I ate at the last remaining free restaurant at Pizza Hut in Australia, and that’s how you remember it.

I remember when this country was great.

It was a time when women pierced their navels and men refused to talk about their feelings.

It was when cell phones, influencers or the option to work from home did not exist.

It was when property prices were low, disaffected teenagers were smoking cigarettes instead of vaping, and football players were staggering around the field throughout the game completely concussed and without medical intervention.

This simpler time, before everyone woke up, was the 1990s.

And one of the highlights of the decade was gorging on Pizza Hut’s all-you-can-eat buffet.

But like Mel Gibson, another ’90s icon, I thought they’d already canceled them all.

Turns out there’s still one lone restaurant left in Windsor, on Sydney’s northwest outskirts… and it’s only $24.95 for all the pizza, pasta, salad and jelly-covered dessert you can eat. It’s even cheaper for kids, on weekends, and for lunch.

I walked through the doors and was immediately overcome with warm feelings of comfort and nostalgia.

It’s exactly how I remember it: with staff bustling around the dining room preparing pizzas straight from the oven at the hot buffet station.

The decor, which includes original signs, seating and linoleum tiles from decades before, is so old-fashioned that it makes the Velcro shoes and hyper-colored T-shirts look cool.

But for me it’s perfect!

Franchise owner Santnam Ahuia, who took over the pizzeria with his wife Jenny in 2006, told Daily Mail Australia he wanted to keep the retro relic as it was in its heyday.

“I’ve kept much of this Pizza Hut as it was when it was built in the 1980s because it gives you that old-fashioned feel in your heart,” said the 66-year-old Indian who moved to Australia in 1989.

“I think that’s what people really like.”

While varied meals have largely gone out of fashion in Australia, particularly in the wake of the Covid pandemic, Mr Ahuia’s Pizza Hut restaurant continues to not only survive, but thrive.

“I have people coming from hundreds of miles away for dinner,” Mr Ahuia said.

“From Katoomba to the northern beaches, the central coast, and we even had buses from Newcastle.”

‘People queue outside for an hour on a Saturday night to dine here and during the school holidays it’s crazy. We’re very busy.’

It’s easy to see why. The tucker is excellent.

And I should know because I had four plates full of meat lovers, pepperoni, Hawaiian, supreme and spicy.

‘How many slices have you eaten?’ my photographer asked.

‘Mate, I stopped counting after the second course,’ I told him.

Although I was struggling, it’s an all-you-can-eat place and I wanted to know if Mr. Ahuia’s dessert station is like I remember it when I was an equally gluttonous kid.

I turned on the soft serve machine and topped it with fudge, Pizza Hut’s iconic jelly cubes, marshmallows, sprinkles, and chocolate sauce.

Then I ate apple crumble again… and sat in the car feeling embarrassed but satisfied.

The truth is, Australia’s last surviving restaurant, Pizza Hut, is unlikely to be a hit with today’s celebrities who rely on Ozempic, or the plague of trendy Instagrammers looking for the next downtown hotspot. the city, but I rate the experience five stars. .

And if you want to make Australia great again, you should definitely check it out.