Fun fact: Domino's used to pride themselves on having a very simple menu. This is hardly the case in Australia, especially given that it is not only very long, but they keep changing it!
Pizza Hut originated in Wichita, Kansas, in 1958, by the brothers Carney. The first franchise store was in Topeka, and the longest continuously running franchise store still operating today is in Manhattan, Kansas. Pizza Hut is best known as the inventor of the Deep Pan Pizza. Its stock tickers over the years have included PIZ and YUM.
Fun fact: Pizza Hut only serve Pepsi because they were once owned by Pepsi, and still belong to a company which controls the Pepsi brand: Yum Brands, Inc.
Domino's was started by the brothers Monaghan in Ypsilanti, Michigan, in 1960 when they bought a store formerly called Dominick's Pizza. My guess for the name change is that Tom saw the potential iconography that the word "domino" presented: brother James dropped out of the partnership well before Domino's became the famous brand it is today. Domino's is the inventor of the cardboard pizza box, the conveyor-belt pizza oven and the HeatWave or HotCell delivery pouches used to keep pizza's warm on the way to customers. Monaghan has little to do with the company operations today, and indeed Domino's is a separate company here in Australia: Domino's Pizza Enterprises.
This last fact may be a clue as to why Australia's Pizza Hut menu pretty much exactly mirrors the US, yet Australia's Domino's menu is completely different and always changing. Also, in Australia, Domino's was first with a good solid online ordering system (albeit Flash-based), wheras in the US, Pizza Hut was first to get a solid online ordering system. Ultimately, I have always preferred Pizza Hut, but paradoxically Pizza Hut's adoption of many of Domino's innovations in the 1990s (frozen ingredient bags, and the "pizza production line" approach to achieve volume) has lead me to purchase proportionally more of the competitor's product. Pizza Hut pizzas today are clearly just as mechanical and measured as Domino's, so the fact their online ordering and delivery systems are so far superior added to the fact their product has a cost advantage allow them to win over my childhood loyalty.
I've had to use the new 2008 menu here, which actually puts Domino's at a disadvantage without coupons and promotions: many of their new pizzas have a $2 surcharge!
Pizza Hut |  Domino's Equivalent |
|---|---|
| Super supreme | Super lot (remove garlic, oregano) |
| Meat supreme | Seven meats (remove bacon, add onion & capsicum, use tomato base) |
| Hot'n'spicy | Fireeater |
| BBQ meat lovers | Sausage & bacon sensation |
| Hawaiian | Big bacon, ham & pineapple |
| Chicken and bacon | BBQ chicken and bacon (use tomato base) |
| Chicken supreme | Chicken monaco |
| BBQ chicken | Chicken feast (use BBQ base) |
| Chicken aloha | Hawaiian (add chicken) |
| Veggie supreme | Vegorama |
| Double bacon cheeseburger
(we have a match!) | Double bacon cheeseburger
(we have a match!) |
| Pepperoni lovers | Toni pepperoni |
| Cheese lovers | Simply cheese |
| Mediterranean | Capriciosa |
| Supreme (snap!) | Supreme (snap!) |
Pizzas from Domino's with no equivalent:
Domino's US  | Domino's Australia  |
|---|---|
| Deluxe feast | Super lot |
| MeatZZa feast | Seven meats |
| Extravaganza feast | Fire eater |
| Hawaiian feast | Big bacon, ham & pineapple |
| America's favourite feast | Sausage & bacon sensation |
| Vegi feast | Vegorama |
| Bacon cheeseburger feast | Double bacon cheeseburger |
| Pepperoni feast | Toni pepperoni |
Our menu in Oz, is much longer. Not mentioned in the above comparison: BBQ chicken & bacon, Chicken monaco, Chicken feast, Hawaiian, Simply cheese, Capriciosa, Supreme, Meatosaurus, Meatball monster, The 70s lot. Of course I'm sure many of the Domino's US stores allow you to Designa your own pizza and also to have a Half'n'half, though much like our stores, they probably charge for the privilege.
The Domino's pizza menu in Oz went through some big changes last year. At the start of the year, they were still selling their "Meat Pie Pizza", which actually wasn't half bad. Here's the menu from the time: three of the first four items, the "headliners" as I call them, are long gone.
Towards the end of the year, they introduced "the 70s range" as a one off promotion, but must have been surprised at the popularity.
Besides these ever changing "headliners", things like the Meatosaurus and Meatball monster persist from previous successes. As a result, the Domino's menu is now really too long, and will probably go though some rationalization shortly. Domino's themselves are already showing signs of confusion: more than once I have ordered a standard menu item to find ingredients missing from or added over the correct formulation.
The 70s range is gone, but their new $2 surcharge menu headliners owe much to the formulations in that range:
Oh yeah, and even Domino's can't resist getting on the "healthy fast food" bandwagon. I must admit—salad delivery is an intriguing idea.
Last updated: Sunday 3rd February 2008