Image provided by Pizza Hut.
On Valentine’s Day, Americans eat everything from a box of chocolates to conversation hearts to their feelings. And while many of them will schedule dinner reservations with their sweetheart, others will order delivery at home, according to DoorDash, which reported a 20% increase in orders on Cupid’s Day last year. This desire for comfort in a box inspired Pizza Hut to develop its Heart-Shaped Pizza*, which has become a Valentine’s Day staple across the United States.
“Immediately following the high-consumption moment of the Big Game and before the start of college hoops in March, Pizza Hut is bringing back the beloved Heart-Shaped Pizza,” said Pizza Hut U.S. Associate Marketing Manager Cali Gohlke. “Its unique offering has acquired a passionate following among pizza lovers.”
But not every Heart-Shaped fan knows its backstory. Here are five little-known facts about the pizza.
10 years in the making
The Heart-Shaped Pizza first debuted in 2015 with a “Hot Couple” deal built around a one-topping, Heart-Shaped Pizza and a Hershey’s Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie.
Since then, Pizza Hut has written love poems to cheese and used celebrity heartthrobs to market its Heart-Shaped pies.
Pizza Hut has a big heart
The Heart-Shaped Pizza is listed as a medium, but it starts out as a large pie that team members then cut with an oversized, heart-shaped cookie cutter. After the extra dough is discarded, the pie becomes a medium.
It’s love – no matter how you slice it
This pizza is unique in its shape but also because it is the only Pizza Hut pie that has no slices. It’s because the slices would ruin the pie’s shape, according to Angel Navarrete, Pizza Hut U.S. associate operations manager.
“We tend not to cut the heart shape because it destroys the shape once you put it in a box,” he said. “By the time it gets to the guest’s house, unfortunately it won't look like a heart, so that's the reason we don't cut it.”
In 2025, the brand used this unique characteristic as its tagline, “We don’t break hearts; we bake them.”
Pizza Hut just might give you some love post-Valentine’s Day
This year, Pizza Hut will officially stop selling the Heart-Shaped Pizza on February 23, but Navarrete said, many locations keep its cutter all year long, creating a secret menu item that pizza lovers everywhere can potentially order.
“Not every location keeps its heart cutter on hand, but when I worked in the restaurant, we’d get a lot of requests,” Navarrete remembers. “Like, ‘Hey, I'm sending this to my significant other. Can you make sure not to tell her?’ So, we would call on the phone and just leave it at the door.”
He also complied with a request to send two heart-shaped pizzas to someone’s crush, and he wrote, “Will you go out with me?” on one box, and one pizza had “Yes” written in pepperoni and the other had “No.” (She picked the “Yes” box.)
“Anytime outside of that window, the Heart-Shaped Pizza technically isn't available, but you'd be surprised how many requests we’d get for it throughout the year,” Navarrete said. “If I was given enough notice, I’d say, ‘You know what? Let me see what I can do for you. I'll take care of you.’ I loved making customers’ days.”
Everyone wants a “pizza” your heart
Since 2015, Pizza Hut has been selling the Heart-Shaped Pizza, and it’s the only unique shape the brand makes outside of some rectangular-shaped limited time offerings. So, why opt for a non-circular pie?
“This is a very popular pizza. Valentine's Day is a really busy day,” Navarrete said. “Other busy days are Halloween, New Year's and, of course, the Big Game is the busiest day, but customers love the Heart-Shaped Pizza.”
In 2025, Pizza Hut sold hundreds of thousands of Heart-Shaped Pizza, proving that everyone wants a piece of the Hut, er, heart.
*Medium one-topping pizza available on Hand-Tossed Crust only. Additional charge for extra toppings and cheese. Product availability, pricing and participation may vary.
