• by Todd Wasserman , May 5, 2023

Pizza Hut has added grilled sirloin steak to its national menu. The Cheesesteak-like entrée is now available as both a pizza and a handheld melt.

The new meat option became available this week for a limited time. The pizza is topped with Alfredo sauce, green bell peppers, onions, Parmesan oregano seasoning on a choice of crusts and steak strips. Prices vary according to pizza sizes, but start at $13.99.

The Cheesesteak Melt has melted cheese, steak strips and other toppings and is served with a side of ranch sauce for $6.99. Pizza Hut began selling Melts, cheesy hand-held sandwiches, last year.

Cheesesteak in sandwiches and other formats is now on 19.5% of chain menus, according to researcher Technomic.

The addition comes as Pizza Hut reported this week that same-store sales increased 8% last quarter, the strongest result in two years. That came during a difficult market for pizza delivery. Rival Domino’s Pizza reported a 3.6% increase in same-store sales last quarter, but warned that those sales would slow for the rest of the year.

Pizza Hut attributed its sales rise to new Melt sandwiches plus the Big New Yorker pizza. Pizza Hut also began using third-party aggregators to help with delivery after a driver shortage left it unable to make many deliveries.