Quest for the Best Pizza in Winnipeg
August
2011 – January 2013
For
a while, I wanted to find the best pizza in Winnipeg. With dozens, perhaps hundreds of pizza makers
in Winnipeg, I’d look like a pizza before I tried a fraction
of them. Then I came up with the idea of
letting you, the reader, help me find Winnipeg’s best pizza. Most people eat pizza and have a firm idea
about who makes the best pizza. Over the
last year and a half, I solicited friends, family and readers to tell me who makes
the best pizza in the city. From your
selections, I set out to try them all and empirically assess them. Thanks to your willingness to the
participate, I received 23 locations of “cannot miss” pizzas.
I
sought pizza from each of these places and broke them down to evaluate. I looked at the vegetable component, the
meat, the crust, the sauce, the cheese and the overall impression. I know that some like artichoke, some are
meatheads, some like thick crust and some like thin—that’s not how I evaluated
them. I looked at things that we all
want in common. We all want fresh, crisp
and bright vegetables. Meat should be
well seasoned, not overcooked and not over-salty. The crust should come cooked through, not
chewy, hard, burnt or cardboard-like.
The sauce should be deep, rich and flavourful, not flat, runny and
dead. Pizzas should have enough cheese
to hold everything together; if using fatter cheeses, the fat should not pool
into globs of fat. Finally, how does the
pizza look as a whole package? Did
someone just slop it together or did they take the time to assort the
ingredients evenly and attractively?
Based
on these criteria, I rated each out of a possible five points—the perfect pizza
sums to 30. Here’s how our entrants made
out:
Now
here’s the problem: do you consider the
$30 pizza to be the same as the $8 pizza?
Being a frugal market, citizens of Winnipeg always search for a
bargain. I factored the prices into the assessments
and normalised the prices according to sizes and toppings. With that data, I built an index and adjusted
the data to base 100. That is, the
average tasting pizza with an average price rates 100 points on the
index. The farther below 100, the worst
bargain and greater the score above 100, the better the value. Here’s how our pizzas made out.
Jumbo
not only wins the best pizza score, because of its low price, it also wins the
best value score, smashing the closest competition. People may consider Bodegoes a surprise
finisher since they’re known more for their noodles than their pizzas. I’m sure people will also be surprised about
the Pizza Hotline finish as many call it a fast, thoughtless dial.
Here’s
a breakdown of the ingredient descriptions.
Jumbo Pizza
info@jumbopizzawinnipeg.com
1
– 555
Balmoral St
204-982-6900
Vegetables: Lots
of veggies, nicely cooked
Meats: Lots
of meat with nice flavour
Crust: Nice
crust--nothing outstanding
Sauce: Could
use a bit more sauce
Cheese: Good
amount of cheese
Overall: This
is a generous, delicious pizza
Bodegoes
98 Albert
St
204-943 3166
City Place – 333 St Mary Ave
204-415-7045
Shaw Park – 1 Portage
Ave East
204-415-7045
Vegetables:
Big
chunks, but could use a bit more
Meats: Big
chunks – I’d probably cut them up into smaller pieces and have more on the
pizza
Crust: Delicious, thick crust with
crunchy outside
Sauce: Plentiful and rich – but this came
with a barbecue/hoisin type sauce, not for hard core tomato sauce fans
Cheese: Nicely browned on top but could use
just a tad more
Overall:
This is a delicious pizza
Pizza Hotline
204-222-2222
Vegetables: Fine
but enough to see, scant on mushrooms
Meats: Bland
sausage but fair amount and fair chunks
Crust: Well cooked and moist
Sauce: Plentiful and rich
Cheese: A little light but still enough for
goo
Overall: Very good all around pizza and good
value
Tony’s Master of
Pizza
1110
Pembina Hwy
204-452-9797
Vegetables: Fresh and raw, adequate amount but could use
more
Meats: Fair
chunks of flavourful sausage, nicely cooked bacon
Crust: Quite
thin, crisp and nicely cooked, although the edges are a little burnt
Sauce: Fresh
but in very low supply, barely see it in spot and non existent in others
Cheese: Plenty
and nice blend of cheddar
Overall: All ingredients are fresh in a
competently made pizza; however, the whole is much greater than the sum of its
parts and this pizza exceeds the ingredient descriptions
Santa Ana Pizzeria & Bistro
F-1631 St. Mary’s Rd
204-415-1440
Vegetables: Chopped finely but there’s lots of it
Meats: Pepperoni
is very thin, but there are lots of slices.
Large chunks of sausage but not very many chunks. Meat is quite salty.
Crust: Medium
thickness that’s perfectly fired and crispy.
Sauce: Alternate
sauces (pesto, BBQ for example) are delicious; the tomato sauce-based barely
has any sauce
Cheese: There's enough to told the ingredients
together but not enough to make it gooey (or fatty). Lots of variety of cheeses if you go with the
house specials.
Overall: They make a great pizza. Looking at the ingredients separately, there
isn’t a lot but put it all together and the whole is much greater than the sum
of the parts.
Papa John’s
Vegetables: Lots of delicious vegetables, well cooked
and well seasoned.
Meats: There's
plenty of meat but it's shockingly over-salted, so much that it's ruining the
rest of the pizza.
Crust: Nice
thicker crust that's lightly herbed and cooked competently.
Sauce: Plenty
of sauce that's lightly herbed.
Cheese: There's a lot delicious cheese,
although the meat amps up the grease volume.
Overall: This is a complete and nicely put
together pie.
Little Caesar’s
Vegetables: Ranges
from adequate to very sparse (three slices of mushrooms on entire pizza)
Meats:
Not much flavour on the
sausage and the pepperoni must have been cut with a razor blade
Crust: Thick
and moist
Sauce: Tons
of nice sauce
Cheese: Tons
of gooey cheese
Overall: Veggies
need to be better distributed and the pepperoni is so thin it’s flavourless.
Santa Lucia
Vegetables: Fresh, raw and crispy, plentiful enough to
cover the entire pie
Meats: Plenty
of well prepared meats to cover the entire pie
Crust: A
little too thick and doughy, with the edges a little burnt in some zones
Sauce: The
sweeter sauce is not distributed evenly, so you don’t get any in some areas
Cheese: Tons
of cheese covers the entire pizza
Overall: With
a little bit more sauce, evenly spread, and a thinner dough, this would come
close to being the perfect pizza
Loona Rossa
460 St. Mary’s Rd
204-235-1289
Vegetables: An adequate amount of vegetables but a lot
is undercooked and rather plain
Meats: Tons
of meat that's well spiced. Some are a
little dry.
Crust: Nicely
made and well cooked to leave a crunch.
Sauce: There's
a lot of sauce but not a lot of flavour to the sauce.
Cheese: There's a lot of cheese but the sheer
mass of the other ingredients make it look like it's sparse--this pie needs a tad
more cheese to complement the other ingredients.
Overall: This is a massive pizza that will
fill you up on no time. Pre-cooking and
spicing the vegetables would make this a formidable pizza.
Slices
1329 Portage Ave
/ 401 Stafford St
204-255-5555 or 204-475-3443
Vegetables: Lots
of vegetables, cooked perfectly al dente
Meats: Meat
is cooked nicely, but distributed unevenly--one piece is loaded but the next is
vegetarian.
Crust: Thinner
crust that’s nicely baked
Sauce: There’s
nothing outstanding about the sauce, but there’s plenty of it.
Cheese: Lots
of mozza that’s nicely browned
Overall: If
there was just a touch more meat, better placed, this would be a perfectly balanced
pizza.
Royal Pizza
300 St. Anne’s Road
204-254-0658
Vegetables: Fresh and well cooked, with lots of onions
but a little skimpy on the green peppers
Meats: Juicy
and well cooked Italian sausage
Crust: Nice
and crispy near the edges but a little tough in the middle
Sauce: A
little sweeter with good flavour
Overall: Nice
and thick with lots of goo, and nice proportions of toppings
Saucers
570 Academy Rd
204-489-9204
Vegetables: Big chunks, fresh and crisp
Meats: Big chunks – some are a little
overcooked and cry
Crust: Delicious,
thin and crispy
Sauce: A
bit thin but plenty of it
Cheese: Tons
of cheese, with differing kinds to match the stuffing
Overall: All
the ingredients are there for a superior pizza but sometimes it lacks a bit of
flavour
Mrs. Vanelli’s
Vegetables: Lots
of veggies, nicely cooked
Meats: Lots
of meat with nice flavour
Crust: Nice
crust--nothing outstanding
Sauce: Could
use a bit more sauce
Cheese: Good
amount of cheese
Overall: This
is a generous, delicious pizza
Carbone Coal Fire
Pizza
400-1580
Taylor Ave
204-488-2554
Vegetables:
Fresh and well cooked, but a little
skimpy
Meats:
Plenty of meats but the
sausage was a little dry and the chicken was very dry. Ham was good.
Crust: Nice
and crispy near the edges and deliciously thin throughout. One corner was slightly burnt.
Sauce: Sauce
has good herbaceous flavour—could have used a bit more.
Cheese: Tons of cheese makes for a deliciously
gooey pizza.
Overall: Nice proportions of toppings
produces a very good pizza. Carbone
propounds the advantages of the coal-fired oven, mainly that the high heat
cooks the crust quickly and seals in the moisture—and they are right on. If not for the one segment that was burnt,
this would have been the perfect crust.
Carbone also claims to use all fresh and organic ingredients. The ingredients indeed look good and fresh;
alas, a lot of the meats were overcooked.
Having more inherent moisture, the vegetables turned out perfectly—if
the meat portions were a little thicker, they’d stay moist too.
Domino's
Vegetables: A little skimpy on the vegetables--not very
much and what's there is cut very small
Meats: Fair-sized
chunks, but not a lot of it.
Crust: Average
crust, cooked well
Sauce: Not
a lot of flavour to the sauce but there's an adequate amount of it
Cheese: A
good amount of cheese
Overall: This
is a well put together pizza, even if it could use a bit more ingredients
Panago’s
204-949-0001
Vegetables: Tiny morsels that barely surface
Meats: It
looks like a fair amount of meat but it’s deceiving. The pepperoni is sliced razor thin and the
ground meats are well distributed to hide the volume paucity.
Crust: Thin
crust is very rubbery.
Sauce: Nice
sauce that’s tangy and herbaceous.
Cheese: There's a good amount of cheese to hold
everything together.
Overall: The whole is better than the sum of
the parts for this pizza.
Diana’s Gourmet Pizzeria
730 St. Anne’s Rd
204-954-7858
Vegetables: Lots
of raw veggies, cut into big chunks
Meats: Huge chunks of meat, although it’s
a tad overcooked and not as juicy as can be
Crust: Possibly the thickest dough on the
market, and prepared well
Sauce: Great acidic sauce that’s largely
plentiful but a little sparse in some areas
Cheese: A little more cheese would be nice to
accompany the mountain of toppings
Overall: The
ingredients are very good and you get lots of it. Slightly less heat on the meat and a bit more
cheese would make this great pizza an outstanding pizza
Bonfire Bistro
1433
Corydon Ave
204-487-4440
Fax: 204-489-2703
bonfirebistro@mts.net
Vegetables: Fair size and amount, nicely cooked
Meats: small
portions, cut with a razor
Crust: Average
crust, cooked well
Sauce: Not
a lot of flavour to the sauce, and not a lot of sauce
Cheese: The
meat pizzas swim in grease, veggie pizzas do not--both have good amounts of
cheese.
Overall: The
meat pizzas are flat, greasy and tasteless; the veggie pizzas have a lot more
depth and taste.
Niakwa
Vegetables: not a lot but what’s there tastes fresh
Meats: large
chunks, nicely seasoned
Crust: thin
crust—very hard and cardboard-like
Sauce: not
enough to tell
Cheese: just
holds it together
Overall: good
taste in the good but distracted by the crust
Agostino’s
1771-F Ness
Ave
204-832-8900
Vegetables: An adequate amount of vegetables that’s a
tad overcooked.
Meats: Skimpy on the meat and what’s there
is dried and quite salty.
Crust: Thick crust that’s very dough and
tough.
Sauce: This is an interesting sauce. It looks like there’s plenty of it, but when
you try to isolate it, it seems to disappear.
Cheese: Lots of gooey cheese that’s a little
greasy.
Overall:
This isn’t a bad pizza but the
dough takes away a lot of the appeal (and ends up sitting in your stomach like
a rock).
Vern’s Pizza
#2 – 1200 McPhillips St or 527 London
St
204-66-VERNS
www.vernspizza.com
Youtube:
youtube.com/vernspizzawinnipeg
Vegetables:
Fresh but not very much of it
Meats: Tons of meat, thickly layered
Crust: Thick crust that melts in your
mouth and doesn’t taste too doughy
Sauce: Lots of tangy sauce
Cheese: Very light on the cheese
Overall: This
could be a great pizza but it needs a bit of adjusting. The main problem is that there is too little
cheese, which means that it doesn’t hold together. It needs three times as much cheese to bind
the amount of ingredients. If they cut
down a little on the meat and increase the vegetable matter, this would be a
perfectly balanced pizza on a perfect crust.
Van Goes
4-741 St. Mary’s Rd
204-257-4992
Fax: 204-253-6383
info@vangoespizza.ca
Vegetables: Small, finely shredded, each additional adds
almost nothing
Meats: too
salty, very smoky (overpoweringly where entire pizza tastes like smoke)
Crust: thin
crust—a little doughy
Sauce: good
flavour, but hard to tell because overwhelmed by smoke
Cheese: greasy
Overall: dominated
by smoke, not enough veggies
Pizza Pizza
Vegetables: Slivers
Meats: Tiny, like it was sliced with a
razor
Crust: Not outstanding but not bad
Sauce: A little boring but there’s plenty
of it
Cheese: A bit greasy
Overall: When you think of an over-cooked,
bland and cardboard like slice of pizza, look no further than here
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Eating is a very personal thing for people but clearly you don't understand that through your "cheesy" rating system that you've produced thinking that you can figure out the best pizza in town.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of you personal tastes, there are some standards that everyone wants, and some that no one wants. No one wants overcooked, beat up vegetables. No one wants dried, flavourless meats. No one wants burnt crust. These are standards and these are the components that I assess.
ReplyDeletethis is helpful. thank you.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Jumbo is that I've almost never ordered from them and NOT had them screw it up in some way. At almost every other place I've tried you can rely on getting exactly what you ordered. At Jumbo, you're really rolling the dice.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I wish you'd move the flyout menu to anywhere BUT the right side of the screen. It interferes with the scroll bar which is essential to making a long entry like this usable.