From Italian, "terrazza" translates into English as "terrace" which honestly still works as a name for a restaurant, right? "Honey, lets go out for dinner at Terrace"... it's an elegant sounding word! Brings to mind an image of somewhere outside and comfortable, probably with a great view of a landscape. Replace that with just 'patio' and it doesn't quite bring the same sophistication, does it? "Dear, we're going to be late for our reservation at Patio!" These subtle differences between similar meaning words... endless fun.
Terrazza gained some recent publicity when famed online pizza reviewer Dave Portnoy paid them a visit for one of his videos (for the record I visited Terrazza for this review several days before Portnoy did... just saying). This however was not the first time this low key Harbord Street restaurant was associated with a notable event: back in 2022 owner Frankie Lasagna (yes he's happy to tell you that's his real name) notoriously missed catching Aaron Judge's historic 61st home run ball by just a couple of feet ("I needed a fishing net and I would have got it"). Shoutout to my long time friend, occasional pizza-trying-associate and partner in trivia night crime for remembering this delicious nugget.
In my Annette Food Market article I mentioned how Annette is one of my very favourite streets in all of Toronto... Harbord Street likewise would make such a list (future article maybe? Hmmmm). Somewhat overlooked between the much livelier downtown arteries of Bloor and College, Harbord brings a breezy residential quaintness I've always enjoyed immensely. Plenty of little shops, parks, trees, cafes, the western portion of the UofT campus, interesting brick houses... and of course a history of renowned restaurants (Piano Piano, The Harbord Room) have called this stretch home. Plus, they have a bike lane. What's not to like?
The origins of Terrazza are indeed tied tightly to Harbord Street. Frankie Lasagna (he of the infamous home run ball miss) was practically born into the restaurant business: in the late 1980s into the 90s his father ran LIPS (a fast food style joint apparently known for their "Fat Lip Burger") in the same space Terrazza currently occupies. Lasagna and his family grew up in the Harbord/Shaw area and keeping those roots was clearly a priority when the opportunity came in 2008 to open up his own spot. This page on their website explains it all in a little more detail.
This is the part where I come in. See, an old close friend of mine and I had initially planned to finally try Public Gardens on King West. Problem was... this being a Friday evening... they were booked solid all night, not even a waiting list (damn trendiness). So we hatched a Plan B: Giulietta! Neither of us had ever been and they've been on my infinitely growing need-to-try pizza list for some time. Plus the temperature was gentle and made for a pleasant walk. Problem was... this being a Friday evening... Giulietta was also totally booked up! This was a pickle indeed.
I checked my Pizza Map (yes I keep one digitally, don't act surprised) and noticed we now weren't too far from Terrazza (a place I knew very little about beyond their name on my list) and so headed there, hoping this third time was indeed the charm. After all, we were getting pretty darn hungry at this point.
Fortunately, we were in luck and got ourselves a table on their lovely (and quite leafy) streetside patio. Famished as we were, we agreed upon a rose shrimp dish as an appetizer to share... a dish so tasty we both forgot to take a picture of it! (like I said, hungry). Let this now be known as the Legend of the Terrazza Rose Shrimp: anytime you're intending to review something but it's so delicious and you are so starving that you just forget to snap a shot of it... there it is.
Seriously though, that rose sauce was so damn good we were eating what was left of it with our forks.
While I went for the pizza (obviously) my esteemed reviewing compatriot ordered their carbonara, which I acquired some of in exchange for one of my slices.
I've always found carbonara somewhat basic (boring) among pasta dishes (I like em saucy... there's a saying that'll never be taken out of context, nope)... but this Terrazza carbonara really brought a lot of good, deep flavour. There's a consistent eggyness on every bite, a nice touch of ground pepper and crumbled crispy bacon throughout (as well as some thicker strips)... plus the addition of chili flakes (sprinkled generously by my friend) added a good layer of heat to these more grounded, salt and pepper flavours.
While between the two I've no regrets towards my pizza choice (even if I weren't Mister Crazy Pizza Reviewing Man) nonethelsss I was quite impressed with Terrazza's pasta. They certainly made a dish I don't often gravitate towards quite delicious.
With their pizza, alongside a few signature offerings Terrazza does the "build your own creation" thing... which unsurprisingly I endorse wholeheartedly. Setting me loose to devise my own pizza, in a casual dining restaurant no less, is akin to handing your child a large plastic bag in a chocolate shop and saying "have at it".
The wheels of imagination immediately spun into motion upon seeing the potential combinations... almost overwhelmingly so. You can overthink these things, after all. However, I settled on three toppings that are a usual go-to for me: pancetta, goat cheese, and caramelized onions. Salty, creamy, and sweet. Hey, this isn't my first pizza rodeo (Pizzodeo?).
What we have here is a fairly soft and floppy pie: very cheesy (even without the goat cheese) with a very minimal amount of crispiness within the dough. Somewhat oily but not overly so, which is mostly from the onions anyhow.
The toppings are fantastic. The goat cheese brings a fantastic dry creaminess and is spread out considerably and generously throughout the pizza. Caramelized onions bring just that right amount of oniony sting with a sweet softness that combines so wonderfully with all the cheese on here... meanwhile that pancetta... great stuff. A perfect balance of fatty and crispy, never at all chewy and you just enjoy every bit of it you get on here.
I'll say this is a very very good pizza without any real weaknesses. When you get closer to the crust, the heaviness of the cheese gives way to a more airy, spacey texture... with the bread having a notable floury taste to it. It's baked perfectly as well: slight char in the right places, cheeses all the way melted. The tomato sauce, while good, didn't make much of an impression on me (at least not enough of one for me to actually take a note of it).
Still, the toppings are really the star of the show here... and not to sing my own song here (which is obviously what I'm about to do) but that flavour combination of cured pork, goat cheese and sweet onion is a definite winner I highly recommend to anyone. I can't exactly give Terrazza credit for my own creative (and modest) genius... but I will give full credit for utilizing excellent ingredients and preparation in making this taste as darn good as it does.
---
Overall! I think what we have here is quite simple: very good Italian restaurant makes very good pizza. Is it among the absolute best in the city? In my books, not quite... and I'm not going to look up what Dave Portnoy scores it because I'm not all that interested, personally. I was actually here first, damnit!
What I see here is an extremely charming restaurant in a lovely part of Toronto that I indeed recommend checking out if you so please. The pizza doesn't quite have enough of that intangible "whoa" factor that is unmistakable in the absolute greats of the greats... but it is pretty darn good and I'm happy to grade it in the strong "B++" range, placing it in the level of Toronto pizzas you definitely should go out and try someday.
Just make sure, if you also get the shrimp rose... take a picture for me!
No comments:
Post a Comment