was top notch. Although we couldn't determine exactly which crust was from which decade, these styles are both pretty old-school. As for drinks, they offer Pepsi products, though that may vary by location. You'll have to check the site to find out what's available in your area.

On a final note, while the menu itself wasn't redesigned to align with the Pizza Hut Classic look, the chain has nevertheless maintained a retro and simple vibe, as you can see from the photo. The manager handed us that stack of freshly printed menus, still wrapped in plastic from their delivery the previous day ... so it's safe to say they're current.

Pizza Hut Classics do not currently come with different price points. (Although it would be nice if they de-inflated the costs for our dining pleasure, that's not realistic.) However, Pizza Hut did offer Throwback Thursday for a time. This, according to McNabney, was where they offered 1990s prices: a medium pizza for $5.99, breadsticks for $2.79, and a cup of pop for $0.79. "They took it away because it hit for a minute, but then it died," she explains.

There are other deals to be had, though. "I was here the other day, and I got the small personal pan pizza," Richard Boone says. "I'm not from here; I just lucked out because the special was on. So, I got two pizzas for $2 on Tuesday." That might be worth checking out in your area, as well as other deals that may or may not relate to throwback prices. In general, though, you will not see price points that reflect the past, and the general manager has heard nothing about them throwing back to Throwback Thursday any time soon.

Now, in Pizza Hut's favor was the fact that we'd just driven four straight hours and were ever so hungry. We loved our meal, which is either a testament to a good appetite or to the fact that the franchises are all different, because we did not particularly enjoy the food we got during our previous Pizza Hut tasting. Whatever the case, the breadsticks were nice and hot, fluffy and buttery, and just what the doctor ordered.

Both the pepperoni and cheese pizzas were good, coming with plenty of parmesan to put on top. Seriously, there was no end to the cheese. In fact, Pizza Hut's offerings are known to be among the cheesiest you can find, due to a fun quirk of dairynomics, so we weren't surprised to discover that our pies were loaded up. The taco pizza — a bean, cheese, tomato, and lettuce creation that you might think would be gross — was heavenly, in my humble estimation, and it even came with salsa, which was needed to offset the beans. It tasted like a tostada with pizza crust. (Fun fact: This pizza is Manager McNabney's favorite.) Aside from one of the kids, we all loved the crunchy pan pizza crust. (She'd have preferred it thinner, but was outvoted.)

As for the cookie? Duh, it was amazing. It was really tasty, even better than Subway's footlong chocolate chip cookie, and definitely better than the Oreo one we once tried at Subway. In general, the Pizza Hut Classic menu sticks to basics and does them well.

Our overall experience, I don't hesitate to say, was positive. The vibes, the food, and the decorations were all spot-on and took me straight back to my childhood in a way that tasting pizzas from home a few months ago did not do. When I was a girl in the '90s, my best friend's mom used to take us to Pizza Hut, and I clearly remember the Tiffany lamps and the checkered tablecloths. (I also remember relating a dream I had in middle school about the tall, dark, handsome man I was going to marry. That one actually came true.)

Later in life, when I was captain of my high school debate team (an enduring accomplishment that made good use of my argumentative and exacting nature), we often went to Pizza Hut to grab lunch during tournaments or to celebrate a big win. To say that I was there for the food would be an overstatement; the pizza was really more of a backdrop to the socializing. But then again, that's a big part of what Pizza Hut Classic is bringing to the table. After high school, I never stepped foot inside another Pizza Hut, right up until my family and I conducted an ultimate ranking of fast food pizza, and discovered that Pizza Hut fell behind Little Caesars, Domino's, and Papa John's. While our recommendation in that piece was to avoid buying it, the Pizza Hut Classic in Anaconda, and the cheerful people who worked there, changed our minds completely. We heartily recommend you find yourself a Pizza Hut Classic, and step on it.