This Week In Pizza: Mark's Pizzas

 

 

Like finally giving Pizzeria Badiali their long overdue, trying out Mark's Pizzas was one I'd had kicking around for a while on the "Seriously Must Try" section of the endless list. 

Hey... I don't drive and do you know where this freaking place is? It's in a random plaza in Scarborough (and I mean east Scarborough, not your quaint Warden station Scarborough), nowhere near any GO station, and the TTC bus that goes out there is the one that ends at the Toronto Zoo... which is probably only half a dozen stops later! At this point you're closer to Pickering than East York. 

And yet... they've so consistently been regarded among the best pie Toronto has to offer... I couldn't just throw my hands up in the air and shrug forever. I mean, well I was doing just that... but no longer! Fortunately an old and close friend lives in Guildwood (which still isn't close to Mark's but at least within their delivery range) and so one recent night we collaborated to sample this critically beloved but distant pizza outpost.      

This is an extremely rare occasion wherein I never entered the actual place, so you're all spared my usual "the place looked and smelled like this, it was windy outside, I was wearing a brown toque blah blah" shtick (some people seem to not like those parts). However, we're not quite yet jumping straight into things because Mark's Pizzas has a very interesting website. They go into a lot of detail about their ingredients, their prep and process, there's a sweet shoutout to their small staff by name, an opening confession of sorts from the owner (presumably "Mark"?) explaining he is not a trained chef but just somebody who likes to cook for people... and then most interesting of all: a half hour video of him making an actual pizza! There's too much there to really describe in further detail so I really recommend checking all this out yourself. Really fascinating stuff if you are a pie nerd and its extremely rare for a pizza place to go so into the thick weeds on their website. 

More good news: because there were three of us (my friend and her mom, and then later her hungry brothers who probably ate the leftovers *edit: confirmed)... we got to try two pizzas! And let me tell you, these are bigger than your usual pies as well. I'm guessing probably 16" instead of your usual 12" (so an extra large at most chains). 

Feel like I've been sampling a lot of pepperoni pizzas lately in these reviews. Regardless, this one puts a different kind of spin on things. On paper, it's really just their pepperoni pie with basil and some hot honey (which is smartly on the side, bless them). Basil is the most classic pizza topping of all time (duh)... but basil and pepperoni isn't really a duo I often think of on a pizza. If executed right it would make sense right? Sausage and basil work brilliantly in all sorts of pastas together... 

There's also something about basil on a pizza that's just so appealing to the eye, and the presentation here fits that bill. While the cheese does look more on the yellow side, meaning a bit more oil/grease within (the contrast with the pure white box doesn't help) the blend of colours on this pizza is really quite stellar... I especially like the outer layer of the red sauce around the crust and then the core of pepperoni and cheese in that center. This may seem like much ado about nothing but at this visual level you can tell this was a pie built and crafted with precision and care. It bodes well.

Now for the important stuff. Unlike the New York City style slices I've reviewed a lot lately, this exchanges that crisp base for something much softer and floppier. Not a bad thing: the foundation is still firm enough to hold up the toppings, which is good because this thing is loaded with pepperoni. Deceptively so, like a secret base of them were hiding beneath the cups and cheese resting on the surface. 

It's a simple pie, but a very good one. With all that salty pepperoni and shavings of dry cheese, that basil and hot honey are crucial in balancing out those heavy flavours. The basil is a pungent, leafy presence... only slightly baked and so keeping much of its distinctive taste and moisture. Refreshing! And crucial: the sheer amount of pepperoni on this thing could've been entirely overpowering (and texture-wise it kind of is, making this a somewhat chewy pizza in a meaty way)... but that basil just gives the tongue a reprieve from all that cured saltiness. 

As for the hot honey... well hot honey makes almost any pizza better. There are exceptions (a white mushroom pizza with lots of blue cheese, for instance) but when you have a pie so heavy with pork as this one... adding a bit of sweet and a sneaky bit of spice to it really brings out more of the flavours within, like adding a keyboard part that fits neatly into an already great melody. Once again, bless Mark's for keeping the hot honey on the side rather than drizzling all over once fresh out of the oven. This both allowed us to add however much we wanted to each slice, but more crucially kept the honey from melting into the slices while the pizza was steaming hot... which would turned the affair into a sticky mess (and lessened the taste). Seems like obvious stuff, but in my experience you'd be surprised.

The sauce and crust don't stand out as much, but both do their jobs admirably. This is more of a softer crust, pillowy and only crunchy on those top charred bits. It's more of a hearty tomato sauce with a faint sting, which combines well with the pepperoni. As for the cheese, you can see (in the photo of the entire pie) how it mostly congregates in the center... leading into a sort of texture journey if you eat your slices from the pointy end working towards the crust: gooey cheese initially and then much saucier as you approach the edge, with pepperoni prominent throughout. Quick aside, now there's an article for another day: how do you eat your slices? I'll have to remember that.

 

     

Moving onto the second pizza, a vegetarian option as my dear friend's mother requested as such. What we've got here is a white pizza with arugula, squash, mozzarella, goat cheese and some shaved pecorino? I can't find this pie on their website anymore (must've been a special) and so I'm guessing what that last cheese is... but it's definitely a shaved hard-type of fromage.

In an absolute shocker, both my friend and I preferred this slice over the pepperoni one! My credentials as a meat-lover (such as they were) are in serious jeopardy. What is most interesting are the bits of squash: I'd never tried squash on a pizza before, possibly have never even seen anybody offer squash on a pizza, and the thought to put it on there had definitely not once crossed my mind. \

Here, the squash really works wonders: it's extremely well prepared (more juicy than firm) with a thick jam-like texture and just the perfect amount of sweetness. That sweetness really gives dimensions to this pie, which would otherwise be just the leafy spice of arugula and a mix of creamy cheeses (I would still eat that though). 

Whereas the pepperoni pie was tasty but unbalanced, this particular pizza has that harmony between the elements. You can really taste the mix of cheeses more (and the goat cheese keeps the composition softer once cool), the arugula and squash pair perfectly (like a good restaurant salad) and it loses nothing taste-like when cold. A truly unique creation and a very impressive one that I liked considerably more than I thought I would.

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Overall! Even had we stuck with just the pepperoni pie, I'd still be giving this a very good grade. The addition of that squash pizza though... absolute game changer. Like pulling off a highlight reel dunk instead of an acrobatic layup... both are good but only one of those really gets the crowd off their feet. 

I haven't described the mozzarella cheese much so I have to mention it's really marvelous in a "behind the scenes" kind of way. It doesn't jump out in particular but is solid and doing important work throughout... giving a slight buttery hint, still keeping its moisture when when cold... it's the crucial glue holding it all together (man I hate the unappealing way I describe good mozzarella as "glue" but you know what I mean here with my analogy).

Mark's Pizza definitely gets a firm recommendation from me. Their only major failing is just being so damn far from anything (apologizes to east Scarboroughers, but you're used to it I'm sure). Since we tried two very different pizzas, individually I'd grade the pepperoni one a high "B+" and the squash an "A--"... so going right down the middle Mark's gets a "B++" from me. Really damn good pizza and probably makes my Top 30 in Toronto comfortably. 

Check them out! But, if like me you live west of Warden Avenue, or Midland Avenue, or Brimley Road, or McCowan Road, or Markham Road, or Scarborough Golf Club, or Morningside Avenue... its quite a trek from any of those and they do have weird hours, so definitely check ahead of time before embarking on the adventure.          

This Week In Pizza: A Kipling Station Double Feature

 

Two pizza reviews for the usual price of none! 

Initially my plan was to review these two places individually... but alas I realized I didn't have as much as usual to discuss with either of them (especially the second one). Solution: squish these two neighbouring joints together into one Franken-review. Hey, the slices I ordered from both places happened to be fairly similar... so why not a direct comparison? So that's the idea here, although one was way, way better than the other...

Anyhow, the Kipling/Bloor-Dundas West area isn't one likely to win a Walk Score competition... but there are some noted food joints pretty close to the train station... longtime staple Apache Burger probably the most famed among them. This was of course a mission for pizza, and my two targets were Donatelli's and Milano's. 

 

Starting with Donatelli's Pizzeria: this was a spot highly recommended to me by a pizza-knowing baseball friend (who still hasn't tried Descendant last we spoke) and it's a good thing he brought Donatelli's up a few times because this is probably not a place I would've discovered otherwise. For instance, BlogTo has yet to write an article on them and they can't go two days without burping out some kind of click-baity pizza piece. There is a notable YouTuber (5 million subscribers??? Curse my stubbornness with the written word!) who did a video on Donatelli's called "Discovering Toronto's Hidden Pizza Gem", which does seem kind of like a spoiler in the title but it's a four minute video so what are gonna ya do. 

Aside from that and another (much less viewed) video sampling... there just isn't a whole lot of content about Donatelli's out there. Is this seriously going to be the first actual written review of the place? I mean, cool... good for me *pats self lightly on back* but the place has been open for about a year (best guess) and you'd think by now one of the major papers or Toronto Life would've wandered in. Donatelli's does have an Instagram page also and as far as those go this is a pretty bland one: the pizzas look great but why are they posting the exact same pictures of their specials every... single... day. For real. They have over 1200 posts and I'm gonna estimate 1000 of them are of the same nine pictures over and over again (obviously I did not scroll down that far to find out, I don't hate idle time enough to do that to it). 

All this backstory stuff now cast away forever, lets get into the good stuff. Donatelli's is yet another very small joint: you walk in and there's a counter to order from, a drink fridge, and some stools by the entrance window to sit at. Classic pizza parlour setup, and you can tell the place is still fairly new because the tiled walls are still shiny and white. 

To my immediate concern, there were only two types of slice available at this moment and both looked like they'd been sitting for a while. Bad luck on me! I wasn't going to wait around for something fresher either: I live on the opposite side of town, the sun was setting fast, plus I still had to go try the other place. So, I went for the best looking of the limited available options: a pepperoni slice with jalapenos. Normally a good combination, but those peppers looked awfully dried out. 

Apparently Donatelli's either cooks or reheats (or both) their pies in a conveyor oven (I wasn't watching super closely but it definitely didn't look like your standard pizza oven). I will say the effect was similar to reheating a thicker pizza in a toaster oven: it gets a little dry on the edges but at the right temperature you can restore most of the softness. One issue though is you can't get it steaming hot this way (without losing even more moisture) and so it cools again very quickly. 

Still, despite those dry edges... there was a good amount of lighter crisp to this, the crust especially was much fresher than I'd initially feared. Good balance of crunch and doughy layers. As for the flavours... some pretty good dimensions here! I think they (very smartly) added those additional dollops of tomato sauce(after the oven)to order and that stuff really explodes in the mouth with a zing. Very finely blended, almost like a puree, and it strongly leans on the sweeter side. 

Good pepperoni as well, salty but not too much so, and both are tastes that linger in the mouth for quite some time after each bite (always a good sign quality-wise... call it the Anti-Little Caesar's Effect). The crust almost has a hint of roasted corn to it, while mostly tasting like a fried bread but without excess oil. It's also nicely seasoned, and the faint shavings of some parm-like cheese do add a nice extra subtle taste to it all. A lot of good stuff going on here, there's terrific balance and texture... and once again if you've been reading my reviews I prefer slightly too much sauce over slightly too little.

Unfortunately it's far from perfect and I think there's an easy obvious blame for that. I didn't get much of the cheese at all, really on any bite, as its presence was very much a numb non-factor. Likewise the jalapenos, while plentiful, emerged only occasionally with any kind of faint bite to them. The problem is clear: that slice be sitting out too long and while with expert reheating you can save some of it... you can't save it all and the dulled cheese and peppers were the biggest casualties of that. Even the second half of my slice, now entirely cooled again... really lacked a lot of the vividness I'd so enjoyed before. Still entirely fine lukewarm/cold, actually... but a lot of the sparkle had been lost.

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I'm going to give my final thoughts and grades at the very end. For now, lets move onto Milano's Pizza (which will be shorter* I promise)

 

 

Compared to the new-ish Donatelli's, Milano's might be the oldest active pizza spot in Toronto I've reviewed (now that Vesuvio is gone, RIP). According to their website: Milano's opened in 1963 and when you walk into the place, see all the photos on the wall of junior sports teams they've sponsored, polaroids of former staff and a bunch of other random nic-nacs that wouldn't be out of a place in a legion hall... yeah you definitely believe it. 

I actually had tried Milano's before, back in 2020 (great year am I right). Vaguely, I remember being pretty impressed, and was keen to rank them on The Big List version one. Of course, this was about a week before the 'Some Creep on The Danforth Steals My Phone' incident, which meant the loss of (among many other more important things) all of the photos I'd taken of pizzas sampled that year. Like I said, 2020. Great year.

Well now, we're finally back and here's Milano's. This was my second pepperoni-type slice in about the span of twenty five minutes, but this one (as you can see in the photo above) is much more of a no frills straight-forward attempt. 

Starting with the positives: it smelled great. If I'd grown up with a pizza place like this nearby, I would still be tasting the nostalgia while breathing the cold December air. The sauce... more on the herbal side which I'm normally not a fan of, but at least you can taste it throughout the slice and it works well with the thin light crisp of the base. Very underwhelmed thus far, though.

The rest of it? Just not a lot going on. Generic crust (little in the way of flavour beyond ordinary bread), unremarkable cheese and the type of pepperoni you've probably had a thousand times on okay-ish pizzas, which is what this is. Nothing offensive, but nothing that stands out in an especially delicious way either. It reminds me a lot of Pizza Nova, actually... and I mean Nova now not ten years ago when they were still pretty good. Even the little pepperonis are similar, but worst of all was trying to reheat it in the pan (thin crust). Avert your children's eyes (unless you want them to suddenly go vegan) and behold this horror: 

 

        

For real. After several minutes the cheese refused to get even slightly warm and gooey, so I flipped the thing (toppings down just for a quick minute), and I still couldn't get this cheese to melt (congealing seemed more it's dance). Trust me, it tasted about as good as its radioactive shell looked. After two bites I gave up and picked the pepperonis off just to eat those). 

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Overall! I don't think it's going to be much of a shocker which pizza I preferred. Yeah I can't even make a good fake-out because this isn't even close. I'm not going to dock them for that awful reheat (it doesn't help) but Milano's was just so blah... beyond an okay texture before you got to the crust, this was like every random mediocre pizza I ate in my teens/early 20s. Very forgettable, no seasonings, extra hint of secondary flavour, and so much of a Pizza Nova clone I was worried the heartburn hounds would get me good (they didn't, so points for Milano's there). For an old school type of place, this was probably a damn fine pizza twenty five to thirty years ago... but the playing field has jumped several levels in that span and flavour-wise they've been left well behind. I'm obviously not going to recommend them, but it's a quirky little time capsule to visit as a place at least. For that, I'll be kind and award a "C+". But that's the only memorable thing about it.

As for Donatelli's... I could tell (especially with the bland Milano's slice following them) that there is some good idea of flavours and quality here. Those two tomato sauces couldn't be more different, and I liked the little touches around the margins Donatelli's did as well (the seasoning, roasted corn hint in the crust). Alas... I can't completely look beyond that numbed cheese and those stale jalapenos that just didn't bring the ooph I was hoping for. 

However, clearly I'm feeling kind today and I will chalk those shortcomings up to just arriving at a bad time. It won't change my grade for now, but there was clearly enough here that I think another visit is deserved... only this time ensuring I get something straight out of the oven. Because if the entire pie can be as terrific as those glimpses I got a sense of... now we're talking something special, perhaps "Top 20 in Toronto" special. Lets call it a strong "B+" in the meantime... which is enough that I would recommend trying them out (but again, its gotta be fresh because that conveyor belt oven isn't keeping anything warm for long in December weather).

 

So much for keeping this review short, eh. I even dialed down the personal backstory more than usual! Like how the first time I tried Milano's, I was actually at Kipling Station to buy a bike from a dude off Kijii (the bike ended up being a lemon and got stolen within a month. 2020! Great times). Anyhow so after I bought the bike I noticed a little winding street leading up to Bloor and so with th  

     

This Week In Pizza: Pizzeria Badiali

 

 

For starters, I'd like to thank both cold December weather and the Prince Street Pizza sensation here in Toronto. The rare times I'd passed by Badiali, or spoken about it with other people... the prospect of huge hungry lineups dissuaded me from making the trip. Solution: pick a cold cloudy day in the infancy of Canadian winter! And so I went, during the middle of a Thursday afternoon (after yet another internally disparaging job interview... my least favourite running joke ever). 

They were indeed busy but there were only four/five people ahead of me in the inside queue (which is way better than having to wait for half an hour outside, which I'd feared). Overall, the whole thing took maybe five minutes, probably less... and there's something about their interior atmosphere I quite like. You have the big window facing out onto the corner of Argyle and Dovercourt, surrounded by houses, and yet there's so much traffic both vehicle and pedestrian that sitting by this window would be perfect for an afternoon of people watching. It's no surprise this spot was a cafe in previous incarnations. 

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Thing is, I had tried Badiali pizza before. A couple of years ago, actually. Similarly on a random afternoon, I went with a baseball friend who knows his pie, along with some of his pizza loving chums... and we split one of their vodka sauce pizzas. Problem was, I wasn't feeling super great that day and my sense of taste and appetite was greatly diminished. It was a serious struggle to even finish one slice! Shocking, I know. In that moment I could get a faint sense of the quality (think I mentioned it reminded me of a really good grilled cheese sandwich in pizza form) but with my senses diminished as such... it felt dishonest to properly review or grade them.      

For a couple of years I sat on this one... knowing they deserved a second chance for me to fully appreciate what they were about, but the opportunity to easily do so wasn't quite so easy. If I still worked at The Drake Hotel? I could've knocked this one off a week later! ...but The Drake was rid of me a good twelve years before Badiali even opened, and I'm rarely ever in that area at all anymore. Don't even recognize that stretch of Queen West at all! Plus, as I mentioned in my Prince Street review... I hate waiting in line for anything (even pizza), and the summertime lineups for Badiali tend to bend around the block. 

So instead, I visited Badiali on a reasonably chilly December afternoon. Also like the Toronto Prince Street, Badiali is a quaint but small operation on the inside... with just a tiny little waiting space and a short lineup corral leading to the counter (thus why you see lineups often stretching long into the outdoors, which also has stanchions set for lineups). Unlike Prince Street, Badiali has a little fenced in patio adjacent to the Dovercourt road sidewalk... a space completely closed and without tables or chairs for the current winter season. Man... I picked simultaneously a good time of year to avoid the lines but a terrible time to comfortably eat the damn thing. Luckily there's a park nearby for resourceful bums-I-mean-pizza-tasting-experts like myself.    

Hey, how about we talk about the damn pizza already. Badiali offers slices (bless them) and as you see in the lead photo I got two of them to try: their standard pepperoni offering and a vodka sauce creation (the very one I'd tried on the first go). First with the pepperoni slice, check out this additional picture:

That is what you call a perfectly thin slice, my friends. You can see the crispness of it leaping at you from the pixels... but oftentimes a slice so thin can be unappealingly crunchy and gritty (there's a place called Baldini's in Leslieville I tried that was so extreme in this case, even baked to order, I didn't even want to review it. Not a horrible pizza, but definitely a swing and a miss). 

Well, Badiali does not have that particular problem whatsoever. The texture is flawless: you get that thin crunch but its soft with some give to it, without any kind of dry crumbliness whatsoever. Frankly, this was an example of a term I'd like to coin as "Love At First Bite" (surely no one as clever as I has ever thought of that one before, right?). I find with the absolute upper upper tier of pizzas I've tried, you simply know instantly how incredibly excellent they are. I'll describe this sensation in more detail at the end but needless to say I wouldn't mention it were this not one of those occasions. 

What exactly is Badiali doing so well, you ask? As I mentioned, the texture of both slices was sublime despite being notably different (the vodka slice much softer). The gentle baked crisp of the pepperoni slice made it a pure delight to chomp into, while the pillowy crust counter-balanced all that. This crust was simply exceptional: almost like a freshly baked light doughy breadstick with a faint hint of butter and garlic. I was tempted to get a dipping sauce for these slices (and I recall their dips are quite good from that first trip) but fundamentally this crust needs none of that. 

Speaking of basics... this is a very simple and common concoction: it's just a pepperoni slice. However, like a classic Margherita, only because its simple doesn't mean it has to be boring... and there are little flairs in here that enhance and make this pizza so dynamic flavour-wise. You can't quite see it but there is just a faint addition of grana padano (and pecorino) shavings on here, adding a subtle hint of dry and salty cheese atop this affair. For the record, any kind of cheese in the parmesean-like family is a wicked addition to a pepperoni pizza... even my dad did this when we'd get 2-4-1 pizzas back when I was in Grade Three. 

But what is most important is how well you nail those basics, which Badiali does. The sauce is likewise terrific, vivid with tomato goodness (it leans sweet but not too sweet or acidic,... fantastic balance). Good pepperoni (just enough grease and crisp on the edges) and the cheese firmly holds it all together... not a standout (at least on this slice) but you know it's there doing its thing at a high level. Again, despite the basics of these ingredients... this pepperoni slice was a collage of flavours working in symphonic harmony with one another, creating a song that lingers on the tongue and mind well after the final movemen-I mean bite. Truly one of the very best pepperoni slices I've ever had this side of New York City... and I don't think it was immediately fresh out of the oven either. Huh. 

 

  

I'll try to be more brief with the vodka sauce slice, as by its nature there is less to discuss here. Once again, simplicity! This is just a cheese pizza with vodka sauce in for tomato sauce (and vodka sauce is a type of tomato sauce anyhow). 

While probably I prefer their pepperoni offering, this is likewise a terrific slice. Much more subtle, soft and cheesy than that other one: gone is that irresistible crispness and instead you get a pleasant bigger sensation on each bite. The butteryness of the cheese (they say its fior di latte on this one instead of mozza and the difference is evident) almost expands in the mouth on each bite. Just fabulous flavour, texture with just the right amount of it to not be lacking or overpowering. 

Getting into the vodka sauce itself... this is a very different vodka sauce than the one I recently tried with Prince Street (sorry to keep using them as a reference* but hey, both are NY styles). The Prince Street vodka sauce was excellent but much more aggressive than Badiali's, with a stronger oniony/garlicy punch and very oily. Badiali's vodka sauce aims more for the subtle: its far creamier, with a tiny hint of tomato sweetness and the faint poking of onion on the back of the tongue. A beautiful compliment instead of a headline attraction, dominating the overall flavour much less. To be honest I'm not sure which I'd prefer as they're difficult to compare... both are great in their own ways.

Finally... the reheat test. Despite my own screwup (keeping the slice in the pan on low heat juuuust a bit too long, stupid music distracting me)... yeah Badiali nails that one too. It (me) made the bottom a bit too crunchy from the pan heat, but the flavours were completely reawakened (it was the vodka one I reheated) and the wonderful taste and texture of the cheese was still there. Even the crust held its soft dough... marvelous.

 

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Overall. Yeah this pizza sucked don't go there. Like and subscribe West Collier Street, ring the bell we've got merch and pizza shaped hats on our webzone for sale.

No in seriousness though, like wow. Damn! A rare occasion I couldn't even find a minor fault in anything here. Uhhhh.... there was a bubble in my pepperoni slice? And even that was fine because it was still soft! Badiali passes every test I look for in a pizza. Flavours? Fantastic, rich and lingering. Creativity? Nothing crazy, but the sheer simplicity of their vodka slice deserves some points for pulling that off so effectively. Atmosphere? I love the small, cafe-like feel of the interior... plus I didn't have to wait an hour in line! Texture? Second to none. So enjoyable on each bite, and different on either slice.

It says a lot when you can keep things so simple, and yet execute them at such a high level that your little spot can be the buzz of the pizza game for so long. They aren't re-inventing the wheel here, but they make one hell of a wheel nonetheless. For me, this is easily one of the ten best pizza places in Toronto at the moment... probably even Top Five. 

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Earlier in this review I mentioned the concept of "Love At First Bite". To me, its a sensation of instantly realizing this is something incredibly damn amazing... something that makes your taste buds light up like a pinball machine with multiball. You legitimately want to say "Oh my gawd" aloud. It's a sensation that can be fleeting once you sort of get used to the flavours you're experiencing... say by the fifth sample its still pleasant but not as overwhelmingly transcendent as that initial greeting. To run with the 'love' analogy... it's similar to a first kiss with somebody. While consistently wonderful, its the first one that burns into your memory. 

Well... Badiali was consistently wonderful throughout every bit I got to enjoy of these two slices. Phenomenal pizza, barely a flaw or a scuff to it, and I can't recommend them enough. A true contender. They get an "A" from me, and I don't give those out generously/really ever. One of the best pizzas I've had in this city.  

 

 

 

*final Prince Street Pizza reference! PSP is really incredibly good.... but Badiali is better. A full notch better, even     

This Week In Pizza: Liberty Pizzeria

 

 

Give me liberty! Or give me... pizza!

Also: Liberty Pizza is not located in the Toronto neighbourhood of Liberty Village... they call the newly transforming Regent Park home instead. So why are they called this? Whaaaa? As ridiculously expensive and underwhelming as District Pizza is... I at least get why they're called that.

At the risk of skipping my usual dawdling intro paragraphs (I'm sure all you readers are heartbroken), I'm sorry to say that Liberty Pizza was a solid disappointment. Google Reviews seem to love them, with an average score of 4.7 as I write this. I'm sorry, but huh? Was the best pizza option in this area a Domino's or something for like thirty years, and so anything slightly better in quality gets a laundry basket of undeserved praise? Actually... if the only pizza I could eat for three decades was Domino's... well I suppose by now this would be a cheeseburger or shawarma blog instead but nevertheless!

I'm being somewhat unnecessarily mean because Liberty isn't actually bad, but it also is distant from amazing and I had higher expectations for this one. Especially at the price (nearly 30 bucks)... you've gotta bring something more than this. It also reheats terribly (more on that later) and frankly none of the key components of a pizza (sauce, cheese, bread) are strong or notable enough to elevate its most lacking elements. 

 

 

So what exactly is the problem? Why is this humble (but experienced) pizza reviewer so dismayed by a place with consistently excellent reviews? Well, I'll start with the positives: the thin crust texture works to its favour. The pickled onions are pleasant and provide some delicate sweetness. Annnnnd that's all. Seriously, like I said... nothing here is especially bad, but none of it jumps out either. 

As you possibly know I tend to like sampling unusual topping combinations as a way of judging the creative skill of a pizza joint. One of the many reasons I like Descendant so much is because many of their pies combine ingredients you might not have thought could work so well together. It's a tricky balance: I don't like crazy for the sake of crazy, but there's also a reason I don't just order a cheese or pepperoni pizza everytime I try new places.  

This here is Liberty's "chorizo" pizza, additionally with pickled onions and sliced potatoes. While I strongly defend pineapple and even chicken (when done right) on pizza... potatoes on a pie has never been a winner for me. Basically, I've never encountered one where it works, and despite initial optimism Liberty doesn't pull it off either. Tomatoes and potatoes (rhyme time!) are an awkward fit to begin with, the starch doesn't blend well with the saucey acidity... and then factoring in the dough... you get a lot of bites of flavours and textures clashing. A white pizza with potatoes makes way more sense: give it a creamier, cheesier base and it can blend together (in theory) nicely. Here, with tomato sauce? Just doesn't work for me.

But the real issue aren't the potatoes, which themselves are nicely sliced and individually enjoyable. No, it's the sausage. You call this a chorizo pizza, and sadly the chorizo is the topping that stands out the least. You barely notice it: not much flavour, the bits of it are tiny, and well frankly can you even see it in my photographs? No, this is more of an onion and potato pizza, with faint notions of pork. Man, what a let down. 

It's also waaaay too overseasoned. Normally I like a pinch of pepper or garlic or whatever as a nice compliment, but this is just overkill. Seasoning shouldn't overshadow the main attractions, and frankly considering how bland/not a presence the chorizo is on this pizza... it feels like an attempt to hide it. Even tasting one of the very little bits of pork on its own... just bleh. Little flavour.

For whatever reason... reasons that make little sense to me... it reheats horribly. Even in the pan, low temperature... it gets super dry and crusty, and loses the little flavour it clings to. At this point... a complete waste of money. 

Overall. Yeah no. I don't get it. Maybe it's my fault for ordering the weirdest pizza on the menu? But even then... the fundamentals were so underwhelming that I'm confident saying even if I'd ordered a standard pepperoni pie, I wouldn't recommend Liberty Pizza. Despite this review being largely negative, they legitimately aren't terrible... I'd take this over most big pizza chains... but that's not a compliment. Unlike a place like Otherside, which had considerable strengths brought down by considerable weaknesses... Liberty didn't show me anything worth considering a second chance. Sorry, but it's a "C" from me. Being so terrible and barely edible on the reheat clinches it. Not impressed whatsoever. 

This Week In Pizza: BIG 3 Detroit Style Pizza

 

 

 

BIG 3 is one of those pizza places I probably discovered on one of BlogTo's typical hype articles. "NEW RESTAURANT IS SOOOOO POPULAR YOU HAVE TO ORDER YOUR FOOD SIXTEEN YEARS AHEAD OF TIME! WHOAAA!!!"

Indeed, there was an article back in 2021 that gave this very notion about Big 3. And yet... they've never really come up in discussions I've had with fellow pizza lovers, nor has Big 3 been recommended to me on any online forum I inflict-oops-I-mean-share my work upon.

They've been on my list for a while regardless, because I'm the Pokemon of pizza reviewers (gotta try em all!). After a rather disappointing job interview one recent Tuesday, I slowly made my way from Midtown Toronto back into my old neighbourhood of Yonge and Bloor, eager for some pizza.  

This isn't an area I visit at all anymore, not since I moved out on my own well over a decade ago, despite obvious nostalgia (my old high school is also nearby). Much of it has become unrecognizable to me even in that relatively short time... towering modern condos replacing little places and spots I can still recall vividly in the fading recesses of my mind. Yonge street is especially this way, but Church Street still retains some kernels of the places I remember. As I was about to enter Big 3, which is a few doors down from the 519 community center... I suddenly realized the location of Big 3 Pizza is precisely where a really great sandwich shop/deli named The Garage (I think?) used to be... a place I haven't thought about in well over twenty years. 

It's located inside an old brick house, where you walk up a short set of curved steps and the ordering area must've been a living room many decades ago. As such, it's a tight space with minimal seating... but fortunately it was a rarely pleasant and sunny November afternoon and the place wasn't exactly packed either. One aspect that caught my eye, and I'd noticed this online when checking out their menu, is that they also sell frozen versions of some of their particular pies. This is becoming fairly common now: Libretto, General Assembly and Piano Piano all do the same thing... but Big 3 is the first Detroit style pizzeria I've seen doing this (and they provide fairly specific cooking instructions as well).

Since I don't often carry around an oven with me... I went for something fresh: a pizza cleverly named "Take Me To Church" featuring mushrooms, sopressata, ricotta dollops, mozzarella, truffle oil and globs of tomato sauce on top (their website seems to have the wrong photo for this one). 

 

 

Toronto has quite a few Detroit style pizzerias now. None have even come close to matching Descendant, but Slowhand in Leslieville is truly worth a visit... and others like 8Mile certainly do the style reasonable justice. Aside from the semi-gross and expensive Oswald's, Toronto's take on the Detroit style tends to hit a solid baseline.

BIG 3 falls right along that baseline. There are some elements I really like, and others that underwhelm. The mozzarella cheese? Very meh and generic, like store bought shredded fare. The tomato sauce on top? Hearty and flavourful, like it belongs in a delicious lasagna. The sopressata? Fairly okay, not much of a spice or flavour presence. The ricotta dollops? Invaluable... the truffle taste seems centralized within them and it really elevates what would otherwise be a very repetitive, mediocre pizza into an interesting one. The mushrooms are mushrooms, nothing special or terrible. 

How about the texture? Is it enjoyable to eat? Overall... yes! Once again, the mozzarella really holds it back... it's just bland and once cold gets in the way of everything else. But despite that, they get the textures of a good Detroit style pie right: that thin crispiness on the edges, wonderful soft doughiness in the center. Good on the reheat as well: didn't go stale or lose a whole lot. Aside from the truffly ricotta (a strong presence sure but I would've liked just a little more of it) there's a good balance and distribution of the toppings (especially counting the tomato sauce as a topping, which is probably my favourite aspect of this pizza).

Overall. There isn't a whole lot more to say beyond: there are a few things they do very well, and a few that fall into generic territory. I do wonder if they have a prepared base for certain pizzas (frozen or otherwise) and then add required toppings as necessary, since it would explain the very forgettable cheese and salami. When you sell your pizzas frozen as well... I tend to put two and two together. 

Even if that is the case... well I don't recommend Big 3 as a "must try" but they're good enough to earn a lower end "B" from me, because like I said this had more tasty elements going for it than not. It's a weird one because if everything worked, it'd be pretty terrific... but its like they cheaped out on particular things and so it's a fairly uneven experience.  

        

This Week In Pizza: Prince Street Pizza

 

 

After trying well near 150 pizza places in Toronto over the past half decade... there just aren't that many spots left for me to review that have a high level of hype surrounding them. It's pretty much why many of my more recent reviews have been more obscure/off the path types of places, in hopes of finding a another hidden diamond somewhere (and Pizza On Fire proves they do indeed exist). In terms of hot spots, Badiali has been the biggest one on my list for a while (I've tried them before but need to again to properly write about it) but now perhaps a new champion of Toronto pizza hype has emerged: Prince Street. 

You see, Prince Street is in fact one of the more famous New York pizza joints. A couple of years back a friend of mine tried them there and gave a glowing account, even sending a picture so as to playfully tease me (it did look pretty darn good). Then around autumn of last year, it was announced that Prince Street would be opening a location in downtown Toronto as part of a new condo/mall named The Well. Fast forward to now, and here we are... with the Toronto edition of Prince Street Pizza featuring lengthy lineups just as the New York one does as well. 

Obviously, me being me, I had to sample them for myself at some point... but this also clashed with my intense dislike of waiting in line for anything. The additional factor of not living downtown made me fairly content with the reality I'd be putting this one off for a while, at least until said hype slowed down a bit. However, as often seems to occur, I just happened to be passing through the area after work and thought "Screw it, I'm right here. I'll suck it up, wait and now see what all this fuss is really about".

The inside setup is a little tight, almost like a fast food joint where you walk around a coral to approach the counter. There's no seating (again the inside is tiny) and even the waiting area is awkwardly small and right by the entrance/exit. They offer full pies but I wasn't keen on lingering around another 25 minutes, and besides their selection of slices is impressively extensive. Prince Street is fairly unusual in that they (or at least the Toronto one, can't speak for NY) offer both their standard and square style of slices. Wanting the full experience, I went for one of each: the Naughty Pie for the square slice, and the Fancy Prince for the standard. 

 

Same photo twice! Because it's so nice. Starting off with the Fancy Prince, which is essentially their take on a classic Margherita... hoo boy. This is really something. The tomato sauce explodes with vivid sharp flavour, and there is plenty of it (like they read my mind!). It's a thin, crisp slice, toeing a good balance of soft and crunchy... with both textures playing off each other fantastically. The cheese is fairly understated but good in its own right, sort of acting like the glue holding the other flavours together (and not tasting like actual glue, thankfully). 

What I really enjoyed most, however, was the shredded basil. Basil in this form added such a leafy fragrance to this slice, spread about on nearly every bite it's a sneaky good element among all these other strong flavours and textures. It's a simple slice all right... simply phenomenal. 

The Naughty Pie is the square slice you see, and a very different kind of experience. While it looks similar to the rectangular Detroit style, it's a bit different in composition and doesn't have that baked crispy cheese along the edges. To describe the Naughty Pie, this is a vodka sauce base with pepperoni, a drizzle of honey, regular mozzarella and a nice glob of ricotta cheese. 

The vodka sauce is the real spotlight here: it's a fairly oniony, subtly spicy (it builds slow) sauce that seems to seep even into the depths of the dough, or at least the oil does. This gives the slice an element of messiness (as most deeper dish pies are) and also a very consistent flavour and texture throughout. The slice itself is very soft, aside from the pepperoni parts, and impressively not very sticky either considering the addition of honey (you don't really taste it, aside from an occasional hint of sweetness). 

It's a good, flavourful oily pepperoni cup, but even more key is that ricotta cheese: without it, this would still be a high quality slice, just very oniony and oily... but the ricotta is a true stroke of pizza genius, countering that strong flavour with delicate creaminess that acts almost as a filter through it. Now you have a true dynamic combination of taste and texture, and it all works together beautifully.

 

Overall! God. Damn. I certainly expected it to be good, but considering the lineup and all the surrounding hype (people legitimately taking selfies in line) I wouldn't have been shocked if my final verdict leaned towards "great but overrated". Strike both of those descriptors. A few bites in I messaged my very same friend who had tried Prince Street in New York and said "half an hour in line, and totally worth it". 

This is just phenomenal pizza, and both slices were equally excellent despite how very different they are. Good enough to make you forget you spent a significant amount of time in a lineup for a mere pizza. It's not quiiiiite among the very inner circle best of Toronto, but the fact they can completely nail two different styles of slice... create such vivid, unique and memorable flavours on either slice... and isn't really absurdly pricey either (much cheaper than District Pizza, which belongs nowhere near this particular discussion)... I'm giving Prince Street an "A-", and a strong one at that. Versatile and of very high quality. This is probably one of the ten or fifteen best pizzas Toronto has now.             

  

    

This Week In Pizza: Pizzeria Rustico

 

 

Compared to I'd guess the majority of my neighbours... I'm essentially a newcomer to the east Beaches neighbourhood of Toronto. Even after nearly a decade! As such, my memory of longtime places now departed is considerably hazy. 

I have very fond memories of The Salty Dog Pub, Bam! Bistro, remember Whitlock's (which has been a cursed location since closing a few year back), Hogtown Smoke, Cinamon Indian Bistro, a Pizza Hut on the corner of Hambly/Queen, and of course (most importantly) the famous Lick's Burgers near Waverley where the staff would all sing your order. When speaking to an older friend who grew up in the area, however, I can't even imagine what that main stretch of Queen Street East looked like when I was in high school twenty years ago, nevermind thirty when he was. 

The Upper Beaches area triples down on my severe lack of recollection, since its an area I frequent much, much less (being separated by a cliff will do that). I'd first noticed Pizzeria Rustico a couple of years ago as a papered up storefront while I was walking by, unsure if this was some restaurant that had escaped my notice before a demise, or a new place waiting for the endless pandemic to ease up already so to finally open their doors.

Turns out both were somewhat correct. Upon ordering from Rustico, seeing the "Since 2004" on the box made me immediately curious. Their website is very minimal and provides no back story or "About Us", but digging deeper I discovered this was a re-opening (dating to about last year) at a new location. Again, I couldn't find definite information about where the old one was (I suppose I could go back to the restaurant and ask... but that sounds like actual work and ugh that stupid cliff). However, searching the interwebs revealed an establishment called Rustico Italian Food, a resto/bodega which seems to have shuttered back in 2018... located, yep, at Warden and Kingston Road which is barely a block away from where Pizzeria Rustico is now. Seeing as the (very limited) online reviews of both places refer to a chef named Joe... I'm confident you, dear reader, can put away the Holmes hat and take this leap of an assumption with me. 

Oh, and also checking this article the logo looks nearly the same. But still! Detective work! 

Walking inside Pizzeria Rustico reminded me a lot of, and yes I know I refer to it often, my days working at Pizza Libretto Ossington... but hear me out. I haven't been back to the Ossington one in several years so maybe they've expanded it, but as the original location it is considerably smaller than the newer ones... which despite it being so busy back then still gave it a homier, more intimate vibe. Rustico's interior aesthetic is much the same: a quaint Italian eatery with enough sheen and style to suggest high quality food, but with a certain warmth to be welcoming rather than fancy, aggressively hip or pretentious. Aside from the red lights seeming on some kind of overdrive, it's an appealing space for a sit down dinner. 

Many of the pizza options featured toppings I prefer to avoid (artichokes, olives) and while I was incredibly tempted to try one of their white pizzas with potatoes, sausage and pecorino cheese... for a first visit I buckled and kept it very simple with a Diavola. 

Simple is indeed the name of this match: It's just sauce, cheese and spicy soppressata. "Diavola" essentially translates as "spicy", or "the devil's spice" if you want to be more eloquent about it... which means that there are many different versions of a Diavola pizza. Many I've encountered will use a chili oil, or hot peppers, or even a spicier tomato sauce to enhance the heat. Rustico here chooses to let the salami do all the heavy spicy lifting, and we shall get into whether or not they succeed. 

We'll start with the basics though, since this pizza is depending so much upon them. The crust! I will say, the fantastic Somun Superstar aside (also on Kingston Road, just a few leaps westbound)... it'd been a while since a good crust/dough had come my way. Superstar utilizes their mastery of baking, whereas Rustico somehow creates a dough that is impressively light and airy, but with that valuable crisp and baked flavour. It's really good, and holds up on the reheat also (a little tougher after the pan, but far from chewing old gum).

The mozzarella likewise is of good quality. It's melted in that sweet spot of having enough coverage across the pie, but still firm and wonderful when you get a good bite of it. Even cold (always an effective test) this cheese holds up and keeps its flavour, and when warm it is very on point. So far so good. 

Now for the sauce. Possibly my favourite thing here because it has a subtle little flavour to it I haven't encountered often. It leans on the sweeter side of tomato sauces, but it's much more of a fruity sweet than an sugary one. Some cheap pizza sauces can lean sweet and it's a fleeting sensation to disguise the lack of anything else. Here, Rustico brings something that while still tasting very much like a good tomato pizza sauce, also has this sort of plum/pear note that sneaks in, says hello, and gently waves goodbye. Very interesting stuff. 

Time for the headliner, the salami. The Diavola soloist, in this case. It's a thicker cut/slice, and in of itself? Tasty. Plenty of flavour, not aggressively salty or oily, and they are generous with it. The spice? Ahhhhh. Sorry, but it's just not there. Trying a piece of the soppressata on its own... there's a bit of a building earthy heat that eventually arrives in the back of the mouth, but vanishes very quickly. I'm no spice fiend (though my tolerance might be stronger than some) however I was hoping for even just something that would elbow my taste buds into "ooooo, nice" on the heat front. 

Perhaps they're going for a more accessible level of spice here, which is fine of course... but this brings everything all around to Rustico's biggest failing for me: as a simple pizza it works but it's really just missing one thing. This pizza is my only example sure but judging by the menu, they keep things rather straightforward (which is why the white potato pizza caught my eye, it seemed so out of place amongst the rest). That's a terrific modus operandi when you can nail the absolute basics, which Rustico absolutely does. However... what elevates a pizza from very good to elite can be such a little thing. A little dollop of creamy cheese, a sprinkle of cracked pepper or herbs, a certain drizzle of oil... all of those could've really unlocked the true potential of this pizza here. 

 

Overall! Many of the reviews I've read online (after I tried Rustico myself, I like going in blind without pre-context) were very positive of their pizzas, although slightly discouraged by the price-point. I'll theorize that how basic their pizza is might play a role in that discouragement: paying a premium price for something quite good but also not... exciting. And man... some chili oil or pickled peppers on this Diavola here would elevate it so, so much. Even if it cost an extra couple bucks, just that added element would catapult it up the list. 

As is, Pizzeria Rustico is a very good pizza that gets the fundamentals extremely correct. It's that inescapable sense of lacking 'something' that means I have to land them in the "B" range, although it's on the strong side of that grade. Perhaps one day I'll go back for that potato, sausage and pecorino pizza and re-evaluate, but until then.       

  

This Week In Pizza: Big Brothers Pizza (Kingston Rd)

 

 

Beware, the ovens have eyes. 2 slices plus 2 slices equals five. Big Brothers Pizza is watching you.

 

Now that we've gotten the necessary jokes out of the way, Big Brothers pizza! This is actually a mini-chain of sorts: along with their Kingston Road location (which I visited), deeper into Scarborough they have another outpost on Morningside Avenue... and it also appears they have a third location all the way in St. Catharines? Certainly no risk of territorial overlap there. 

Even with three stores Big Brothers is fairly new to the pizza scene, having first opened their doors in 2017. There's a link on their website that reads "School Pizza", an option I'm confident I haven't seen before. Basically it takes you to a form asking if your school would be interested in having Big Brothers cater for a scholastic event. Unusual for a company to be so specific, but honestly it makes a lot of business sense.

Getting into the pizza itself, as you can see I went for a slice instead of a full fresh pie. I have my reasons, primarily that I haven't worked very much this month but also! None of their full pizza creations seemed all that unique or interesting, and this slice was opportunistically very fresh from the oven as I arrived. 

This is their "Canadian" slice, which like most places is some combination of pepperoni, mushrooms, and bacon (I've seen it with ham before as well). I'm genuinely curious: why is this slice called a "Canadian"? What is the origin of this? My surface-level internet research yielded no definitive answers, beyond it may have just been a 1970s/80s corporate idea that everybody jumped aboard with. However it came about, it's a good combination so no complaints.

Big Brothers pizza is... very okay. First off I loved the smell: walking out with this hot slice on a slightly breezy day... the scent of oily, crispy pepperoni rising to my nostrils... it always reminds me of the excitement I'd feel as a child when pizza was on the dinner horizon. On first few bites, it's a very bready pie... a lot of thick white bread taste to it, which would get annoying quickly but there is some crisp to the bottom of it. 

I like how they use bacon strips, which keeps this slice from being a salt fest had it been bacon crumble, and the mushrooms actually have some softness to them. The bacon is juicy, the pepperoni crisp on the edges... the overall texture of this pizza is definitely a positive, a fine sensation when eating it. 

That's important because in terms of flavour? Not a whole lot here. Nothing unpleasant, just that every bite drifts into sameyness. The flavours all blend together into "tastes like generic decent pizza". None of the elements, sauce, cheese or toppings, really have anything that stands out... in fact it's that bready taste you notice most and that's just because the majority of this slice was the dough (the cheese layer on top is very thin).

 

Overall. Kind of like a "pizza by the numbers" experience. No major strengths or weaknesses, and nothing particularly stands out about it. Very forgettable, I'm sad to say... the type of pizza we've all had probably dozens of times and get them confused with one another. Since this is still pizza we're talking about... even at this level of 'unremarkable' it makes for a perfectly decent snack, and it held up well on the reheat in the toaster oven. I wouldn't recommend rushing to your nearest Big Brothers right this moment, but I'll still give them a lower side "C++" mostly for a decent baseline of quality.            

  

This Week In Pizza: Samaira's Kitchen

 

 

Way back in 2018 when I first started this endless journey of pizza tasting, there was a spot near the corner of Queen Street East and Pape that had just opened up called "Queen City Pizza" (replacing a longtime Amato's). I sampled Queen City and was very unimpressed: criticizing the extreme amount of bland cheese and how overcooked it was (although cutting their slices into three was uniquely weird).  

Queen City lasted maybe a year or so before shuttering, with Samaira's Kitchen eventually taking its place. The layout barely changed at all (even the tables are in the same places) but the prices jumped (Queen City wasn't a bargain, either, even in 2018 bucks). This steep escalation of cost in tandem with the place seeming almost exactly the same as before... well it certainly kept me away for quite some time. 

It's been at least over three years since Samaira's came to be, seemingly of high enough local popularity and quality to sustain and survive some rough times for restaurants... and so the time had finally come for this mad pizza man to try them and see if they'd improved on the previous pizza tenants. I wandered in on a Tuesday early evening, slightly drunk (don't ask, rough week) and elected upon a two topping small pie. My choice was a typical go-to for me: goat cheese and bacon. 

 

    

Finally, a pizza with plenty of sauce! Thank heavens. Even Somun Superstar, which I absolutely loved, was stingy with that precious tomato spread. Not here. Also... the sauce has quite a nice hint of garlic to it. Did they know I was coming? What's going on here? Wild stuff, but much appreciated of course. 

On its own merit, it's a very okay tomato sauce. Fairly dried out in this form, particularly the more exposed parts, and beyond that garlic touch it's fairly generic. The crust is likewise fine... not remarkable in any way and it gets real stiff once the pie gets cold. We're off to a very inauspicious start here.

Fortunately, it gets notably better. Even without the addition of goat cheese this would be a very thickly cheesy pizza, as the photo demonstrates, and the mozzarella is a standout in its pleasant soft, gooeyness. It walks the tight-line of being so close to overcooked, but just at the point where you get a layer of crisp bubbles on top of the cheese, but the rest keeps its malleable texture. Even once cold, it never stiffened or dried out, which is a good sign of quality. Lots of sauce and cheese, together at last? I like the balance.

You can't really see because of all the cheese, but those are bacon strips in there and not crumble, so another point for that. I've always liked the goat cheese and bacon combo because when done right, you get an added creamy element to the pizza along with some salty tenderness. Samaira's delivers upon my mad creation with admirable skill: I enjoyed this pizza quite a bit. My suspicions are that a simple cheese and sauce pizza from them would be very unremarkable, considering the nondescript crust... but I'd still take even that over multiple other pies I've sampled. 

 

Overall! Honestly my biggest hangup with Samaira's Kitchen is the price. This was a small two topping pizza (we're talking 10") that still came in over twenty bucks. It's a perfectly fine pizza but nothing mind blowing in terms of high quality, and considering its lesser elements (meh crust) the cost doesn't quite match what's inside the box. But I did like it: it's saucy, cheesy, a good amount of toppings scattered throughout, while the foundation finds that good spot between flimsy and too firm. Significantly better than Queen City, but I wouldn't say Samaira's is a must try spot. Beyond a nicely garlicky tomato sauce (which again is more of a 'me' thing), nothing really leaps out at you as being excellent. It's a "B-". Essentially the kind of place around the corner from your house you'd frequent for cheap pickup specials and never be disappointed... "that was solid and tasty". Problem is, those affordable specials don't exist as far as I've seen.       

This Week In Pizza: Wood 900 Grill and Bar

 

 

Allow me to take you back to a scene last November (of 2022): I'm miserably on the Queen streetcar running late for work (thanks to said streetcar) and just staring out the window in hopes of relieving my growing anxiety about this unbearable situation. This is why I bike in the winter when I can, folks. Despite my internal screaming the car lingers at Parliament and Queen for abnormally long, and through the window on my right I spot something: a new pizza joint. 

Fast forward almost a year, and various circumstances found me hungry and in that particular neighbourhood. Wood 900 had indeed been on my Big List of Pizzas To Try since that initial discovery, but like a good nine tenths of that massive list I hadn't been in a huge hurry to seek them out. 

You walk in and the interior is not typical of a pizza place... more like a cheap diner disguised as a fancy restaurant. The entrance is dim aside from some neon, and then the actual inside sticks to a fairly basic colour scheme. Not an insult, for the record... there's nothing unappealing about it beyond it's stark simplicity. If not for well over a dozen booth tables you'd think this was just a large well lit dive bar, and perhaps it was previously. 

To my delight, in 2023 dollars the prices here are extremely reasonable. I'm not sure I can ever recall a wood-fired pizza at this low a price point... even eleven years ago when I worked at the Ossington Pizzeria Libretto their pizzas cost more than Wood 900's offerings do now. Certainly a curious eyebrow raiser, but no matter. In I went for their two topping special... tax and tip later it was fifteen bucks. Like stepping into a time machine! 

The place was also nearly empty on a Friday night (hmmm) but they were getting a bunch of orders on the phone. Indeed, during my brief time inside an Uber delivery driver got rebuked for not arriving with a proper bag.

 

 

My two toppings were spicy salami and mushrooms, and immediate positive points for using mushrooms with some moisture to them. I talked about this in my review of Ambassador, but as delicious as mushrooms are on pizza one problem I constantly encounter is how they dry out and wither in the oven. So having mushrooms here with an agreeable, juicy texture was a very pleasant surprise. The flavour? Fairly lacking of that rich, wonderful earthiness you normally expect... these are semi-watery and I suspect previously frozen. 

The spicy salami, however, I quite enjoyed a lot. Finely sliced, not oozing with grease, with a nice little kick of sting just to let you know it's there. Solid stuff. As for the cheese... fairly standard mozzarella I'd say. Enjoyably gooey, with some of the waxiness you get from cheaper cheeses (and lacking the delectable soft buttery taste you get from the really good stuff. So far... with okay-ish mushrooms, enjoyable salami and mediocre mozzarella... pretty all right I'd say.

You're probably thinking, as I was... come on now. This is a wood-fired pizza coming in at almost half the price as almost any other of that style in the city. There has to be a horrible catch! Indeed. Not horrible, mind you (or me I guess, considering how I framed that)... but this pie has some glaring shortcomings and the main culprit is the bread. 

There is some nice char, but aside from that it tastes of nothing but dryness. The bottom of the pizza is excessively dusty, like to the point it coats your fingers after a few bites. This can happen depending on the type of oven, and with a stellar pizza it's a mere inconvenience rather than an irritating nuisance. But really, the issue is how much this bland crust feels chalky and dehydrated in the mouth. It's less noticeable in the center of the pizza, where the cheese and toppings are doing the work (in fact, the slightly droopy texture in those parts is extremely nice)... but when you start taking bites of the outer edges, the true quality reveals itself. 

The sauce isn't much to talk about either. It's at the level of your generic, store bought canned fare. Tiny bit of sugary sweetness, which again sorta works on the cheesier bites... but it's very meh. Another issue was the reheat: I used the frying pan on low heat and slightly covered it (to lock in even more of the moisture), but even executing that considered step could not save this crust from drying out even further. It didn't translate well on second heating... most of the flavours were more muted and the awful bread crumbled apart in staleness. Didn't even eat those bits. 

----

 

Overall. The biggest "bad" of this pizza stands out the most: it's an unappealing, flavourless dusty crust that might be one of the least pleasant I've encountered in my many pizza travels (at least, not counting the worst of the big pizza chains). It's a glaring weakness that drags this down pretty significantly, because otherwise there's rather a fair bit of charm to this. It's a cheap wood-fired pizza that does its best with the limited quality it has, and when fresh I enjoyed about 75 percent of it. They get the droopy, gooey feel of a wood-fire pie quite right, and while the flavours suffer on the reheat that foldable texture mostly remained. 

It's a tough one to grade. They're far from a "must try", but I had more moments of positivity here than I did with say, District Pizza... which for just two slices was significantly more expensive than Wood 900. Lets say.... Wood 900 gets a "C++". If they had even mediocre dough this is easily a couple grades higher, but alas. An admirable effort.              

 

This Week In Pizza: District Pizza

 

 

 

Appearances can be deceiving. While oftentimes an attractive looking spot will offer up a likewise quality product... I've encountered many sleek spots where all the effort went into the flash and none into the actual pizza.

District Pizza is a rather swanky spot in the Distillery District neighbourhood of Toronto. With it's large glass windows it looks more like an art gallery from the outside than a pizza joint. Heck, there is even art inside:

Those are indeed painted pizza boxes, which I cannot recall ever seeing displayed in such a way at any other pizza joint. It's a nice touch, and definitely supports my "art gallery" comment above. 

It's an appealing interior, but that said what really matters most is the flavour and quality of your pizza. How does District grade out on that front? I ordered two different slices to answer this very question: their version of a meat-lovers, and a special of the day/week/month with pulled chicken, chorizo, cilantro and pickled onions. The two slices came in around twenty dollars, which is awful steep even by today's standards. The Distillery District is a touristy destination, and clearly there's a touristy price markup in play here.

 

 

Looks decent enough. But flavour? Alas, this is where it all falls apart, my friends. The chicken is fine and nicely seasoned, the pickled onions a nice addition of sweetness... but dear lord this slice is way, way too damn oily/greasy. Like, to the point your fingers still smell and feel of it hours later. You could lubricate a bicycle chain with this stuff. 

The culprit is mostly the chorizo, which is rather unpleasant in its excessive fattiness (and sadly prominent on the other slice as well), and that flavour bleeds into every bite of this sorry pie. A shame, because the rest is rather okay... but that greasiness dominates the entire non-crust aspect of this pizza. It quickly becomes tiresome and slightly stomach-turning.

For the record, I have to mention here that an overtly oily pizza need not be a bad thing. Fresca on College is one of the oiliest, dirtiest (in a good way) slices you'll find, but it works better for them because that oil doesn't dominate the other flavours as it does here. Plus, that Fresca oil is garlicky so... checkmate.

This Meat Lovers one (officially named "Pleased To Meat You", yeah) is a bit more tolerable on the oily front, though not by much. Strangely, this pizza reminds me a lot of the chain Pizzaiolo: there's a sort of herby, olive oil taste to things, in the crust especially. There's a similar hint of light wheat in there as well.

Both of these District Pizza slices tasted rather undercooked as well: an undeniable doughiness that I usually don't mind, but a greasy slice like this really needs more crunch and crisp to counter-act it. Un-surprisingly, on the reheat (in the pan) was an improvement for this very reason. More crisp and it cooked out some of the excessive oil and grease. You could still taste it and the flavour domination sadly wasn't avoidable... but it wasn't nearly as unbearable as when fresh. Another disappointment: there are red chilis on this slice, but is it spicy? Nope. Barely taste em. What a shame.

 

Overall... I went into this one with what I'd call "curious expectations". Most of the reviews I've found regarding this place have been negative and I see why. It's way too expensive for what you're getting, and while there is some modest quality... even without that awful oily sausage taste this would be far below a must try pizza place. It's never good when your pizza reminds me of a prominent Toronto chain, and I'd frankly much prefer what the chain offers (they're also much cheaper). 

There's enough 'good' hidden away in here to save it from being completely terrible, but I cannot recommend trying District Pizza... not even out of curiousity. Maybe if it wasn't ten bucks a slice? Give me a break. Giving them a "C+", and even that might be generous. I like the cool style, but the substance is flawed.   

This Week In Pizza: Somun Superstar Sequel

 

 

It's an interesting question, when having reviewed a pizza place before... how long is a necessary length of time until a revisit is prudent? At least two thirds of places on my big list are places I've only tried once (and more than half of those I don't require or desire a second visit) and the fact of the matter is: places can change. Certain chefs or pizzaiolos come and go, recipes get revamped, a mini-chain expands and the quality diminishes, new ownership mixes things up... or hell our own tastes as pizza enjoyers shifts as well.

In my experience trying places multiple times, almost always the secondary/later evaluations tend to be lesser to some degree. Or in the case of my true favourites (Descendant, Defina) my high levels of expectation have been happily maintained. My point is, aside from getting Pizza Nova on a good day (and those good days have been real rare the past several years)... I can't exactly recall a recent notable pizza that has been even better on my second try. 

I wrote about Somun Superstar back in 2020 when (like most of us) I had nothing to do... so I tried a bunch of restaurants closeby to me (takeout at the time, of course). Somun Superstar is a Bosnian joint that specializes in their baked somun bread, essentially the Balkan version of flatbread or pita. When first opening in 2019 they specialized in cevapcici sandwiches with their baked-in-house breads. The pandemic hit and, considering they already had a large oven, decided to start offering pizzas on Friday and Saturday nights. This caught my attention, and led to the article linked above.

 

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Well, if you skipped the link, spoiler on that article: it was overall a very good pizza, elevated by its exceptional dough (shocker) and texture, with the rest of the elements doing a serviceable job. I do recall that they didn't cut their pizzas at the time, so I think I brought a knife and fork with me when eating it in a nearby park. 

Coming back now over three years later, was quite interesting. I admit I still have not tried their sandwiches yet, despite their location sitting about six blocks from my house (it requires trekking up a monstrous hill, okay?) Somewhat recently they ditched the "Friday or Saturday" pizza night thing, and now offer pizza every evening of the week they're open. It's still a limited window: you can only order a pizza after 4pm and the place closes as early as 8 some nights. 

Anyhow... after a long windy walk buying some Halloween candy, I stopped in Somun Superstar and ordered their Smoked Beef pizza. Here is the whole thing below:

 

 

 

Taste or flavour aside... that is just a beautiful looking pie. My first time trying Somun Superstar, I went simple: it was sliced sausage, mozzarella and sauce. Not here. This above is a pizza with their dry smoked beef, sudzuk smoked sausage, tiny basil leaves, tiny sliced mushrooms, kajmak cream cheese, and your usual tomato sauce and mozzarella.   

To cut out the dramatic buildup... the quality matches the aesthetic. This was simply phenomenal. Absolutely fabulous pizza. Again, the bread/dough grabs the spotlight... a light, yet fluffy and pillowy bread that is soft on each bite, almost heavenly how good this is when still warm and fresh from an oven. While I was waiting, a couple came in just to order some of the fresh flatbread by itself... just saying in case you don't believe me. I've said it a lot but having excellent bread is such an underrated aspect in a pizza: it makes the texture of it so incredibly enjoyable and can elevate otherwise mediocre ingredients. 

Fortunately, the other elements of this pizza far transcend mediocre. These toppings have a fair bit going on... but flavour-wise it's really the dry smoked beef that stands out. It is on the dry, chewier side, but who cares when you can get this much zing into such a thinly sliced and then baked meat. You get the smokey flavour more than the dry, but both are noticeably there...  almost like sipping a fine scotch in meat form. Really interesting and flavourful. The sudzuk is more like a black peppery, with mild-ish spice, thinly (and perfectly for this) sliced sausage that likewise isn't shy with flavour, but not dominating on bites either. This gives a hint more juiciness than the smoked beef, and they work in tandem marvelously.

But wait, there's more. The dollops of kajmak cream cheese, multiple ones on each slice, add some pleasant creaminess to it all. It's a loose cream cheese, with more of a thick yogurt consistency than your spreadable Philadelphia-like brand... and it provides a nice subtle hint of rich sweetness. A very fine balance to the multiple beefs adorning all of this pie.

The mushrooms and basil leaves are very much background features here: I only noticed each respectively on a couple of bites throughout the whole pizza. Tomato sauce is even less noticeable: I do greatly appreciate when a place (especially made to order) isn't a wallflower with the sauce and sadly my biggest complaint here is that you hardly get a whiff of it. No sense of what their tomato sauce tasted like at all... this could've been a white pizza very easily and made little difference. For a lesser pizza I would seriously dock some points... but man everything else here was just so remarkably good I'm willing to allow the moving screen. 

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Overall! Gee golly, I don't say this often but within my second slice I already knew this was one of the best pizzas I've had this year. To bring it back to my introduction about trying places again, it was very interesting to see how different Somun Superstar's pizza was after three years. Their foundation is their great bread and that delicious high quality remains... but this pie was much less poofy and more refined than that first one I'd tried... and more evenly cooked as well. They pass the reheat test (the bread loses a lot of that beautiful softness but gains some fine crispiness on the pan, low heat), the distribution of toppings is impeccable (each bite has something to offer, yet few are the same), the overall balance of everything is there... I don't know what else to say. 

When I first tried them in 2020 it was clear they knew what they were doing, but as suddenly making pizzas on top of their usual offerings (during a pandemic no less) was perhaps not in their initial grand plans... my theory is that they were fairly raw at the pizza game back then (my first review would've been within two or three months of them starting that). They were good then, and now with three years to work at it, they've gotten even better. Much better. In 2020 I gave them a "B+"... this one here is on the lower side of an "A--", for real. Needs more sauce, and maybe the simpler offerings are a bit more generous with that... but everything else just works so fabulously. The smokey beef, the creamy sweet dollops, the delicate dough, good solid mozzarella... its harmony and diversity for the taste buds. This is a Top 20 pizza place in Toronto, full stop. Bosnian pizza. Check em out.