Review: Pizza Hut - Hot Dog Bites Pizza

Pizza Hut's Hot Dog Bites Pizza features a ring of 28 dough-wrapped mini hot dogs in lieu of the pizza's outer crust (basically it's a Cheesy Bites Pizza but with hot dogs instead of cheese).

I bought a large one topped with meatballs for $11.99.

The mini hot dogs are just a little smaller than those canned Vienna sausages and sport a similar shape. There's a really nice, smoky flavor to them with some light seasoning. Like most hot dogs, they're quite salty. There's also a nice bit of browning on the ends from the oven.

Each hot dog came nestled in a layer of warm, fresh-baked bread. The dough offered a little sweetness as well as a bit of chew. There was also just a little crispness to it from baking. The combination worked very well and I found myself just picking off the bites over eating the rest of the pizza.

The pizza comes with a cup of French's yellow mustard for dipping, which, like most yellow mustards, delivers the typical tanginess with very little in the way of mustard flavor. While mustard is the traditional accompaniment for hot dogs, I tend to find that they obscure the enjoyable subtler cues of the sausage. Also, I like mustard that actually has that horseradish-y bite to it (like brown mustard). These particular hot dog were fine on their own.

Beyond the bites, the meatballs delivered a lot of tasty, herby flavor and the ideal amount of sponginess. Alone with just cheese and the tomato sauce it does feel a bit like eating a plate of meatballs with toasted bread (which it essentially is) rather than pizza.

Overall, Pizza Hut's Hot Dog Bites Pizza is a winner in my book. The hot dogs were delicious and even better wrapped in fresh-baked pizza dough. It's really two dishes in one and while both were enjoyable, I liked the Hot Dog Bites better than the pizza itself and if they sold them as a side, I could see a lot of people adding it to their order (then again, I think if they offered Cheesy Bites as a side, it'd be quite popular as well).