The Best Pizza To Demolish in North Etobicoke

YYou might have seen this for yourself around Humber campus: A slice of pizza and its cardboard plate decorating the bottom of a trash can. Someone took a single unenthusiastic bite out of the slice.

Do you know about the good-fast-cheap triangle? The idea is that if you want a product, you will have to choose two of the three points of the triangle and drop whatever the third one is. So – If you want something good and fast, it won’t be cheap. If you want something cheap and fast, it won’t be good. It’s a nice thought – and most of the time it’s true. But…
We had a question – “Where can we find a pizza that has all three?” – and we wanted an answer.
We already knew where Pizza Pizza’s public approval sat. We had to adjust our radar to include off-campus pizza joints to find something of substance. These were the rules we set for ourselves:
The pizza place had to be in the North York/Etobicoke area.
The pizza place had to be within a reasonable commuting distance of the campus.
No delivery.
Medium, cheese and pepperoni only.

Day One
I love the smell of pepperoni in the afternoon. We flew out on the scene like ketchup out of a bottle and hit four places in one day. Our hunger wasn’t purely metaphorical. The first destination on our maiden voyage was the Dominos on Queens Plate.
There is a belief that the phrase “cellar door” is the most beautiful phrase in the English language. The belief is usually credited back to an essay written by J.R.R Tolkien who cited factors like the words’ letters, sounds and structure. But beauty wasn’t one of the five scoring credentials for pizza we gave ourselves. We didn’t top “cellar door”, but that day we fell in love with a different phrase that was posted on Domino’s door – “walk-in special”.
After that we head over to Fortinos, Double Double and… Subway in Woodbine Mall. The Dominos was the champion of the day easily in all aspects. Fortinos claimed the spot for best pepperoni out of all the places we went to over the course of our expedition. Double Double did not impress nor disappoint. All signs pointed to a solid pizza experience for day one.

Stand-Out-Shame
We became aware through the grapevine that Subway sells pizza. We tried a standalone Subway but to no avail – they tried to play us off with a pizza sub. It seemed like we were chasing an illusive pepperoni sasquatch. This called for a certain amount of disbelief and mysticism. What better place than right beside the Fantasy Fair in Woodbine Mall? We had our heading and our compass was pointing true P (for pizza).
Somethings are left better off as rumours. Maybe Elvis, Tupac and Cobain are alive and hanging out somewhere in Brazil. Sometimes there’s fun in just not knowing.
The frozen, misshapen, poor imitation of a pizza slumped on the table in front of us was proof enough for that. I felt second-hand embarrassment just knowing this thing existed, but then felt great relief in knowing this aberration could never be aware of its own shameful state. It was the only pizza we couldn’t bring ourselves to destroy.

Day Two
We ventured out the second day with expectations as empty as our stomachs to tackle two more pizzas. First, a small local place across the street from school with little to no expectations of it being any good.
The first stop was City South, squeezed between Circle K and a drug store, the penetrative pizza odour immediately slathered us when we walked in the door. We glanced at the board checking out their prices and deals but we already knew what we were getting – a medium pepperoni pizza. The mere 10 minutes flew by instantaneously so we didn’t expect much but when we opened the box we were taken with how much a sleeper hit we got ourselves into. It was appealing aesthetically and successfully courted our senses. Each bite brought our taste buds to full attention. It was enough to become our second favourite pizza, a surprising feat for a small local pizza place, but taught us a valuable lesson about supporting local business.
We decided to ride the wave and introduce a little chaos and uncertainty into our journey. The other was a place recommended to us by Google Maps after a search of pizza places near Humber. After stuffing our faces with the the medium pizza at City South, we had to squeeze in another medium pizza at Pizza Depot, which luckily only required us to move our pizza-filled bodies a five-minute drive from Humber. Another slightly nerve-wrecking place, the front windows were plastered with their deals and despite following the rules we couldn’t help but be impressed with their deals. We bunkered down at a table and settled in for the quick, but tantalizing 12-minute wait and agreed that this is one of those cheap, easy, fast pizza places you can order on the fly between waiting for your classes, a study session or a night-in with friends. Everything about the pizza was greasy and good. We were rewarded for our foray into the great pepperoni-and-cheese unknown. It’s a solid example of a staple pizza in Rexdale and rates high on our list.

Final Day
Pizza Hub is the kind of pizza that sits in the same chair at the bar every night and orders the same thing until management finally decides to put the order on the menu. None of us were wowed, awed, shocked, or even bamboozled by this humble pizza. It’s something we would suggest if you need a quick slice – no names, no regrets.
The restaurant, Pie, was included in our list for contrast and perspective. The other places on this list weren’t sit-down restaurants, but Pie is more of a formal experience for the experienced, garnished pizza connoisseur. See our graphics for how it fared against what we found to be Rexdale’s finest.

Last Bites
We found Dominos to be the best value for all our criteria and even the Pizza Triangle. It’s good, fast and cheap, but it also backs up this triangle with a quality slice as well and the distance is hard to argue with.
You deserve a quality pizza experience at Humber north. Hopefully our journey has filled your crust with enough data to go on your own prime personal pizza journey. You have our heading.

1. Dominos

The triple threat of pizzas. 5 out of 5 flop, 5 out of 5 cheese pull, 5 out of 5 crust. With door crashing walk-in deals for medium pizzas, picture worthy cheese pull and a beautiful bend to the crust Domino’s has pizza aced. The well deserved and fairly earned first place goes this popular chain for having the best deal on medium pizzas with the best classic take on a cheese an pepperoni topped off with a first hand viewing experience.

Time: 10min

Flop: 5 perf

Sauce: 4

Cheese Pull: 5 perf

Crust: 4

Quality of Ingredients: Extra cheese 4

2. City South Pizza

Within walking distance from Humber College and Guelph-Humber University City South Pizza not only had convenience but they also make their pizzas with rennet free cheese. From the outside the shop has low expectations written all over it but their pizza is surprisingly delicious with a herb sauce base and good cheese to pepperoni ratio. City South Pizza takes second place for proving not to judge a book by its cover and for their bomb sauce.

Time: 10min

Flop: 4

Sauce: 5

Cheese Pull: 4

Crust: 4

Quality of Ingredients: Rennet free cheese 4

3. Pizza Depot

Located between Finch and Albion, a prime Rexdale example, this pizza place was one of the most surprising. The place was buzzing with high school students fresh on lunch waiting for their slice. Their medium pizza was one of the cheapest we bought and pleasantly one of the best. The cheese pull was long and stringy and mixed with the sweet herb sauce made it towards the top of the list.

Time: 12min

Flop: 3

Cheese Pull: 4

Sauce: 3.5

Crust: 4

Quality of Ingredients: 3.5

4. Fortinos

A decent tasting pizza with quality toppings and ingredients. Unlike many of the other pizza chain we’ve tried which place their pizza through a chain oven, Fortinos uses a brick oven to prepare their pizzas. This offers customers a more authentic Italian taste. The crust was well done and thinner than most others, which was a nice change. Overall, Fortinos allows customers to use fresh ingredients on their pizza which goes a long way in terms of taste and overall quality. The slightly longer wait for the pizza was well worth it. Who knew a supermarket would also be a top spot for a great pie.

Time: 25min

Flop: 4

Sauce: 3.5

Cheese Pull: 0

Crust: 3

Quality of Ingredients: Great pepperoni 5

5. Pizza Hub

If you’re looking for your go to basic two topping wheel Pizza Hub will satisfy your craving without killing your wallet. It has been said that it’s the best pizza for those end of the month short on cash but need to fill your face moments. For being the most satisfactory pizza it’s been given fifth place out of the 10 shops we hit.

Time: 10min

Flop: 0

Sauce: 3.5

Cheese Pull: 1

Crust: 4

Quality of Ingredients: 3.5

6. 241 Pizza

A little farther out on Kipling you’ll find this small pizza place about a 10-minute drive from campus. A place many have heard of but have probably never tried, I was among that percentage until today. The first things to greet you are posters containing their specials, similar to dominos but ultimately not up to the same quality. The wait time was expected and typical of a pizza place and upon first glance, the pizza looked good. Overall, it was a mediocre slice but worth the price. Ranked sixth, it’s worth it if you’re looking to eat on a budget with a craving for pizza.

Time: 12min

Flop: 2

Sauce: 3

Cheese Pull: 2.5

Crust: 3

Quality of Ingredients: 3

 

 

 

Map of Pizzaventure: North Etobicoke Pizza Hits and Misses

https://storymap.knightlab.com/edit/?id=north-etobicoke-rexdale-pizza-places