The Twentieth Tuesday Taste: The Great Pepperoni Pizza Slice Showdown!

What did you learn from your time

in the solitary cell of your mind

There was noises, distractions from anything good

and the old prison food

Colour my life with the chaos of trouble

'Cause anything's better than posh isolation

I missed the bus

 

Another Tuesday, another Taste! And this here is a big one, something fun I've wanted to do since I started writing these (almost) every week back in February. Special ideas need a special occasion, and with this being the 20th edition... the time has come for this one. 

It's a pepperoni pizza party! Cue 90s dance music, confetti, warm Presidents Choice cola, a McCain's Deep'n Delicious cake and a huge bowl of Cheetos.

In the spirit of the Tuesday Taste, I wanted to compare the major prominent players in Toronto's pizza slice scene in a single sitting. This is why I'm not including spots like Superpoint, King Slice, Fourth Man etc... because those are all superior options sure... but I want to measure the chains you see everywhere against one another. Domino's, Papa John's and Pizza Hut are not included here because they typically don't offer slices (and are American companies, and I swear I didn't plan this out that the ones I tried are all Canadian chains). I also didn't include Panago, because I'm pretty sure they also don't offer slices, there isn't a location anywhere near me, and they're terrible. 

Also I had fully intended to include a slice from Mamma's Pizza in here, but with the recent unpleasantness of the corporation locking out its staff at the Beaches location (essentially making them unemployed) with dubious notice (it is more complicated but I just feel for the workers)... Mamma's gets disqualified and doesn't get to join in this rock and rolling pizza party.

So here are the four we've got! In no particular order, lets roll:

 

Pizza Pizza

Ah... we meet again... my old friend. I of course... remember you.

We have much history, you and I. Way back in summer 2006, my very first days working at the Drake Hotel and being about as green and social as a tree in that situation... 18 year old me was delighted a Pizza Pizza location was right on the corner of Lisgar and Queen. I ate there almost every damn shift for the first few months I worked there and tried almost everything they had to offer, a grotesque error I feel personally obligated to apologize to Chef Anthony Rose for. 

Eventually I got tired of this and rarely ever went back even when craving pizza on shift (thankfully more palatable food options eventually popped up around the Drake). This review was the first time I'd even been inside a Pizza Pizza since 2019 (a strange Saturday night on Queen West that ended with a severe anxiety episode... good times). This Pizza Pizza location though (Vic Park and Kingston Road) I have a pleasant memory of: showing up once at 2am a few years ago for just a dipping sauce and getting two slices on the house. Thumbs up there.

Enough nostalgia though! (I'm sure that's why you all tune in, right). Pizza Pizza just isn't very good. It's not! That should surprise no one to hear me declare such a thing. The flavour is all surface, as you find with D-quality food. Initially it tastes kinda okay, the texture is agreeable, the pepperoni adds some saltiness and there isn't anything glaringly gross about it... but the peak of this experience is how merely (and surprisingly) okay it tastes when still warm. 

There's no aftertaste at all, no lingering sense of anything beyond just a substance being chewed in your mouth (and oh boy does it get chewy). When cold? It's completely untenable. The pepperoni exists merely for texture and a slight hint of grease. Beyond that, the flavour is simply cheap tasting cheese (lots of that) and rubbery dough.

What else can I say? It defines the type of food you consume when you just want to put something in your stomach because you're at a concert (remember those?), you've had a few overpriced beers and wanna be semi-functional when the headliner takes the stage.     

I have to mention the classic dipping sauce of course, the creamy garlic that many people I know call the "crack" sauce. It's easily the best thing here, with it's whipped-like texture (you can't pour it or anything) and immediate sensation of creamy garlic taste on first contact. Yeah, it's fine... and I can't judge because when younger I often would go to Pizza Pizza just to buy that sauce with a pizza from somewhere else in tow. But like the pizza itself, there's little beyond those introductory sensations... it's creamy, slightly garlicky... it has the consistently of mayonnaise but that's it. It's addictive because the shot of flavour fades so quick that you want it to repeat, again and again. 

Overall... I'm not at all a fan, addictive dip included. Maybe for Tuesday Taste #120 I'll go back for something else (but don't get your hopes up). 

 

Pizza Nova

 

 

Over the past couple years of reviewing pizza, I've come across somewhat more forgiving of Pizza Nova than others perhaps would be. Much of that is because of my hack of ordering their cheap walk-in special and substituting the pepperoni with roasted garlic, which they're 99/100 times happy to do (garlic must be cheaper than pepperoni, food cost wise). Oh yes, they cover that beast generously. 

How does their pepperoni (non garlic replacement edition) hold up here? Well after cardboard (I mean Pizza Pizza) it kicks ass. Overall though... I'm fairly unchanged in my opinion. Pizza Nova is perfectly decent: there's some depth of flavour, the cheese tastes more like cheese and not Chemically Engineered Cheese Product(TM), the tiny pepperoni cups have little pools of oil in them, there's some genuine crisp to the slice and I quite like their pulpy, sometimes chunky tomato sauce. 

The problems are how just "okay" it is. You're not really blown away by it, like watching a sitcom you've already seen which only makes you chuckle once or twice an episode anyway. I've never much cared for their crusts (they get stiff fast) and I'd love way, way more of that legitimately good tomato sauce. It can get a bit crusty on the reheat as well (more on that later) as when the edge of the slice is thin it'll just get hard and crunchy, compromising a significant portion of the slice. This is also on the greasier side of pizzas (it's the cheese) and sometimes that doesn't sit well in the ol' tummy.

Again I have to mention a garlic dip. To me, this is the "crack dip" among pizza joints. Only the Blondies black garlic sauce (which I recently reviewed) comfortably exceeds the Nova garlic sauce in my mind, because I can never get enough. This could just be my personal preference, because I'm not sure at any point in my life I've ever said anything has had too much garlic (frankly it seems like a scientific impossibility to me) but I just love that initial sting of rich garlic and something like parmesan cheese you get from the Nova dip... and the taste lingers longer than two seconds. The sauce is more of an actual sauce (rather like a thin caesar salad dressing) than the congealed "whatever" the Pizza Pizza garlic dip is, as in you can actually pour it onto things! Remarkable.

Overall... the pepperoni slice from Nova doesn't overly impress this jaded food reviewer, but there's enough to not disappoint. If it's 1am, I'm starving and there's nowhere else to go, at least here's a reliable go-to, even when it's not even your Plan D. 

 

Pizzaiolo

 

 

Here's just what you want... more backstory! Mostly just that when I was going to UofT sixteen centuries ago, oftentimes my lunch between classes would be a slice from a Pizzaiolo location near Yonge and Bloor. I also vaguely remember biking with a full Pizzaiolo pizza from Jane and Bloor to the Drake Hotel for a shift one evening. Hey, I'm good at riding a bicycle with a pizza box (a fact which surely surprises no one).

Speaking of surprises, here's one right here: this slice is excellent. Maybe in the past I'd fallen into a habit of constantly getting the same thing whenever I went to Pizzaiolo, and so eventually wrote them off once sick of that particular option. Or, as they rapidly grew from like four locations to thirty seemingly in one summer, the quality seemed stretched thin at certain outposts. 

Everything here works well though: the dough is soft and contained by a nice crisp floor, different flavours (like the buttery bread, oily cheese, seasoned pepperoni, baked cheese bun-like crust) work in tandem to allow each element to pop in on each bite. I always knew their slices weren't bland but the texture eventually turned me off of them, as I increasingly found it dry and some wheat in the dough left a lingering bad impression. 

Here, I'm not really sure what to complain about. This is also by far the biggest slice of the four you see in the picture, in both height and overall real estate, and the most generous with the pepperoni. It's a bit oily, and once again please just give me more sauce underneath everything else (you can tell I like my deep dish pies). The garlic dip is meh? It is, but Heinz makes it, not Pizzaiolo. It's like a cross between the Pizza Pizza and Nova ones, very mayo like, but lacks the particulars that give those two their respective charms. 

This here is a level of pizza without a glaring weakness and so its flaws are merely dictated by its modest ceiling. I'd personally say this is above average, but only just. They pile on the pepperoni generously, the seasonings show more than they give to enhance the cheese which is good, enjoyable texture... it's just now we're in the realm where the difference between good and exceptional lie within the margins and Pizzaiolo lacks any one element to push it into greatness. Eating this wasn't a transcendent food experience and I'm certainly not putting this in my Top 40 pizzas in Toronto anytime soon. But... everything here is good, the solid quality of ingredients noticeable, the toppings plentiful... they (at least this location) seem like they care and put some work into making what they have into a quality product. Well done. But get the lab on developing a better dip, please.

 

Pizzaville

 

  

Our final guest to the pizza party is Pizzaville, and an okay one to depart the shindig on. In terms of quality, it's closer to Nova... just with less distinct flavour but more enjoyable texture.

I went to high school somewhat near a Pizzaville (now long gone I'm sure) and remember really liking their crust. That memory held true: the crust has a nice softness to it, there's little chewiness to it even once the pie isn't hot from the oven. The cheese is fine, a bit heavy in quantity but at least tastes better than the pizza-cheese-substitute #8753 you get with Pizza Pizza. I like the tomato sauce (and again wish there was more of it), it has an agreeable sweet acidity but with an earthier texture than Nova's.

The pepperoni is... there. Not much flavour at all but there is a hint of that cured meat saltiness towards the end. This pie is definitely dominated by cheese and doughiness, which I'm fine with but can get boring after a while. Overall... very, very ok. Their pizzas are better when you pile on more toppings, but for the purpose of a pepperoni slice it just needs more to it, especially when the pepperoni is on the bland side. 

As for the dip, Pizzaville is the only one that didn't offer a garlic sauce so I went for a cheddar habanero. It's very much like a nacho cheese sauce you'd buy from a supermarket, or drizzle on corn chips from one of those condiment pump stations you find in a 7/11 (haven't we all been there before...). It might be slightly better than that, with a nice enough hint of that chili pepper within the zesty cheesiness... not quite my thing either way.

The Judge's Results!

AND THE WINNER IS.... come on it's Pizzaiolo this shouldn't even be a surprise. That slice was genuinely good. How about some rankings:

Pizzaiolo: B-

Pizza Nova: C+ (reliable, but the reheat value docks it some points)

Pizzaville: C (competent but bland at points, better with more toppings)

Pizza Pizza: D (I've had worse, but not many)

Oh, and sauces:

Pizza Nova: A-

Pizza Pizza: B- (like a classic rock band playing the hits)

Pizzaville: D+ (nacho cheese just doesn't work with pizza)

Pizzaiolo: N/A (or a C, whatever)

 

One last bit that surprised me... all of these slices + dips were within a dollar of each other after tax. Pizzaville was the cheapest at five bucks even, Pizzaiolo the priciest at 6.08, with Nova closer to that and Pizza Pizza closer to five if you round it. Neat.  

 

Burnt Ends -- I write about baseball sometimes too, don't ya know. So here's a piece I posted on BattersBox.ca on Monday, mostly just a few observations (good and bad) about the Toronto Blue Jays and some other things happening in MLB this season. If that's your thing, go check it out.

 

reHeat Value -- I talk about this a lot with pizza because I think it's a very underrated aspect when gauging the quality of a certain pie. Dominos when fresh... is pretty all right, I admit. But once it gets cold there's no saving it. 

Now I used to always be a toaster oven guy for reheating pizza, which is effective but can leave your slice overly crunchy around the edges. If your go-to is the microwave... I have to seriously ask you what you're doing with your life (is everything okay? I get asked that a lot so now it's my turn, heh). All the microwave does is goofy up the cheese, make the bottom soggy and dry out the crust to hell. Pizza should not be steamy like that! 

Option three, which I've experimented with before... frying pan on low heat. I like this with thin crust pizzas, but I found with thicker slices it would just become too crisp on the bottom and still cool on top. Solution: place a baking sheet over top the pan, just so some air can escape but the heat mostly stays in and warms up everything more evenly. It really works well, and I did it with the slices you see above (I had a softball practice and wasn't gonna eat everything you see in the picture beforehand). Anyhow give the technique a try and let me know what you think.

 

20 Tastes -- How about a retrospective? This being the 20th edition of these, I'm rather curious to put the previous 19 here in a list and see what I've tried thus far (clearly I'm keeping excellent track of this). Lets take a look:

#1: Popeye's Chicken Sandwich

#2: Wendy's Single with Cheese

#3: KFC Famous Chicken Sandwich

#4: Mamma's Pizza Calzone (beginning of Vegetarian Month)

#5: Ali Baba's Falafel

#6: Fat Bastard Spicy Tofu Burrito

#7: Veggie Burger Showdown (conclusion of Vegetarian Month)

#8: Swiss Chalet Chicken and Ribs

#9: Butter Chicken Roti's Lamb Curry Roti 

#10: Subway Sidekicks

#11: McDonald's Big Mac with Fries

#12: Burger's Priest with Cheese Fries

#13: Rudy's Cheeseburger with Fries 

#14: Osmow's Lamb on the Stix

#15: Burrito Banditos

#16: Pizzaiolo Calzone

#16.5: Popeye's Flounder Sandwich (bonus episode)

#17: Burger King's Whopper with Fries

#18: Freshii Chicken Tacos

#19: Blondie's

#20: you're reading it!

 

All right, now every song I've ever featured! Hey, where is everybody going...   

 

Tuesday Tune -- Not a band I know a whole lot about, but I do absolutely adore this song. For another week, thanks to all of you who have been reading since the beginning or are just checking in for the first time... all the support and knowing people actually read this stuff definitely keeps me going with this. Don't worry, plenty of interesting stuff in the future here on the Tuesday review, but for now stay safe, be well and don't spill the mustard. Take it away: