Trying a Pizza Hut pizza designed by a 2-Michelin Star restaurant
I previously ate at Les Élites by Pizza Hut, a premium brand extension from Yum China, and also the high-end Atto Primo on the Bund, which I might guess would be more of an experimental, leading edge “lab” for the company. Now I wanted to try their mainline Pizza Hut restaurant - right next to the Yum China headquarters in Xujiahui.
I was curious about how far up Pizza Hut itself could push itself, without resorting to opening a new restaurant.
The regular menu already had many exotic choices! Beef Wellington! Portuguese Curry Seafood Pizza! Crayfish with Salted Yolk! “Tapas!”
And besides the Beef Wellington, a good selection of steaks. Seriously, it’s all about the steak in China now!
Pizza Hut also has cool merchandise collaborations! A while after this meal, I got an astronaut Hello Kitty with the purchase of a Pizza Hut family meal! And this Pizza Hut x Pop Mart collaboration below was followed up recently with the Yum China’s stablemate KFC x Pop Mart collaboration for 2022 Chinese New Years, which caused some people to buy up massive quantities of food just to collect the toys. (They were very cute, indeed.)
What I was curious to try on this trip was this: a limited edition pizza designed with the Shanghai restaurant Ji Pin Court on Boheng Street, a 2-Michelin Star restaurant! It had an abalone sauce, and was topped with Wagyu beef, walnuts, and yes, pineapple.
The waiter, perhaps seeing that I was taking time taking pictures, gently reminded me that this was best to eat while hot!
And it was true - hot, the crust had a light crispiness to it, and the edge was crunchy and savory. I’m not sure what it was - cheese? It’s what I remember about this pizza, long after having it.
Now, what about the star ingredient, beef? That’s another question. Yes, it’s Wagyu beef. But I suppose after putting it into the pizza oven, it’s normal that it would come out dried up and chewy!
Along with the pizza, I also had a mixed fruit drink with calamansi lime oolong tea. The calamansi lime juice was a lot like something I’d had before at KFC.
FInally, I really wanted to try a dessert - free with signing up for their loyalty membership! I chose an Okinawa brown sugar boba “volcano cake.” You peel off the plastic to get the molten effect…
Like so… The white cream sauce was kind of cheesy, like the “cheese” cap that you can get on boba teas nowadays. The cake and cream layers had that kind of even, firm, and dry-ish texture that industrial cakes have. Still, this was fun to try.
Without the discount for the dessert, this meal would have been over $20! Sure, I had leftovers, but still, this was a premium price for a premium pizza meal!
