Pizza Hut has left the door open to bringing back more of its famous dine-in restaurants, with just eight traditional all-you-can-eat sites still surviving across Australia.
Pizza Hut could bring back its famous all-you-can-eat restaurants, with its Australian boss saying he would “look seriously” at a comeback if fans demanded it.
Only eight traditional dine-in Pizza Huts now remain across Australia, remnants of the red-roofed restaurants and bottomless buffets that became a fixture for generations of families.
But the format is showing signs of life again, with Sizzler preparing to return to Australia in 2027 as Korean barbecue, hotpot and other all-you-can-eat concepts attract a new generation of diners.
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Flynn Asia-Pacific president Richard Wallis said there were no plans to build new Pizza Hut dine-in restaurants yet, but he was open to revisiting the format if enough customers wanted it.
“We’re open to anything,” Mr Wallis said.
“I wouldn’t say no, but I think it would be definitely based on demand.”
The surviving restaurants are at Minto/St Andrews, Orange and Windsor in NSW; Gympie, Browns Plains and Toowoomba in Queensland; Ballarat in Victoria; and New Town in Tasmania.
Richard Wallis and Stephen Hazzard as Pizza Hut rolls out a $10m transformation of 250 Australian restaurants and targets more than 100 new stores by 2030. Picture: Flynn Group
Pizza Hut’s famous The Works all-you-can-eat experience at Waterloo. The chain announced plans for at least 100 buffet restaurants in 2018, but the rollout never eventuated at that scale.
Mr Wallis described them as “very popular” and said their sales volumes were moving towards a level that could make building more worthwhile.
“They do volumes that do reflect economics that is directionally right for us to look at building new restaurants,” he said.
“I think we would look seriously at doing that.”
Pizza Hut opened its first Australian restaurant in 1970 and its red-roofed dine-in restaurants became landmarks around the country, known for family meals, birthday parties and repeated trips to the buffet.
Flynn Asia-Pacific president Richard Wallis said Pizza Hut would “look seriously” at building more dine-in restaurants if customer demand justified a comeback. Picture: Flynn Group
Mr Wallis said the enduring appeal appeared to be driven by nostalgia and value.
“I think what we need to extract is how much is about a relevant experience for today and how much is about a sense of just great value and more of the experience of the past,” he said.
Under its previous ownership in 2018, Pizza Hut announced plans for at least 100 buffet restaurants within 12 months after opening a new dine-in concept at Marsden Park in Sydney.
A former Pizza Hut at Ferntree Gully, Victoria, from the chain’s famous red-roof dine-in era. Pizza Hut opened its first Australian restaurant in 1970.
The proposed rollout did not eventuate at that scale.
Mr Wallis said the biggest obstacle was making the economics of a large dine-in restaurant work.
“If you look at the size of the footprint you need for a restaurant and, if you play the economics out from even just the lease upwards, the sales volume you need to be delivering is quite significant,” he said.
Pizza Hut’s surviving dine-in restaurants remain “very popular”, with Mr Wallis saying their sales volumes were moving in the right direction for the chain to consider building more.
Pizza Hut’s former Waterloo dine-in restaurant featured its own “Dessert Hut” as part of The Works all-you-can-eat experience, a format the chain could one day revisit.
Australia’s labour costs and the strength of quick-service restaurants also made traditional casual dining difficult, he said.
Covid-19 then pushed Pizza Hut further towards delivery and became a turning point for the brand.
“I think people had an opportunity to try Pizza Hut for probably the first time in many, many years during Covid,” Mr Wallis said.
“People tried our product and went, ‘wow, it’s still here and it’s really good’.”
Pizza Hut now has 292 Australian stores, with more than 80 per cent of its business conducted online.
It is also spending $10m transforming 250 restaurants and plans to add more than 100 stores by 2030.
The Works offered diners repeated trips to Pizza Hut’s buffet, including salad and dessert. The chain says its surviving dine-in restaurants remain “very popular”.
Sizzler, meanwhile, will return at the new NH Sydney Airport hotel in 2027 after its remaining Australian restaurants shut in 2020.
Mr Wallis said the rising cost of eating out could create another opening for affordable casual dining.
“Given how expensive it can be to go and eat out at your local pub even nowadays, I think there could be opportunities in the future for brands to look at ways of bringing a full-service casual dining business to life,” he said.
Pizza Hut’s all-you-can-eat restaurants once made the buffet as much of an attraction as the pizza. Just eight traditional dine-in sites now remain across Australia.
“For us, that’s not now, but I think in the future, I think there’s opportunities for that.”
Mr Wallis said Pizza Hut first needed to strengthen its core brand and attract a broader, younger customer base before changing its restaurant strategy.
But The Works remained on his radar.
“That’s definitely something I’m interested in looking at in the future.”
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