You know, sometimes I wonder if this pizza reviewing schtick is getting old. Anyone feel me on this? Here I am again, old pizza maniac guy checking out another old pizza somewhere in this old town. What's next, a chain of pizza restaurants that literally translates as "The old one"? Sheesh.
Okay, perhaps this is a little bit unfair to La Vecchia... since with only two locations (and a third forthcoming), calling them a chain is a slight overestimation. That said, La Vecchia is indeed one of the older places we've reviewed in a while... calling their space in Midtown Toronto (on Yonge Street just north of Eglinton) home for nearly thirty years.
They quite proudly promote their Ospitalita Italiana certification, which from what I can gather is a designation awarded by Italy (the Italian Chamber of Commerce more accurately) to Italian restaurants abroad that fully embrace and practice the methods and recipes of Italian cuisine... this even applies to the decor and furniture too, apparently. Honestly I'd never even heard of this thing before and looking more into it... well I'm guessing neither have you because most other Toronto Italian restaurants that have this seal (maybe a dozen) don't appear to place as much effort in mentioning it.
While the first La Vecchia has called Midtown Toronto home since 1996, their second restaurant is a generation younger. The building on Marine Parade Drive which houses them wasn't even completely built until 2019, with the expansive condo development on this stretch of Mimico shoreline in the works for at least a decade before that (still moved faster than the Eglinton LRT though).
Fortunately these developments left the parkland right along the water untouched, making the view of the Toronto skyline from Marine Parade Drive unobstructed and simply stunning. This is the part of the city that juts out southwest-ward, giving an especially wide and full angle of much of the western chunk of downtown. Certainly quite neat for me this particular afternoon, making this pizza stop before a shift and seeing the very venue in the distance where I had to be within an hour.
My experience inside La Vecchia and ordering my pizza (to go)... well it was downright amusing. Perhaps I was somewhat underdressed (what with having to bike to work immediately after) for such a swanky place but the initial look from the manager and host upon seeing me walk in was... well, like how you'd probably react if you saw somebody in line at Tim Horton's wearing only a pair of stained underwear (I was in a baggy T-shirt and black shorts, for the record).
Their general snootiness did subside (somewhat) once I actually made my order (and they realized I wasn't some courier with the wrong address or something). The vibe of the place was still exceedingly top button tightened, a general atmosphere I'd describe more as trimmed elegance required rather than openly comfortable and welcoming. Even had I been in my regular (non-work) clothes I'd still have felt exceptionally out of place here: this is more multi-bill blazers, shined shoes and cologne than loose hoodies or baseball hats with durable deodorant. This place getting a commendation for adhering to Italian cuisine and style definitely makes sense in retrospect: I seemed almost like a tourist in some foreign country.
Waiting for my pizza at the bar was also quite a trip. I've worked in plenty of restaurants and can't say I've ever seen a wine rack that legitimately extends into the ceiling/overhang of a bar. I have so many questions... like is this purely for decoration or are those bottles actually in play on their menu? And if so... how does the server or bartender get into there? Is there like a ladder hidden away? A secret passage/room that allows easier access? Perhaps they have some kind of wine bottle grabbing contraption, like one of those claw games in an arcade? How the heck do they clean up there?
Not just that, but the music they were playing this afternoon caught my attention as well. I'd noticed a familiar melody yet the style of music was very soft jazz/adult contemporary, a breathy female singer... doing a cover of "Shape of You" by Ed Sheeran I soon realized. Okay sure, I figured... a very famous song that's been played a lot... makes sense some jazzy Sade-lite singer would cover it. Perfectly normal tune to have on your Thursday afternoon playlist in your refined Italian restaurant overlooking the lake. But then... oh ho ho then... in that same musical style was a cover of "You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC. I had to restrain myself from laughing out loud incredulously: they were playing a whole album of these kinds of covers. Forget another country, at this point I honestly wondered if I'd wandered onto another planet.
After all that, it would be tricky for any mere pizza to be more notable than those bizarre fifteen minutes inside La Vecchia... though I was strongly optimistic as a pizza this could be really damn good. It smelled fantastic.
Following my recent habit of ordering a pizza creation named after the restaurant itself (which I mused more deeply upon in my Insieme article) this here is La Vecchia's "La Vecchia": tomato sauce, cheese, spicy Italian pork sausage and mushrooms. Very straightforward.
The toppings are definitely plentiful (there's more sausage on here than freaking cheese) but how does it taste? Well... there's a lot of immediate flavour: the sausage is very finely ground (almost minced) and brings that classic Italian sausage punch/spice (with subtle sweetness) to the tongue. This tomato sauce is quite refined, slightly on the sweeter side, though like the cheese there isn't exactly an abundance of it. The crust/dough is quite white and floury, not much in the way of crunch or softness... much more like the texture of a hard kaiser roll or a smooth baguette.
I think with a lot of restaurants like this you can tell when a place is more 'pasta or general entree' focused, because while there are some nice flavours in here the "as a pizza" part of the equation is really where this falls short. That empty dusty dough doesn't help, really clouding the punchier flavours this pie does have... and as such there isn't much in the way of enjoyable lingering taste to any of this. On the reheat (low pan heat) none of this worked whatsoever... that dry dustiness was multiplied while the other flavours could barely register on the tongue. A tough pizza cold and a downright terrible one a few hours beyond that.
The conception of this one is also somewhat lacking. Mushrooms with a red sauce on a pizza can work but often you'll need to pair it up with something else (garlic or another vegetable or a second cheese) to really maximize that distinct presence. These are good mushrooms too: juicy and soft... but with just sausage and little else from the tomato sauce or the cheese they're simply not utilized to their best. That's really the biggest issue with this whole pizza: it tastes decent enough (when fresh) but it really is missing a couple things to elevate it. As is, beyond that good zing in the sausage it becomes rather bland and unexciting by the end of your first slice.
Overall... well the place is in a truly exceptional location and the experience of being inside the place was far more notable than anything I ate afterwards from it. Not a bad pizza when fresh, but this would be a hard pass from me ever going back. Just not a whole lot of life to this one and I'm rarely a fan of such a floury crust when the dough isn't soft or fluffy. Like I said, judging by the quality there's a very strong chance that the rest of their food is actually quite good (probably) and that awesome pizzas simply aren't a trick in their bag. You can't teach a La Vecchia new pizzas? Ah? Pardon me while I laugh to myself about my own brilliance...
Anyhow, I highly recommend checking out this part of town for the awesome skyline views... but I can't recommend La Vecchia for their pizza. I'll grade it a meh level "B--" as the taste is entirely fine even if sorely lacking in resonance.
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