Not just in India, Domino’s Pizza and Pizza Hut are two pizza chains that are popular worldwide. In fact, American-style pizzas were introduced in India through Domino’s, closely followed by Pizza Hut in the late ’90s. Most pizza-loving populations are divided between these two chains, and we decided it was time for a much-needed face-off. We set up a robust panel of people who understand food and have decades of knowledge about ingredients and flavors.
After going through 30+ pizzas and 8 portions of garlic bread via a panel spread across the top 4 metros of India, we found that both pizza chains have something great on their menu that is worth ordering. But which pizza chain has the better Margherita? And who should you order from next time you want an overloaded non-veg pizza? Here are the winners.
Table of Contents
Watch – How We Reviewed : Pizza Hut Vs Domino’s
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The Big Pizza Review – Domino’s Vs Pizza Hut
1. Mishry Top Pick ( Best Vegetarian Pizza ) – Domino’s Pizza Veg Extravaganza Cheese Burst
The Veg Extravaganza Cheese Burst Domino’s Pizza had an ample amount of toppings and the cheese flavor in the crust was delicious.
Why did we choose the vegetarian pizza by Domino’s as our Top Pick?
The Veg Extravaganza Cheese Burst Pizza by Domino’s Pizza is our Top Pick because of its appearance, the even cheese layer across the pizza base, and the mouthful of crunchy vegetables in each bite.
From the evenly cooked pizza to the colorful, generously spread vegetables, the Veg Extravaganza Cheese Burst Pizza looked MUCH more appetizing than its competition.
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We chose the cheese burst crust for this category because it is a popular choice amongst a large section in India. The liquidy cheese oozing out in every bite spread uniformly across the buttery crust won us over.
All the vegetables had a crunchy bite and were evenly spread throughout the pizza. The olives and jalapeños were tasty and the cheese had cooked uniformly.
Our Kolkata panelist, Kaniska Chakraborty, rightly said that if you are paying for a pizza that is promising a cheese and vegetable extravaganza, then Domino’s comes closer to that claim.
All of these factors collectively helped to make the Veg Extravaganza Cheese Burst by Domino’s Pizza a more value for money option and our Top Pick.
Why Did Pizza Hut’s Veggie Supreme Stuffed Crust – Cheese Max Pizza Lag Behind?
In comparison to Domino’s, the Pizza Hut Veggie Supreme had fewer toppings, the stuffed crust wasn’t as cheesy and the stuffing was limited ONLY around the edges. Considering that this was priced higher than its Domino’s contender, we did not feel it was value for money. Our panelist from Mumbai, Kalyan Karmakar, pointed out that while Domino’s Pizza’s cheese burst pizza was tasty and meant for younger people, Pizza Hut’s stuffed crust was almost focaccia like and would be better liked by an older audience.
2. Top Pick (Best Margherita Pizza) – Pizza Hut
A unanimous decision! Pizza Hut’s Margherita Pizza won throughout all cities in our review.
Why Pizza Hut’s Margherita Pizza is our Top Pick?
The Margherita by Pizza Hut exceeded the Domino’s Margherita by a HUGE margin and was chosen as our Top Pick unanimously. Across Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bangalore, Pizza Hut’s Margherita tasted nice and looked far more appetizing than the one by Domino’s.
A Margherita Pizza in India typically only has three components – the base, the tomato sauce, and the cheese. It was essential for ALL three components to be spot on. The Pizza Hut Margherita had a beautifully baked brown crust that was buttery. Not only that, the tomato tang from the sauce was more prominent in the Pizza Hut Margherita.
Even though the Pizza Hut Margherita is more expensive than Domino’s, the overall experience of eating a plain-cheese pizza from this pizza delivery chain was far superior.
Why Did The Margherita By Domino’s Pizza Not Win?
Even though in no way, were both the pizzas anything close to what you expect out of a traditional Italian Margherita, the Domino’s Margherita was far behind the one by Pizza Hut. The cheese was extremely chewy, the base was dry and the sauce lacked the tomato flavor. Our Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bangalore panelists all agreed with us that the sauce to base ratio, the cheese flavor, and the texture of the crust in Domino’s pizza missed the mark.
3. Top Pick (Best Non-Vegetarian Pizza) – Pizza Hut
The Chicken Supreme Pizza by Pizza Hut looked appetising and had a more flavorful variety of chicken. A happy mouthful!
Why did we choose the non-vegetarian pizza by Pizza Hut as our Top Pick?
The Chicken Supreme Pizza by Pizza Hut is our Top Pick because it looked elegant, the toppings were not only bigger but more tasty and juicy as well.
The toppings included herbed chicken, schezwan chicken meatball, and chicken tikka which were all delicious individually. The chicken was not hard or dry and each topping was distinguishable – appearance and taste-wise. The base was not crumbly and sturdy enough to hold the toppings in place. The amount of cheese, sauce to base ratio was perfect.
The overall experience of eating a chicken pizza that has bits of flavorful chicken in every bite, Pizza Hut clearly won.
Why Did The Chicken Dominator by Domino’s Pizza Lag Behind?
Even though Domino’s Chicken Dominator pizza had more chicken toppings, they all tasted the same and had no distinguished flavors. The chicken pieces were dry in the Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bangalore pizzas. The chicken pieces in the Delhi pizzas were not dry, so at Mishry HQ, Domino’s Chicken Dominator was the preferred non-veg pizza. Our Editor-in-chief Tanu Ganguly found that the chicken pieces were much more flavorful in the Chicken Dominator by Domino’s. “Even though the Pizza Hut Chicken Supreme has bigger, chunkier pieces of meat, somehow they did not come together well with the base and the cheese,” she said.
4. Top Pick (Best Garlic Bread Sticks) – Domino’s Pizza Garlic Bread
The garlic bread by Domino’s Pizza had a more balanced seasoning, and the buttery bread won us over.
Why did we choose the Garlic Bread by Domino’s Pizza as our Top Pick?
Domino’s Garlic Bread Sticks won for the sheer butteriness and seasoning. Even without the dip, they tasted nice.
After getting cold, garlic bread from both brands had hardened and we could only taste the dough and no garlic. Yet, the Domino’s garlic bread had a little bit more flavor to it in comparison.
Although, Pizza Hut was not far behind.
The Domino’s garlic bread came in a box while the Pizza Hut garlic bread came in a paper bag. This lead to the bread ‘sweating’ and becoming a bit soggy upon delivery. Two of our panelists (Mumbai and Delhi) preferred the Pizza Hut garlic bread stix because of the zatar-like taste and how they did a fairly good job of maintaining the softness of the bread.
Our Review Process
Our review process, however fun it may seem, was a little overwhelming. The pizzas when seen (and eaten) in bulk can be confusing for the senses. Everything can taste and look the same after 2-3 slices. It was imperative that we divided our tasting sessions properly and controlled our portions if we wanted to give ALL the pizzas a fair chance during the tasting.
Before we start telling you about how we reviewed, here is a small poem we wrote for pizza. A beloved junk food that will never go out of style!
An Ode To A Pizza
Your crisp base, the melted butter.
The luscious tomatoes! Oh, our hearts flutter.
The stringy cheese that extends till the end of the world,
Pizzas, with you, our diet is a downward swirl.
Toppings, scattered like a dancer’s hair in the wind.
Bhaiya, extra oregano dena, we grinned.
(Yeah, we ate so much pizza, we’re reciting and writing poems on it!)
The Panel
North. East. South. West.
While selecting our panel, we were looking for food experts from all four directions of our country. Their knowledge about food and collective experience of over five decades helped us prepare a framework for the review. Our panel included:
1. Priyadarshini Nandy, Bangalore
A journalist with over 14 years of experience, Priyadarshini has worked with some of the coolest print and digital media houses in India. She likes to write about people, places and music. But above all, she is secretly, which is not such a secret, obsessed with food. Priyadarshini is a Consulting Editor at Mishry and is based out of Bangalore.
2. Kalyan Karmakar, Mumbai
Author of The Travelling Belly, Kalyan Karmakar’s blog Finely Chopped is one of India’s leading food blogs and has won FBAI awards for the Best General Food Blog. Kalyan’s background in Market Research helps him share his understanding of food and flavors from a unique perspective.
3. Kaniska Chakraborty, Kolkata
Kaniska, based in Kolkata is the author of the blog For The Love Of Food and also writes a column by the same name in a leading English newspaper in Dhaka – The Daily Star. Kaniska’s nuanced opinions on culture and cuisine is a delight for anyone interested in the subject.
4. Mishry, Delhi NCR
Our team review was led by Founder and Editor-in-chief of Mishry Reviews Tanu Ganguly, who has nearly two decades of experience in food content and creation. The review team at Mishry included a mix of members from different age groups and cultural backgrounds who developed the entire review process and were also a part of the tasting session.
Who Is This Review For?
Literally everyone! Most of us, at some point in our lives while living in India, have ordered in from Domino’s Pizza or Pizza Hut. Even if you’ve become more fond of artisanal wood fired pizzas or those thin crust bases, these two pizza chains are huge throughout the world and have some nostalgia attached to these pizza chains.
This review is for you if you struggle between Domino’s Vs Pizza Hut while ordering in pizzas. This is also for you if you regularly order in pizzas from either of these two and would like to find out which is the better pizza across popular categories.
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How We Picked The Brands
While selecting brands for our pizza review we kept the following in mind:
- Pan-India presence
- Standardized menu and pricing across all outlets
- Offers delivery, take-away and dine-in
Domino’s Pizza and Pizza Hut are the two most popular, mass-producing pizza chains in India that offer takeaway, dine-in, and delivery services in. Both these pizza chains are HUGELY popular amongst the masses in India and abroad. We did not select artisanal pizza brands or pizza places that are specific to particular cities due to obvious reasons.
The Brands We Picked
Our two contenders:
- Domino’s Pizza
- Pizza Hut
The Menu Selection – What and Why?
1. What did we select and why did we select it ?
For our review, we selected four different items from the menu.
We did not review the thin crust base from Domino’s as Pizza Hut does not serve thin crust, hence a comparison would be incomplete.
2. Why did we select a medium-size pizza?
Why not pan or personal-sized pizza? We feel personal pizzas have too much dough/crust and minimal toppings and cheese, which is why a medium pizza seems like a better option while reviewing.
3. Garlic breadsticks (Side Dish)
We chose to order the garlic bread because no pizza delivery order is complete without a box of garlic bread in India. No modifications were made to the garlic bread. We did not order the dip from Domino’s as Pizza Hut does not provide one. So to keep the order a little standardized, we refrained from including the cheesy dip.
4. Margherita Pizza
A classic Margherita was selected as a part of the order because we wanted to see how a classic cheese pizza with the pizza joint’s regular base, tomato sauce, and cheese does in a tasting session. No modifications were made to the standard base each of the chains offers.
5. Vegetarian Pizza
This one was loaded with vegetables. To order a pizza in this category, we chose the pizza that offered the most veggie toppings. We modified the base for this one as we wanted to try the stuffed base both the pizza joints had to offer.
6. Non-Vegetarian Pizza
The meat-overload. We selected the pizza that had NO veggies, just chicken. No modifications were made to the base.
Domino’s Menu – What We Ordered
| Domino’s Pizza Menu | Price | Toppings | Base |
| Garlic Bread Sticks | Rs 99/- | – | – |
| Margherita | Rs 199/- | Cheese | New Hand Tossed |
| Veg Extravaganza | Rs 549/- | Black olives Capsicum Onion Grilled mushroom Corn Tomato Jalapeño Extra cheese |
Cheese Burst |
| Chicken Dominator | Rs 570/- | Double pepper barbecue chicken Peri-peri chicken Chicken tikka Grilled chicken rashers Cheese |
New Hand Tossed |
Pizza Hut Menu – What We Ordered
| Pizza Hut Menu | Price | Toppings | Base |
| Garlic Bread Stix | Rs 99/- | – | – |
| Margherita | Rs 279/- | Cheese | Pan |
| Veggie Supreme | Rs 665/- | Black Olives Green Capsicum Mushroom Onion Red Paprika Sweet Corn |
Medium Stuffed Crust – Cheese Max |
| Chicken Supreme | Rs 629/- | Herbed Chicken Schezwan Chicken Meatball Chicken Tikka |
Pan |
The Parameters
While the delivery experience and packaging were applicable to the entire order, the appearance, taste and value for money differed for all the pizzas.
1. Delivery experience
This was a broad umbrella category that included common factors. Who delivered faster? Were the pizzas hot, warm, or cold when they were delivered? Did they give enough seasoning packets? Were social distancing and COVID-19 norms followed?
2. Packaging
This included the quality of the pizza box and how well were they packed.
3. Appearance
We eat with our eyes first, which is why answering ‘how appetizing does the pizza look?’ is of utmost importance. Was the pizza intact or dislocated? The uniformity of baking, and how evenly were the toppings spread were important factors as well.
4. Taste
Oh, this one is a biggie! We had to consider a LOT of things under this one category. How dry or buttery was the base? The sauce to base ratio, the cheese, the stuffing (in case of a stuffed crust), the toppings, quality, and quantity of the meat or vegetables were all considered.
5. Value for money
The ultimate question to ask when you order in a pizza from a mass-producing pizza place – is the quality and quantity of pizza worth your buck?
How We Reviewed
After 2 weeks of preparing a skeleton for our review, selecting our panelists and deciding on contenders amongst our team, we divided our review process and conducted it over two days –
- Day 1 – Preparing a framework with the panelists.
- Day 2 (First Half)- Tasting session
- Day 2 (Second half) – Review call to discuss the experience across 4 cities and to arrive at winners.
Day 1
The first important part of the review was to construct a framework. Our panel connected for a call from their respective workspaces to discuss what should be ordered, what parameters need to be considered while reviewing the pizzas, and which bases or toppings should be selected. We narrowed down on three categories of pizzas – Classic Margherita, a veggie overload, and a chicken overload pizza. We decided to add the garlic bread as it is a popular dish on the menu.
Day 2 (First Half)
We ordered all the pizzas from Mishry HQ (Gurugram), which were delivered directly to the homes of the panelists. We used Zomato to order all the pizzas. All the pizzas were ordered before peak lunch hour rush between 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM and were delivered within the promised time frame. Everyone tasted and jotted down their notes and findings. All tastings were done sans the chili flakes and oregano as we did not want to alter the original taste of the pizza.
A detailed form with parameters and numberings were filled by everyone and once the data was collected, we moved on to our review call.
Day 2 (Second Half)
After the tasting session, we all connected for a call to reveal the winners in each city and the reason for it being a Top Pick. We asked the panelists to keep a fork and a spoon ready to be used as a prop while revealing the winners. A spoon denoted Domino’s while a fork was used to show Pizza Hut as a choice. On the count of three, we all lifted the cutlery representing preference across all 4 products chosen.
The Findings – Domino’s Pizza Vs Pizza Hut
1. Delivery and packaging
Across all cities we noticed that the Pizza Hut’s packaging was far more premium and looked better. The Pizza Hut pizzas were placed neatly on a separate paper while the Domino’s Pizza was plonked directly into the box base. Even the pizzas were cut more neatly and made little to no crumbly mess. The only place where Pizza Hut hit a speed bump was the packaging of the garlic bread and our Kolkata delivery. All the pizzas slid on one side which did tamper the overall experience mildly. (See Pictures) Domino’s delivered faster in ALL cities and Pizza Hut arrived almost 10-15 minutes after.
We noticed that all pizza bases from Domino’s collapsed or flattened after 30 minutes of opening them while the sponginess/fluffiness remained intact in the Pizza Hut pizzas. (See Pictures).
Having said that, these pizzas are best enjoyed hot, immediately upon arrival. It is best not to re-heat, or eat them cold.
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Results Of Our Review
Hey, we love what we do! But even for people who live, love, and breathe food, tasting 6 different types of pizza and 2 types of garlic bread in a day wasn‘t easy. After making false statements like ‘Ugh, no more pizza for a month.’ and ‘I cannot eat anymore.’, we all sat down and lifted our cutlery to reveal the winners. The winners of our MASSIVE pizza review are:
- Best Garlic Bread – Domino’s Pizza
- Best Margherita Pizza – Pizza Hut
- Best Vegetarian Pizza (Stuffed Crust) – Domino’s Pizza
- Best Non-Vegetarian Pizza – Pizza Hut
Team That Worked On This Review
* If you do agree with our review, please give it a thumbs up! And, tell us which one is your favorite from this list. If you don’t, please tell us why!
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* Our reviews are unbiased and all samples used during the reviews were paid for by us. Read our entire ethics statement here.
* No part of this review is sponsored by any brand. All expenses were borne by us.