Now the rainman
gave me two cures
Then he said "jump right in"
The one was Texas medicine
The other was just railroad gin
And like a fool
I mixed them
And it strangled up my mind
Now people just get uglier
And I have no sense of time
Another Thursday, another.... Taste? Huh? Are we sure we have the right 'T' day here?
Regardless of that! This week we checked out some fare from Regino's, a pizza chain with over a dozen locations, with most of them in the outer reaches of the GTA (the one I checked out on Danforth near Warden is the closest they get to downtown T.O).
I've actually reviewed Regino's before, but seeing as that was nearly four years and hundreds of articles ago (yikes)... I figured why not pay them a re-visit. Especially now that my tastes have become so much more refined and sophisticated! (hah).
After working up a hunger by riding the Leslie Street Spit, I made my way up to Danforth and placed an order for a large three topping plus a pound of wings (they had a 28 dollar special for both). Hey, I was really darn hungry.
Starting with the wings, instead of going for a regular 'hot' sauce I decided upon their 'Regino's Spicy' which sounded intriguing. Indeed, this turned out to be a different kind of wing sauce than what you typically find (especially at pizza joints). There wasn't exactly a high level of heat in this 'Spicy' sauce, rather it was more akin to a medium spicy mayo in taste and creamy consistency. Some nice sweetness as well, with a quite pleasant slight zing of lemon going on. It was almost like a tangy secret sauce you might find on a cheeseburger somewhere, except liquidy enough to serve as the drizzle you see above. Interesting and different.
The chicken itself... well these aren't exactly top notch wings, but they're certainly not the worst I've reviewed recently either (*cough* Wing Machine *cough*... it'll be a long time until I let that one go). These were definitely on the oily side though, and somewhat over-fried on the outside (quite a few tougher, chewy bits). For the most part they're okay-ish, the oiliness doesn't leave your stomach turning and many outer bites have a tasty light crispiness to them (like deep-fried chicken skin would). The meat inside is pretty generic. I'd say all of this results in a very average/slightly below average chicken wing, even for a pizza place.
Speaking of that pizza, time to sink our teeth into that. I went for something slightly different toppings-wise: going with bacon, sun-dried tomatoes and garlic (shocker). The bacon is a bacon crumble, which is what it is... and the garlic is barely a flavour presence (very disappointing), so this is not off to a strong start. The sun-dried tomatoes, however, really provide a fairly distinct sweetness and texture to the affair. It's an odd combination with the very salty bacon orbs, but the two actually compliment each other nicely.
This is a very doughy and cheesy pizza, which gives it somewhat of a cheaper taste (the regular tomato sauce is barely there). Quite tasty when fresh (as any decent pizza is) but these types of pizzas tend to be a slog once they get cold since the texture and flavours become repetitive and one-dimensional. One point however in Regino's favor compared to somewhere like a Domino's or Pizza Pizza: this reheats extremely well in the toaster oven. Like, almost to the level of it resembling what it initially was straight out of its original oven. This also, despite the sorely lacking tomato sauce, does at least taste like a real pizza... unlike your typical frozen pie or Little Caesar's which has this empty fakeness to its flavours that are impossible to ignore.
Regino's is probably closer to the Pizza Nova or Pizzaville level of quality than any of the others I just mentioned, which settles them somewhere in the 'C' to 'C+' range. Perfectly adequate, probably best shared when hungry after a long ballgame with your softball team. Overall... Regino's isn't a place I'd recommend actively seeking out (especially considering how scattered across Southern Ontario most of their locations are) but for what it is, it's completely okay and you could certainly do a heck of a lot worse. Very average pizza, while the wings (aside from the interesting sauce) are definitely more of a miss.
Burnt Ends -- Last week I tried another pizza! And wrote about it! Stay tuned for more stuff like this in the future.
Mac Attack -- A brief read on the history of Mac n'Cheese! From its origins as a meal fit for kings, to the era of instant meals like Kraft Dinner, to its recent resurgence as a high end dining option. As somebody who spent many of the pandemic times working on my Mac n'Cheese recipe (with real cheeses, for the record), this was a tasty little article about a very versatile dish.
Sandwiches Galore! -- It's just a long slideshow of sandwiches you can find at various Toronto establishments. Who doesn't like that?
Also... somewhat amazingly I've only tried 2(!) of the 50 in that slideshow. I've been to more than two of those places, just haven't tried sandwiches at several of them. Guess I'm too preoccupied with a different type of food...
Tuesday Tune -- I recently found this album (on CD) at a Value Village, and so I have to share one of my favourite tunes from an all-time classic. The lyrics are just so great and bizarre (greatly bizarre? Bizarrely great?).
That's it for the Taste this week! Next time we'll try to do the usual Tuesday thing, but until then hopefully you enjoyed this 'un'usual Thursday edition. Stay safe, stay cool/warm/whatever you prefer and don't spill that mustard.
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