Yesterday, we brought you the vaguely terrifying news that Pizza Hut had released a Vegemite-flavoured pizza. The deceptively-titled “Mitey Stuffed Crust Pizza” takes a regular cheese-filled crust and infuses it with Australia’s favourite breakfast spread. We’ve since tasted the product ourselves and found it to be surprisingly moreish — here is the Lifehacker verdict.
On paper, the Pizza Hut Mitey Stuffed Crust sounds like a terrible idea. Pizza and Vegemite? Really? Even if you ignore the potential for disastrous flavour combinations, the famous yeast extract isn’t something you can apply willy-nilly. People are very particular about their Vegemite distribution — add too little/too much and the whole thing is likely to be binned.
Rather than spreading the salty love all throughout the base, Pizza Hut has limited the application to just the crust, which also contains a healthy dollop of mozzarella cheese. The crust can be added to any pizza for a surcharge of $3.
Yesterday, Pizza Hut sent the Allure Media office a pair of these pizzas to try: a plain cheese version and a Hawaiian. Here’s how they went down in the office:
Angus Kidman (Lifehacker editor): I love Vegemite with a sick salty passion. I have flavoured SodaStream with it. I have used it as the secret ingredient in Big Mac Sauce. I have tasted its ALDI clone and found it wanting. And I have spread enough of it on multigrain toast to lubricate a million Vegemite-themed dreams. Now those dreams can feature pizza as well.
Compared to the depraved horror that was the Dorito’s pizza, this is a much better idea. There’s enough Vegemite flavour to enjoy, but not so much you start thinking “hell, I might as well just eat toast with Vegemite instead”. I could totally see myself ordering this.
Rob Hussey (Developer): I’m a big fan of Vegemite on a lot of things, but I’d never tried it on pizza, so I was a little intrigued to give it a try. I went with the plain cheese pizza and was not disappointed. Essentially it tasted like a good slice of cheese and Vegemite on toast – hard to go wrong really.
Eric Swenson (Account Manager): The Vegemite Pizza was great – the Vegemite taste wasn’t overpowering, but a subtle undertone with high notes of Australian sophistication.
Anthony Keogh (account manager): First of all, I love Vegemite. But I’m a bit of a traditionalist – I’m definitely more of a Vegemite on toast, or a SAO or a Vita Weat kind of guy. I normally don’t mix it up with avocado or cheese…and certainly not pizza!
However, my interest was piqued and I’ve got to say it actually tasted OK. I had a plain cheese slice of pizza though, which I imagine would pair better with the cheesey-Vegemite crust than some of the more adventurous toppings. The Vegemite flavour is pretty subtle overall and is only mixed in with the cheesey crust – not mixed in with the rest of the pizza toppings or base. This is a good thing.
Would you like it if you didn’t already like Vegemite? Probably not. Would I personally order this over a traditional pizza? Probably not. Have I seen/tasted more offensive pizza-crust-ingredient-combos delivered to the Lifehacker team? You bet!
Carina Rossi (POPSUGAR journalist): Pizza is great. Vegemite is also great. But pizza crust stuffed with Vegemite? Now that’s a little too far. While I ate the whole thing, it was like I was eating a weird breakfast pizza. The only thing that made me happy were the bites without Vegemite. Can I have the regular classic crust back now, please?
Campbell Simpson (Gizmodo journalist): I wasn’t expecting very much going on previous Pizza Hut stuffed crust experiences, but to be honest I actually liked the Vegemite. The cheese was a little bit too processed for my tastes — it congeals into one homogenous lump — but the combo was genuinely pretty nice.
Cheese plus Vegemite doesn’t really go with the tomato sauce base, though, so that bite or two before the actual crust tasted a bit weird.
Joy Oxley (designer): I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. I enjoy my Vegemite in small doses and they certainly delivered on that. However, without that buttery after taste that I usually get with Vegemite/butter on toast, this just tasted like very salty cheese.
Goran Naumoski (Campaign manager): Ate the pizza while it was still relatively warm. As I ate the pizza can’t say I noticed the Vegemite taste, the saltiness of the cheesy crust overpowered it IMO. However, I did start tasting the starchy Vegemite ~10 minutes after eating the pizza.
Justine Dunton-Rose (POPSUGAR beauty editor): I wasn’t sure about the sell on this: something about tomato sauce and Vegemite doesn’t make the tastebuds jump for joy. But being a pizza fiend I had to give it the benefit of the doubt. The extra cheese in the crust is the best! But the Vegemite wasn’t easy to taste, maybe a little bit of a tangy after-taste but that was all. If Vegemite scrolls are your idea of culinary excellence, I recommend you make friends with its pizza brother.
Jessica Chandra (POPSUGAR managing editor): For over six months in 2014 I had Vegemite on toast for breakfast, so it’s fair to say I do like the stuff. I tried half a slice of cheese pizza with the cheesy, Vegemite crust. And I liked it!
I thought the Vegemite flavour was quite subtle, but salty enough to add extra flavour to the cheese-stuffed crust. Then again, I only had half a slice, and that could have made all the difference. I think it worked well with the plain cheese pizza, but I’d be wary of getting a Vegemite-flavoured crust with something like Hawaiian.
Chris Jager (Lifehacker journalist): They say there’s a fine line between genius and insanity. I’m not sure which side the Mitey Stuffed Crust Pizza is on, but I’d definitely purchase it again. If you can imagine a cheese-and-Vegemite bread scroll bolted onto the end of a pizza, you’ve got a pretty good idea of what this product tastes like. The Vegemite wasn’t overpowering and left a pleasant aftertaste that lingered long after the pizza had been demolished. It does feel slightly weird eating a breakfast spread with pizza, but I vastly preferred it to Pizza Hut’s other novelty crusts.
If I have one reservation, it’s that some toppings will obviously work better than others. Plain cheese is obviously a no-brainer, and the pineapple on the Hawaiian complimented the saltiness of the Vegemite well. However, I suspect pepperoni fans would be poorly served by this crust: all that salt is likely to leave you feeling ill and bloated.
Comments
13 responses to “Taste Test: Pizza Hut Mitey Stuffed Crust”
Now ask someone who does not like Vegemite. Every person you asked was someone who already likes Vegemite, so it’s no wonder most of the reviews came out positive. Not exactly fair and balanced reviewing
Why on earth would someone who doesn’t like Vegemite want to try the pizza in the first place though? (To compare: lots of people who liked Doritos didn’t like the Doritos crust pizza.)
Just to….see.
I don’t like vegemite but I do like terrible pizza. I’m sort of curious.
The idea of getting people who don’t like things to review them is … bizarre.
I really don’t like Vegemite at all.
I’ve just ordered one and will let you know my verdict!
I, for one, am disappointed that the crust is not stuffed with mites. Deceptively-titled name indeed.
Sorry, but you can’t compare Doritos to Vegemite. I very much doubt that you’ll find anyone who feels physically nauseous at the smell of Doritos like many do at the merest whiff of that disgusting extrusion from Satan’s bumhole that is Vegemite.
In case you can’t tell, I wasn’t fed (conditioned to like) Vegemite as a child. 🙂
the doors over there, dont let it hit your a*se on the way out
I agree with the conditioning. Promite in our house. Cannot stand vegemite.
Meanwhile, in this circumstance where more people seem to publicly dislike the product going into the crust, it seems that everyone enjoyed the vegemite pizza whereas the doritos pizza was sh*t!
“On paper, the Pizza Hut Mitey Stuffed Crust sounds like a terrible idea. Pizza and Vegemite? Really?”
Sounds fine to me, like vegemite and cheese on toast, but more pizza-y.
Thinking of trying it out with a bbq chicken pizza.
Is this part of a move toward a breakfast menu?
my partner loves vegemite… i can not stand vegemite one bit. now that this has come out, we can not share a pizza.
It’s only in the crust. You can eat the middle half and he can eat the outer half!