Pizza Hut Closing 250 Locations – What Customers Need to Know

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Wow! Pizza Hut announced it’s closing approximately 250 stores for good.

Pizza Hut is closing some underperforming restaurants, representing about 3% of its total locations in the United States, as reported by Restaurant Dive.

Here is where it gets a little dicey.

Back in November 2025, Yum! Brands, the company that owns Pizza Hut, indicated that the Pizza Hut brand was struggling. They announced they were exploring options for the future, which could include selling the business.

Read More: Pizza Hut Abruptly Closes Locations, With More Closings Possible

Yum! Brands announced planned closures during yesterday’s earnings call, and stated Wednesday that they expect the review process to finish later this year. No other details were provided.

There isn’t a public list of which places will be closed, but decisions about closures are currently being made.

It’s hoped that the few remaining Pizza Hut buffet locations stay open. Like the ones that recently closed in places like Hawaii, New Hampshire, and California, these buffets aren’t widely advertised – you usually have to hear about them through friends or find them online.

How Many Pizza Hut Locations Will Remain After 250 Are Closed?

After closing 250 poorly performing restaurants, Yum! Brands will continue to operate approximately 8,000 Pizza Hut locations throughout the United States.

Although closing 250 stores seems like a significant number, it’s actually a small change compared to the overall size of the company’s presence.

What is Pizza Hut’s Most Popular Menu Item?

All The Menus reports that the large pepperoni pizza is one of Pizza Hut’s most popular choices. Over the years, Pizza Hut has also become well-known for their Meat Lover’s Pizza.

Besides pizza, they also offer items like cheese sticks, and they’ve teamed up with Cinnabon to create Mini Rolls – a popular sweet treat.

Once-Beloved Fast Food Burgers That No Longer Exist

McDonald’s Arch Deluxe

In the 1980s and 90s, McDonald’s realized its menu appealed mostly to children and wanted to attract more adult customers. This led to the creation of the Arch Deluxe burger, which featured a soft bun and a special sauce designed for adult palates. Advertisements emphasized its “grown-up taste,” but the burger wasn’t a hit and was discontinued in 2000 after only four years.

Wendy’s The Big Classic

Burger chains are always trying to attract customers with increasingly large and impressive burgers, creating a competitive push for the biggest and best. In 1986, Wendy’s launched the “Big Classic” as a competitor to Burger King’s Whopper. Many who tried it likely remember its huge styrofoam clamshell container – environmental concerns weren’t a priority at the time! The burger itself was a bit bigger than Wendy’s standard single and served on a soft kaiser roll. Though the Big Classic never surpassed the Whopper in popularity – perhaps because calling something new a “classic” seemed odd – Wendy’s found more success in the 1990s by adding bacon and rebranding it as the “Big Bacon Classic.”

McDonald’s Big N’ Tasty

McDonald’s also tried to compete with Burger King’s Whopper, creating a burger called the “Big N’ Tasty.” It featured a beef patty with ketchup, mayonnaise, onions, pickles, lettuce, and tomato on a sesame seed bun. Launched in the late 1990s, it wasn’t very popular and was discontinued in the US by 2011, though it’s still sold in some countries outside of the US.

Burger King’s BK Burger Shots

As a total burger fanatic, I’ve always been fascinated by the slider wars. For years, White Castle pretty much owned that tiny-burger space, despite everyone else trying to get a piece of the action. I remember when Burger King launched their “BK Burger Shots” – honestly, just sliders with a cooler name! You could get a couple or a half-dozen, and they were pretty basic – ketchup, mustard, pickles
 nothing fancy. They weren’t exactly groundbreaking burgers, but their commercials? Those were something else. Seriously, beautiful women were literally falling over a guy just trying to enjoy a few bites! And, as much as I love a good burger eaten al fresco, that’s never happened to me, which is just
 weird.

Burger King Burger Bundles

Burger Shots are the latest in Burger King’s long history of trying to create a successful slider. Back in the 1980s, they sold “Burger Bundles” – three small cheeseburgers with buns that were partially connected, served in a cardboard container. They also had Burger Buddies, sold as pairs and marketed as a snack to share. However, despite numerous attempts to group burgers together, Burger King hasn’t quite hit the mark with this concept.

Burger King’s Hot Toppers

The name ‘Hot Toppers’ might make you think of something messy, but Burger King’s burgers from the late 80s were simply double cheeseburgers with flavorful toppings. There was one with barbecue sauce and bacon, another with mushrooms and Swiss cheese, and surprisingly, a third that just had a single slice of ham on top. That last one really lived up to the ‘hot topper’ name!

McDonald’s McDLT

Before his famous role on Seinfeld, Jason Alexander starred in a memorable McDonald’s commercial for the “McDLT” burger. The McDLT was a fairly standard burger, but it came with a lot of extra packaging – the beef and toppings were kept separate in a large styrofoam container. The ad featured Alexander enthusiastically promoting the burger with a catchy tune about keeping the beef hot and the lettuce crisp. It was a strange commercial, but hard to forget!

McDonald’s McLean Deluxe

The real American Dream, it seems, is enjoying all your favorite unhealthy foods without worrying about your health or weight. This desire fueled the creation of memorable ’90s foods like the McDonald’s McLean Deluxe—a burger marketed as 91% fat-free, made with lean meat and seaweed. It debuted in 1991 but was gone from the McDonald’s menu by 1996.

McDonald’s McJordan Special

Considering Michael Jordan’s image as an athlete and fitness icon, it’s no surprise he advertised the McLean Deluxe burger. However, he also promoted his own McDonald’s creation, the “McJordan Special,” which was a cheesy, bacon-filled burger with BBQ sauce, pickles, and onions. While maybe not the healthiest choice for a professional basketball player, it certainly sounded delicious! If you’re curious, a vintage jug of McJordan sauce is currently for sale on eBay for $6,000 – and the seller seems to think it’s still good to eat!

McDonald’s Cheddar Melt

McDonald’s seems to only add items to their menu if they have a catchy, often “Mc-” prefixed name, like the Chicken McNuggets or McCrispy. It wasn’t always like that, though. Back in the 1980s, they introduced something called the Cheddar Melt – a rather plain name for a sandwich piled high with browned food! The name was a little misleading, actually, because it used cheddar cheese sauce instead of actual melted cheese, and also included grilled onions. It was served on a toasted rye bun, which is something you almost never see at McDonald’s anymore. It makes you wonder if this was the last time they ever used rye bread!

McDonald’s Chopped Beefsteak Sandwich

Let’s talk about some forgettable McDonald’s menu items, like the Chopped Beefsteak Sandwich. Served on a long roll with sliced onions and a special sauce, it was supposed to be better than a regular hamburger because of the beef quality. But let’s be real – it was still a McDonald’s burger, just shaped differently. Introduced in 1979, it cost about three times as much as a standard hamburger. Unsurprisingly, people weren’t willing to pay extra for a longer burger, and McDonald’s discontinued it after a couple of years.

Burger King Bull’s-Eye BBQ Burger

While other places might offer them occasionally, Burger King is known for its long sandwiches, having tried out many different versions over the years. One example is the Bull’s-Eye BBQ Burger, which featured a unique, elongated bun (its ‘Western’ style is a mystery!), two regular burger patties, bacon, cheese, and Bull’s-Eye BBQ sauce. Burger King released several BBQ burgers in the late 80s and 90s – perhaps they had a surplus of Bull’s-Eye sauce! – and the Bull’s-Eye BBQ Burger was just the beginning…

Burger King’s Western Whopper

The Western Whopper also included BBQ sauce, cheddar cheese, and hickory-smoked bacon. Burger King cleverly tied the burger’s release to the movie Wild Wild West starring Will Smith. Customers who ordered the Western Whopper meal could buy a pair of sunglasses similar to the ones Smith wore in the film for just $1.99. Kids everywhere asked their parents for these glasses, wanting to look like the actor in what many consider his worst movie. (I’m telling you this as a matter of record – it absolutely happened!)

Wendy’s Pretzel Bacon Pub Burger

The Pretzel Bacon Pub Burger first appeared at Wendy’s in 2020 as a more upscale addition to their burger menu. Wendy’s claimed it aimed to deliver the taste of a gourmet pub burger in a fast-food setting. It was definitely a step above your average burger, featuring a pretzel bun, Muenster cheese, smoked bacon, smoky honey mustard, warm beer cheese sauce, crispy fried onions, and pickles. Though popular enough to return in fall 2022, it didn’t stay on the menu for long. Since then, fans have created online petitions asking Wendy’s to bring it back, but so far, their requests haven’t been successful.

Burger King’s Whopperito

Do you remember the Whopperito? It was basically a Whopper—all the same ingredients—but wrapped in a tortilla and covered in queso instead of the usual ketchup, mustard, or mayo. Burger King first tested it in Pennsylvania, and it quickly became a viral sensation, even making Stephen Colbert tell jokes about it on The Late Show (“It’s great if you like both of those foods, and hate yourself.”).

Burger King initially said they wouldn’t offer it nationwide, but they changed their minds. The Whopperito was only available for a short time, but it definitely achieved its goal: getting people talking about Burger King. It proves a well-known point: any publicity is good publicity—though, of course, there is such a thing as a bad fast food burrito.

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2026-02-05 21:59