GATTO (Italian for "cat") is a homey restaurant nestled in on the rather hip stretch of Bloor Street West between Runnymede and Jane. It isn't the cheapest area to frequent, and I still miss the now long departed Yellow Griffin pub that had about 100 different burgers... but it's a nice stretch to take a stroll on a sunny summer Saturday.
This occasion was only two of those three descriptors. I was set to play some Saturday hardball but them lousy rain clouds washed us out, and alas I was already in the west end when the notification came. Already at Runnymede and Bloor with nothing to do, a rumble in my stomach... seemed a good time for some pizza and to finally sample GATTO. Despite having opened in 2018, they aren't a place I've seen or heard a lot of hubbub about... in fact I only discovered them via Google Map search.
Well, as they say, when on Bloor West...
I went in and the decor very much fits a "Italian family restaurant" vibe, with tablecloths, curtains, and a modestly sized front patio even. Checking the menu, I opted for a pizza they call the "Asiago", named for the hometown of GATTO's head chef. Asiago is also, of course, a type of cheese featured on this very pizza... along with spicy soppressata, fior di latte, shallots and San Marzano tomato sauce.
Sigh. Full disclosure... I completely confused "shallots" with "scallions" when ordering this, because my knowledge of onions is clearly terrible. Naturally, I was quite surprised to see these red thin strings of onion instead of a smattering of tasty green ones. I generally don't like non-green onions (unless crispy or deliciously caramelized) and so my first thought upon opening the box was "ohhhhhh crap".
Still... this pizza was not cheap and at this point I was already committed to reviewing it, and now that I've sufficiently cursed my own idiocy lets get into that.
As you can see, GATTO is a wood-fired style of pizza and those specific elements are strongly on display. Decent char on the crust with a nice balance of chewy and soft, nice droopiness at the beginning tip of each slice (always a good sign the dough is freshly prepared) necessitating some slight folding of the slice lest the toppings drip onto the ground. There's the firm and buttery fior de latte cheese, and that sweetly acidic San Marzano tomato sauce bringing it all home.
Perhaps in large thanks to the Pizzeria Librettos and Queen Margheritas (RIP Queen East location) of the Toronto world, this style of pizza has become much more prevalent over the past decade and a half. Which is good! It is a very delicious style of pizza, one very delicate to execute properly (the dough prep and temperature have to be fairly exact considering the high heat of the wood burning oven) but when cooked just right... it's nearly impossible to encounter a truly bad pie in this style.
The drawback of this type of pie becoming more common, at least from the perspective of a reviewer/crazy pizza critique man? A lot of them tend to blend together, taste and quality-wise. I've gotten some flack for keeping Libretto high on my pizza lists (and I will have to re-evaluate them again soon it's been a while) but they've always had an extra "oomph" to their flavours that impressed me everytime... compared to say Terroni, which I found very good but didn't leave that same lasting effect, or conversely Bello... which completely blew me away on every level and I would consider a better pizza than Libretto now.
What I'm saying is: there are a lot of places doing the wood-fired thing now and many of them fall into that range of "very good" but lacking distinction from one another. GATTO is closer to that group than anything particularly outstanding. And this is a very good pizza indeed: the asiago cheese adds some dry gritty taste atop the creamier fior de latte base (texture-wise it's very nicely melted) while the infamous shallots (not scallions) thankfully don't overpower my onion-adverse tongue and instead provide some pleasant sweetness to the affair. The real star topping, however, is the spicy soppressata. Thinly sliced, but that flavour and heat packs a presence indeed. A gently slow building heat that isn't quite as gentle when it peaks... entirely manageable for those who like their spice, but even so the "spicy" description of it is no falsehood.
Overall! Yes I would recommend GATTO. It's a high quality pie, although not (in my mind) a "must try" destination here in Toronto. Reminds me a lot of Goodfellas (the pizza chain not the film, although I hope I amuse you) in just being a very good wood-fired pizza joint (GATTO is probably a little better than Goodfellas, the flavours have just a bit more punch). Nothing that'll completely blow your mind, just a tasty flavourful pizza with on point ingredients (the San Marzano sauce really does make a difference, just wish there was a bit more of it on here). I'd say it's in the low "B+" range... a strong outing, sure, but there are others with that grade that have impressed me more with their uniqueness.
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