The last stand-alone pizza hut restaurant in New Zealand, located in New Lynn, is closing its doors as the chain focuses on takeaways instead of dine-in.

The first Pizza Hut restaurant to open in New Zealand is the last to close.

The New Lynn restaurant has been open for 41 years and is the last of the red-roofed restaurants.

The store will be demolished in March and will move to a takeaway and delivery store on the exterior of LynnMall.

GEOFF DALE/FAIRFAX NZ Pizza Hut has been slowly moving to a takeaway and delivery store since 1998.

Gone are the days of the all you can eat pizza, pasta and salad bars followed by a dessert buffet where extra jelly-beans were snuck away in a napkin.

Since 1998 the pizza chain has been moving towards becoming a takeaway and delivery service as they attempt to compete in the current market.

The New Lynn store opened in September 1974 and was the first to open in New Zealand.

A spokeswoman from Restaurant Brands which has owned and operated the business after taking over from Pepsico in 1997, says the pizza industry has become extremely competitive.

"We made a decision in 1998 to rationalise our dine in restaurant business and start investing in takeaway and delivery style stores, which was aligned to the trends we were seeing amongst our customers."

"We see this as an evolution of Pizza Hut within a changing market. While we continue serving Pizza Hut's great tasting pizza as we did back in 1974, we also offer new and innovative pizza flavours to our customers, and in a way that's convenient for them."

The store will be demolished to make way for 80 extra carparks for LynnMall shoppers.

The popular shopping mall was criticised on social media for their lack of car parking over the Christmas period.

Comments on a Facebook community page include a shopper who spent 30 minutes trying to find a park before giving up and then spending a further 20 minutes trying to exit the mall.

The shopping mall lost about 110 carparks as part of last year's redevelopment.

The $39 million makeover brought cinemas back to New Lynn after a 14 year absence and an alfresco dining lane called The Brickworks which boasts seven mid range eateries.