Pizza Hut Launches $5 Menu—with A Catch

KFC has its $5 Fill-Ups. Taco Bell has its $5 Buck Boxes. Subway has had its $5 Footlongs. Despite $5 being a sweet spot for fast-food deals, until now only Little Caesar's has been in on the pizza-for-a-fiver action. But today, Pizza Hut announced its $5 Lineup, and it's an enticing deal: $5 gets you options including a medium one-topping pizza, eight boneless Wingstreet wings, four 20-ounce sodas, a double order of breadsticks, those new Cinnabon mini rolls, or other options. But here's the catch: You have to buy at least two.

"The $5 Lineup gives our customers what they really want: Pizza Hut pizzas for just $5," Marianne Radley Pizza Hut U.S.'s chief brand manager said in a statement.

Well, yes and no. Yes, $5 for a medium, one-topping pizza is a good deal, considering that if you pair it with the wings, that's probably a meal for two. But the customer has to order the two together; there's no solo $5 medium pizza.

Really, it's a 2-for-$10 menu, but I guess that doesn't sound as appealing as a $5 Lineup. There's something compelling about a carb-loaded combo with a single-digit price tag, our favorite of which might be the Wendy's 4-for-$4 menu, which covers all the bases: sandwich, drink, fry, chicken nuggz.

The new Pizza Hut lineup rolls out nationally, for both dine-in and carry-out orders. Just don't show up with only a five-dollar bill in hand.