Pizza Hut’s new digital concept store blends augmented reality and pizza into a tasty new whole

Ordering and eating pizza is usually a straightforward, unimaginative affair that involves you plonking down cash and then waiting for it to emerge from the oven. Through some arcane process, disparate ingredients – gooey cheese, crisp dough and chunks of whatever condiment you’ve ordered (except pineapple, who puts fruits on a pizza?) are magically transformed through the heat-driven alchemy of the oven to emerge as the piping hot, perennially popular go-to of college life and late work nights. Pizza Hut Malaysia wants to take that experience to the next level at their latest digital concept store at the Sunway Pyramid mall.

The in-store decor is warm and welcoming with generous seating

The new digital concept store is modernesque mall chic with dark interiors,  the welcoming warm glow of yellow neon lighting and generously spaced seating for couples and families alike. The whole experience is centered around the open concept kitchen where a team of pizza chefs work their craft through transparent glass windows, kneading, tossing and transforming dough into the culinary delights that we all know and love.

The new Digital Takeaway Kiosks offer a fast and efficient means to order your takeaway

The most important part of the store though is outside where a trio of glowing Digital Takeaway Kiosks that resemble ATMs stand waiting in greeting, Rather than dispensing cash, the trio of terminals are the means to swiftly order and ring up your meal. The user interface for the post-Android generation is straightforward, allowing you to order a pizza, customise it and order additional sides including their decadently delicious garlic bread and other items including their popular chicken wings. Once you’ve sorted out your order, you pay pay via a credit card by putting your card through the card reader in the machine or by cash though you’ll have to swing by to pay up at the counter inside.

In-store diners can experience the augmented reality menu that interacts with the physical menus with unique animations and even a nifty treasure hunt game

If you’re dining-in at the store and waiting for your meal, you are loaned a Galaxy Tab S3 to experience the augmented reality menu. Aiming the tablet’s camera at the physical menu triggers a series of embedded animations, allowing you to interact with the menus after a fashion. Touch the iced drinks menu and frost appears on the display. Tap the hot drinks and wisps of smoke appear onscreen. The app also allows you to play around in a virtual treasure hunt of sorts finding items on the menu based on audio queues, It’s certainly a distracting experience and running through the game gets you a free voucher for certain items on the menu at your next dine-in experience. It’s certainly a novel experience and the Digital Takeaway Kiosks help to bypass the queue in a much swifter fashion versus having to wait in line for a physical server to take your order.

Pizza Hut aims to roll out the digital store experience to other locations nationwide though they did not mention a timeline or where their next digital store will appear. For more details on Pizza Hut, swing by www.pizzahut.com.my

Ordering a pizza at Pizza Hut’s new digital concept store at the Pyramid mall is a piece of cake via the touchscreen