The Doritos Crunchy Crust Pizza does exactly what it says on the box: in place of a regular boring crust, you get a crunchy layer of original Doritos corn chips plus mozzarella cheese and a sprinkling of cheddar. (If you can imagine a pizza merged with nachos, you have a pretty good idea how it tastes.) Yesterday, Pizza Hut invited us to try out this new indulgent crust in our office. Opinions ranged from “delicious” to “stomach churning”. Read on for the Allure Media verdict.
The Doritos Crunchy Crust Pizza is the latest crust innovation/abomination from Pizza Hut. It follows on from the Cheeseburger Crust, which launched back in March (check out our taste test here.)
The Doritos Crunchy Crust is created by pouring mozzarella cheese around the edge of the pizza. The cheese is then layered with original Doritos corn chips and sprinkled with tasty cheddar cheese; in addition to adding flavour the cheddar acts as a binding agent.
As with Pizza Hut’s previous “Stuffed Crust” varieties, you can add Doritos to any pizza for a premium of $3. Bizarrely, the crust appears to add a different number of kilojoules depending on the type of pizza you order. For example, adding a Doritos crust to a BBQ Meatlovers ups the energy count by 491kJ, while doing the same with a Super Supreme only adds 162kJ.
Presumably, this is because Pizza Hut reduces the other ingredients to make room for the Doritos crust — pretty cheeky when you consider you’re paying extra for it.
Yesterday, we enlisted the taste buds of our Allure Media colleagues and got them to share their opinions of Pizza Hut’s new crust. Read on to discover how this indulgent creation fared:
Chris Jager (Lifehacker staff writer)
When I invited my colleagues to partake in a “Doritos Pizza” taste test, some of them visibly blanched at the concept. Others steadfastly refused to participate. I found this behavior a little odd. After all, a typical nachos consists of corn chips, cheese and tomato — two of these ingredients are essential for pizza, so what’s the big deal about adding a few Doritos?
As it turns out, my workmates were right to feel hesitant: the highly-touted “crunch” has limited appeal on the pizza and the aftertaste of corn is a poor marriage for pepperoni. The mozzarella in the crust was far too rich for my tastes; I actually felt a bit queasy after eating it.
Justine Duton-Rose (POPSUGAR Acting Beauty Editor)
YUM! I’m a sucker for processed cheese. There I said it. It’s a guilty pleasure that I haven’t grown out of since I would buy a 25 pack of cheese slices at Uni and peel each one out of its plastic cover and shamelessly eat it as is.
The cheese crust on Pizza Hut’s new Doritos special is the stuff of my dreams. Every uni student suffering from the munchies’ dreams too, I’d imagine. Crunchy, soft, salty, creamy, satisfying… and completely fake-tasting! It’s a definite guilty fast-food order after some serious silly season drinks, that’s for sure.
Campbell Simpson (Gizmodo staff writer): I didn’t like the Doritos crust, not at all. I should mention that I love both Doritos and Pizza Hut on their own, but the combination is not good. The vast majority of the pizza is the same, as you’d expect, but the crust just tastes not as nice as a regular pizza.
You know how you sometimes get a plate of nachos from the pub and some are somehow simultaneously burnt and chewy? That’s the Doritos Pizza for me. They’re just sharp, un-tasty chunks of corn chip that take away my pizza-crust-eating pleasure.
Angus Kidman (Lifehacker editor)
I like pizza. I like corn chips. I have no conceptual problem with putting them together. But I don’t see any benefit in the execution here. One minute I’m chowing down and getting my pepperoni on, and then I’m eating a chunk of corn chips. There’s no ingredient bridging the two. There’s a lack of thematic consistency. There’s nothing to object to, but I can’t imagine ever wanting to order this again. The chips are down, on the whole.
PS — Some of my colleagues complained of feeling nauseous afterwards. Unlike those wimps, my stomach held firm. (Well, as firm as it ever holds.)
Danny Allen (Publisher): Corn chips melted with pepperoni in the air. What madness had Chris Jager organised this time? I couldn’t help but try a slice. Then two. Normal taste really — and not bad at that — points as always to Pizza Hut for putting the pepperoni above the cheese layer.
Then I reached it. The crunchy outer Dorito and crispy cheddar cheese crust with mozzarella cheesy goo inside. Well that was different. I’d eat it again. Just not sure yet if my stomach agrees.
Rob Hussey (Developer): I first noticed the pizza was in the office by thinking I could smell the cheesiness of Doritos, then realised it was coming out of a pizza. As for the taste, the actual pizza was just a regular tasting Pizza Hut pizza – acceptable for the asking price.
However, the crust (where the Doritos are lurking) was pretty average tasting – I can’t say from the taste I would have thought it had Doritos. I only bothered with two bites of the crust as it really was pleasant. Half hour later, the taste of those two bites seems to keep on burping back up with a real deep greasy taste.
Eric Swenson (Account Manager)The pizza was pretty good as usual. The crust was definitely something different, but not too over-the-top like how many of new crust inventions can be. The crust was crunchy, but not as to overpower the overall pizza experience: a subtle addition. Also, having the cheese with the chips was a nice touch. My only criticism is that it was a bit intense on the stomach (as usual).
As you can see, opinion was pretty divided. In fact, I can’t recall the last time a group taste test received such wildly conflicting verdicts.
Despite my initial reservations, I still reckon the concept has legs. If Pizza Hut toned down the cheese in the crust and added some Mexican-themed toppings — chili, salsa and a dollop of sour cream, say — it could be onto a winner.
Comments
17 responses to “Taste Test: Is Pizza Hut’s ‘Doritos Pizza’ Too Much Of A Good Thing?”
I had the pizza last night with el scorchio topping and it was quite poor. Too much cheese not enough corn chip, although what I wanted would have probably been worse :p
I managed to finish it at least which was a better effort than the cheeseburger crust which I believe is still awaiting trial for crimes against humanity.
Pizza Hut pizza is shit to begin with.. slapping doritos on any pizza isn’t going to help..
shit pizza + doritos = shit.
You really need to learn to not hold back so much, tell us what you really think! 😉
🙂
Speaking of corn chips …
Anyone remember Domino’s “Nacho Grandé” from around a decade ago? Now THAT was a tasty corn chip pizza! (salsa, beef, tomato, onion, corn chips, sour cream).
Probably would’ve been perfect with this crust. 🙂
I fell for the cheeseburger crust pizza gimmick. Which was like eating a mrs macs sausage roll having a shit on some puff pastry. But when I saw the Dorito’s pizza I thought, hold the phones this is going to be EPIC! So Meatlovers with Doritos crust was ordered. I must admit it looked pretty awesome but the smell was like a brick layers sock draw. Anywho the taste was ok but I found the baked Dorito’s turned into what my mouth would describe as shattered glass. The rating is 3 out of 5 broken beer bottles
I want to read reviews of everything you eat.
Seconded!
I’d like to subscribe to your Newsletter!
I noticed Rae did a live tweet with the same pizza as you did this report, I do have a question as there are not to many Pizza Huts in my area (Dominos are everywhere).
I noticed on the US website they have different celebrities and recently Rooster Teeth were asked to create their own combination, will these be coming to Australia or will the same concept be replicated with Australian personalities.
The one you guys had looks better than the one I got 🙁
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2hyje2u&s=8#.VH7gy0aQ_K0
Swan View WA (yeah yeah I know)
Saw it on FB yesterday, immediately the craving kicked in so got it last night.
I thought it was awesome. It’s like pizza and then nachos. Highly recommended.
Edit: From the photos it looks like you don’t have enough corn chips AND your pizzas are burnt. I think yall got stooged.
I see Doritos and think of Dominos, as they are visually very similar. Bit of a marketing fail.
Marketing fail? No. Dyslexia? Maybe.
PepsiCo/Yum! own Pizza Hut and Doritos – I thought this was fairly well known? (As well as owning KFC – which is why Pizza Hut & KFC only offer Pepsi and not Coca-Cola)
Nachos? Where are the kidney beans.
Ugh… Yuck!
I like kidney beans and I like nachos, but put them together and it’s a revolting abomination.
Beef nachos FTW!
yours looks so much better than the garbage they made me the other night. They obviously took the time to prep yours properly as it would be displayed for the masses. Yours is what you’d get if you were taking the chips from the top of the packet. Mine was what you’d get if you were emptying the dregs from 5 different packets onto the edges of the pizza.
I’ve been on a health kick so I haven’t had pizza for a super long time. So it’s kind of a good thing that this put me off pizza.
I saw this Doritos crust pizza being advertised on TV. My first reaction was that it was just too much! Also it looks nothing like the pizza you order (I could hardly notice that there was Doritos chips on the pizza!) I usually buy pizza from Dominos and I’m really getting sick of their pizza’s. So I thought I might give Pizza Hut a try after a long time because they were getting worse and worse. I noticed the pizza’s were of much more quality years ago then they’re now, also they were much bigger with the pizza holders in the middle to hold the pizza! That’s when I enjoyed eating pizza. As for the new Doritos shit they’ve come up with. I tried it, it is disgusting! I don’t know what you guys are on about but it tastes nothing like Nachos. This was the worst pizza I’v had in my life, literally! The cheese wasn’t good at all, quit putting cheese in crust. They slop everything together and don’t make pizza’s to offer quality pizza. Of course instead the workers want to just get paid, but do more than what you are paid for, many great things can happen! (This is for you pizza workers) In fact all workers. Back to the topic, now. This pizza made me not want to have pizza ever again at least Australian pizza. Maybe if you made pizza like the Italians do, proper pizza none of this fancy shit, I will enjoy eating pizza once again. Remember do more than you are paid for!