domino's half and half

We found out the real reason Domino’s has stopped doing half and half pizzas during Covid

Finally, I can sleep at night


Something is missing from this great country: the Domino’s half and half pizza. We’ve given up a lot of freedoms in the pandemic, but the loss of the option to have two different toppings on a single takeaway pizza is the thing that should really have people protesting in the street.

Its absence has captured the minds of this country’s best and brightest, with Love Island’s Shaughna Phillips even raising the issue.

The Domino’s official explanation isn’t up to much. The company says it’s down to guidance from local authorities, and that the menu has been simplified to “allow for better social distancing” between staff while they make pizzas.

“We’re just meeting government regulations at the moment”, the Domino’s UK Twitter account cryptically told us over DM.

But this doesn’t really answer the question. Why, specifically, has the half and half pizza gone? What is it about the pandemic that has robbed the pizza chain of the ability to put pepperoni on one side and ham and pineapple on the other? And, the last time we checked, Covid-19 guidance doesn’t extend to dictating how pizza toppings can be arranged.

To uncover the mystery, The Tab spoke to a Domino’s employee – who would only divulge the secrets on the condition of anonymity.

It all comes down to keeping up delivery times, we’re told. With a number of factors during the pandemic slowing things down, the Domino’s half and half pizzas are a casualty of efficiency – they simply take too long to make.

“The company’s point of view is to simplify the menu so we can work quicker to make sure we are still meeting the customers’ needs.

“The more complicated a pizza is the longer it takes. It’s more than just your simple one-topping pizza, so one pizza make time becomes two,” the employee told us.

“As we still have to social distance they still think – and I agree – that half and half will double the time of that one pizza, and if we have basically 75 per cent of them half and half it adds to the long wait.”

A number of extra factors have also slowed things down, the employee says. Social distancing and Covid has meant a reduction in staff numbers – going from people “shoulder to shoulder” making pizzas before to having roughly half the number of staff around now.

There are also more people wanting Domino’s, the staff member says, and the fact their branch went delivery-only means every order has a longer wait time: “We had to wait longer for drivers to get back, setting us back further.

When we put this to Domino’s, they didn’t respond to what the employee had said. However, before this, Domino’s did initially send us the following statement: “Due to the impact of Covid-19, local authorities have set out new guidance for operations instore which has impacted our ability to offer our much-loved Half and Half pizza.

“While we can’t provide an exact date for the return of Half and Half, we promise we’re continuously looking at ways to get it back in our ovens and delivered safely to our customers’ doors soon.”

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Featured image (pizza background): ChameleonsEye/Shutterstock