Pizza Hut was once a go-to for families and friends to tuck into its all-you-can eat buffet, unlimited salad bar, and self-serve ice-cream with all the toppings.

But fewer diners are “hitting the Hut” these days and it is closing half its UK restaurants after being bought out of administration for the second time this year.

“We used to go to Pizza Hut when I was a child,” says Prudence, when the BBC asked shoppers in London why they thought the chain was struggling. “It was like a family thing, you’d go on a Sunday – make a day of it.” But now aged 24 she says “it’s not a thing anymore”.

For 23-year-old Martina Debnatch it is some of the very things Pizza Hut has been known and loved for since it opened in the UK in the 1970s that are now not-so-hot.

“The way they do their buffet and their salad bar, it feels like they are cheapening on their quality and have lower standards…They’re giving away so much food and you’re like ‘How?'”

As food prices have soared, Pizza Hut’s all-you-can-eat model has become very expensive to run. As have its 132 restaurants which are being sliced to 64.

The business, like many others, has also seen its costs increase. In April this year, staffing costs jumped due to rises in minimum wages (which went up nearly 7% this year, to £12.21 for employees aged 21 and over) as well as an increase in employer national insurance contributions.

Chris, 36, and Joanne, 29 say they used to go to Pizza Hut for a date “every now and then”, but now they order in a Domino’s and think Pizza Hut is “very overpriced”.

Depending on your order, Pizza Hut and Domino’s prices are similar, says Giulia Crouch, food expert and author of The Happiest Diet in the World.

While Pizza Hut does offer takeaway and deliveries through Ubers Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat, it is losing out to big rivals which solely cater to this market.

“Domino’s has managed to dominate the takeaway pizza sector thanks to aggressive marketing and constantly running deals that make consumers feel like they’re getting a bargain, when in reality the original prices are quite high,” says Ms Crouch.

But for Chris and Joanne it is worth it to get their date night delivered to their door.

“We definitely eat at home now more than we eat out,” says Joanne, echoing recent statistics that show a drop in people going to casual and fast-food restaurants.

Over the summer, casual and fast-food restaurants saw a 6% drop in customers compared to last summer.

There is also another rival to restaurant and takeaway pizzas: the cook-at-home oven pizza.

Will Hawkley, head of leisure and hospitality at KPMG, points out that not only have supermarkets been offering high-quality oven-ready pizzas for years – some are even selling home-pizza ovens.

“Lifestyle changes are also playing a factor in the success of fast-food chains,” says Mr Hawkley.

The rising popularity of high protein diets has boosted sales at chicken shops, while hitting sales of carb-heavy pizza, he adds.

As people go out to eat less frequently they may look for a more a premium experience and Pizza Hut’s American-diner style with booth seating and red and white checked plastic table cloths can feel more retro than upmarket.

The “explosion of high-quality pizzerias” over the last 10 to 15 years, such as Franco Manca, has “fundamentally changed the public’s perception of what good pizza is,” says Ms Crouch.

“A light, fresh, easy-to-digest product with a few choice toppings, not the massively greasy, heavy and overloaded pizzas of the past. That, I think, is what’s caused Pizza Hut’s downfall,” she says.

“Why would anyone spend £17.99 on a small, substandard, disappointing pizza from a chain when you can get a beautiful, masterfully-made Margherita for under a tenner at one of the many authentic Italian pizzerias around the country?

“It’s a no-brainer.”

Dan Puddle, who owns Smokey Deez, a small mobile pizza van based in Suffolk says: “It’s not that people have fallen out of love with pizza – they just want better pizza for their money.”

Dan says his flexible operation can offer premium pizza at accessible prices, and that Pizza Hut struggled because it could not keep up with new customer habits.

At Pizzarova, a small independent chain based in Bristol, owner Jack Lander says the pizza market is broadening but Pizza Hut has failed to offer anything new.

“You now have slice concepts, London pizza, new haven, sourdough, Neapolitan, Detroit – it’s a heavenly minefield for a pizza-loving consumer to explore.”

Jack says Pizza Hut “needs to reinvent itself” as younger people don’t have any sense of nostalgia or loyalty to the brand.

Over time, Pizza Hut’s market has been sliced up and distributed to its trendier, more nimble rivals. To maintain its expensive staffing and restaurants, it would have to increase costs – which KPMG’s Mr Hawkley says is difficult at a time when household budgets are shrinking.

Nicolas Burquier, Pizza Hut’s managing director of international markets, said the buyout aimed “to safeguard our guest experience and protect jobs where possible”.

He said its immediate priority was to continue operating at the remaining 64 restaurants and 343 delivery sites and to support colleagues through the transition.

But with so much money going in to running its restaurants, it likely can’t afford to invest too much in its delivery service because the sector is “complex and partnering with existing delivery apps comes at a cost”, Mr Hawkley says .

But, he adds, cutting its costs by leaving oversaturated towns and city centres could be a good way to adapt.

Thousands of people have marched through central Edinburgh calling for more action to tackle poverty in Scotland.

The Scotland Demands Better demonstration was organised by trade unions and charities to push for more action on poverty ahead of the UK Budget and next year’s Scottish Parliament elections.

The demonstration was organised by the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) and The Poverty Alliance. They called for increases in free childcare and the scrapping the two child benefit cap.

The march comes after recent research from The Poverty Alliance found one in four children in Scotland is living in poverty.

The protestors included trade union members, faith groups and community organisations. They made their way from the Scottish Parliament to the Meadows where they held a rally.

Organisers said the demonstration was part of a “growing nationwide campaign” to demand better jobs and social security.

They also want to see more investment in “life essentials” such as as housing, transport, healthcare and education.

Peter Kelly, chief executive of The Poverty Alliance said the march was a response to challenges being felt by people in Scotland.

“Too many of us are going hungry, or are without a home, or sacrificing meals to feed their children, dreading winter due to heating costs, or struggling to get by on wages that don’t cover their household costs,” he said.

STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer said people are calling for real action to tackle poverty, and electioneering on the issue must stop.

She said: “People are exhausted with the false promises of change that come every time an election rolls around only to be badly let down time and time again.”

Members of the Unite union waved flags calling for the Grangemouth refinery to be saved.

Unite Secretary Susan Fitzgerald said: “Scotland is losing highly skilled jobs, decent affordable housing remains out of reach and public services remain underfunded and overstretched. Wages and living standards just aren’t keeping up.”

The Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 set targets to cut child poverty to 18% by 2024/25 and 10% by 2030/31.

Earlier this month, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation warned that these targets were set to be missed by a “large margin”.

Child poverty in Scotland is lower than any other part of the UK and the only poverty rate which is falling, but the Scottish government missed its statutory interim target to reduce the rate below 18% by last year, with the figure left at 23%.

Before the march, First Minister John Swinney offered his “best wishes” to those taking part.

He added: “Of course those marching today are right that too many people are living in poverty and too many people – many of them in work – are struggling to make ends meet.

“In a country as rich as Scotland, that is simply not acceptable to me.”

A UK government spokesperson said ministers are “determined to bring down poverty and have implemented measures such as increasing the national minimum wage and introducing universal credit changes.”

A strategy to tackle child poverty will be published later this year.