Yesterday evening I headed out to a burger joint on the East end with a friend that wanted to try it. The place was called the Burger Priest. When we arrived we discovered the hours for Sunday were "Church", as in they were closed. Neither one of us had bothered to check the hours but we still wanted to eat out. There was a pizza joint in the neighbourhood that had been on my list of places to go for a while. I checked the hours (thanks to my handy iPhone), confirmed they were open and took a stroll down the street to Queen Margherita's Pizza.
When we got there we stepped into a small bar area full of a lot of dark rich wood and was greeted by one of the staff. Since we didn't have a reservation we were told we would need to wait for the maitre d'. In a few moments she appeared at the top of the staircase to the right side of the bar, came down to glace at the reservation list, disappeared back up the stairs then returned and motioned us up.
The exterior walls of the dinning area were architected with very large windows that would provide a significant amount of natural light. Although the sun had already set they gave a unique feel to the space. The back of the dinning space contained an open kitchen with the pizza oven in plain view. The front of the counter seemed to have been decorated with chopped firewood.
A prefix menu was available but we each opted to order our own pizza. I don't eat a lot of dessert so I typically stay away from prefix since I'd be getting something I didn't want or need. There would have to be something spectacular looking or unique on the dessert menu to get me to order it. Of course peer pressure sometimes works too. ;)
Within no time our pizzas were being served. It was shocking how fast it was. The waitress said it takes about 90 seconds to cook the pizza thanks to the oven they have.
I had ordered the mushroom pizza called Matteo. It had a nice thin crust, just the way I like it. Although the pizza did suffer from tip sag (a phrase I've only just heard of) it was still a good pizza and filling. The prefix would have been too much food for me.
There is a debate going on as to what the best pizza is in Toronto. The contenders are Queen Margherita's and Libretto. I haven't been to Libretto yet but I hope to get there soon. The one pizza that sticks in my mind is Vesuvio's over in the junction but it's been so long I can't remember if it was the pizza I liked or the hype that came with it by eating it with my friends. I may have to do a pizza night or weekend trying all three to properly compare.
Either way I would like to go back to Queen Margherita's, but, now I'm not sure if it is for the pizza or the unique space. Hmm. I better start paying more attention to these things.
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