Rejoice! Pizza Hut have recently (and finally) added vegan cheese to their menu. I say finally because the likes of Pizza Express and Zizzi stepped up to the plate (pun intended) a long time ago and it feels as though Pizza Hut are following the market trend, rather than leading it. That being said, it’s nice to see larger companies taking notice of the vegan revolution and offering more choice for us plant based consumers.

I hadn’t been to Pizza Hut in a very long time before Jen and I went, and my memories weren’t great. I remember scouring through their dietary information booklet at the table as their staff lacked knowledge, then being presented with an anaemic pizza that cost a small fortune. Hey ho, vegan cheese is on the menu, so off we went!

We visited our local Pizza Hut on a Saturday evening and to my complete lack of surprise, it was exactly how I remembered. Unruly children running amok, clueless staff, greasy and dirty tables and a menu with more bacteria smeared on it than a public toilet seat. For the sake of the Vegan Verdict, we stuck it out. Now I’m no snob, I just like a restaurant to be clean because if they can’t keep the public area presentable, I’d hate to imagine what it’s like behind the scenes.

After sifting through the dietary requirement booklet, Jen and I opted for the Margherita Pizza with vegan cheese (FOR AN ADDITIONAL £1), the self serve salad bar, along with oven baked fries and oven baked onion rings (normal fried onion rings and fries aren’t vegan due to cross contamination in the fryer). With the order in, off we popped to get our salad.

When I eventually found a bowl that looked like it had been washed, I went for the BBQ sauce pasta, which upon my second helping I noticed that the creamy pasta had been dropped into it by another patron and mixed in. Jenny had a more diverse salad bowl than I and it should be mentioned that the Crispy Bacon Bites are vegan (oh the irony).

We fought our way past the children running around the playground, sorry, the restaurant to return to our table, where the pizza, fries and onion rings had arrived. My next challenge was to find clean cutlery, an arduous and stressful task. Nevertheless, we tucked into the pizza and it was… rather nice actually! Hoorah, something had gone right in there. The onion rings and fries were not bad either!

The pizza base was crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, just how we like it. It was really hot and the tomato base was delicious, with nice flavours of various herbs. The cheese is provided by Violife who, if you don’t know, are a huge vegan cheese brand that have set the precedent for vegan cheeses. Safe to say this worked wonderfully and topped it off perfectly.

So, the hot food was delicious, yet the self serve food should be avoided. Pizza Hut have done well, despite the surcharge of £1 for the vegan cheese, to acknowledge us and actually provide tasty options. The food wasn’t cheap either, with the total coming to just under £30 for one pizza, onion rings, fries, a bowl of salad and two drinks. I won’t be going back in a hurry though, as I’m not one for the piercing and chaotic choir of screaming children, or the questionable cleaning methods used, if any.

With many other establishments offering better pizzas and a nicer dining atmosphere, I’d be hard pressed to chose Pizza Hut over any of the others.

Click here to see what Pizza Hut say about their vegan pizza offering and find your local Pizza Hut.

Click here to see Pizza Huts list of vegan friendly options to save you time on your visit.