Pizza Hut in America is not exactly what I picture when I hear "classy dining experience." (I'm sorry if you do.) And outside of stuffed crust pizza, it tastes pretty bad too. Well my friends, the Chinese know how to run a restaurant. I believe I have stated here previously that every pizza place in this country is expensive. Pizza Hut is no exception, and for my two cents was probably the trendsetter. On the outside, it doesn't look particularly special; it has the same Pizza Hut logo and then Chinese characters underneath proclaiming as much. When you walk inside though, the restaurant really starts to separate itself from the crowd.
Most Chinese restaurants have the look and feel of any hole-in-the wall establishment, with interior decorating that usually includes newspaper on the floors to catch and cover any massive stains, as well as faded advertising on the walls which hasn't been changed in the last 10 years. Naturally there are more upscale restaurants, and this is precisely where Pizza Hut fits in. The lighting is slightly dimmed by design, unlike in their American counterparts where the luminosity and wall coloring makes you feel like you're in the devil's antechamber. The clientele is also markedly different. We ate at a non-peak hour that was around 3pm or so and at least 50% of the tables were still full. Most all of the tables were filled by groups of people approximately my age or a little older, and at least 2/3 of the patrons were women. Shino informed me that at dinner time the place would be completely swamped. The actual menu was pretty classy, and had some interesting menu items, including "Rise of the Oriental Hero." They also had a positively delicious supreme pizza on the menu. Shino's aunt (this one lives in Beijing, the Tianjin one is different) treated us, and made me eat 5 of the 8 pieces. Not that I was complaining; it was incredible. We also ordered chicken wings, and they tasted as great as they do in America. They had real American soups too, including clam chowder which I hate, and other thick soups. In China, a soup is basically hot water with salt, oil, and either dough, tomato & egg, or one other relatively tasteless and unfilling thing. The idea of a soup that is almost a meal by itself is extremely foreign here.So the food there was delicious; it was truly among the best I had in China, which is probably a rather pathetic thing for the Chinese. It might have tasted better just because it tasted like home though, I'm not too sure. Here are some pictures; the 1st is a slice of the seating area, the 2nd is the salad bar and some seating, and the last is the salad we ordered. It was incredible, but only in its architectural beauty; it tasted like crap.
