Every month, it feels like there’s a new pizza joint opening up — and subsequent pizza-chasing lines down the block making headlines. But it’s not just sheer volume that’s making Toronto an underrated pizza destination: The city also hosts a wide variety of styles from around the world.
“Toronto is an adventurous city when it comes to flavours and cuisines — they want to try new things and experiment,” says Nader Qawasmi, the co-owner and chef at Levant Pizza. That sense of adventure is what drives pizza innovation. “I think you’re seeing a lot of different styles popping up because we have a city that really supports experimentation.”
Pizza in particular is ripe for this kind of riffing: “Pizza is a blank space,” says Ryan Baddeley, the chef and owner of Pizzeria Badiali. You can put nearly anything on a pizza, tinker endlessly with the dough or experiment with all sorts of cooking methods.
I chat with pizza slingers from around the city to find out more about their uniquely innovative pies, and Toronto’s bustling pizza renaissance.
New York-style
Pizzeria Badiali
181 Dovercourt Rd.
One of the most common types of pie in the city, New York-style pizzas are recognizable by their large size, crispy crust and foldable slices. At Pizzeria Badiali, tucked away on Dovercourt between Dundas West and Queen West, Ryan Baddeley and his team of pizza chefs make New York-style slices that have Torontonians lining up out the door. The hype is well-earned: Badiali has perfected the crunchy yet floppy crust that the Big Apple is known for by cooking a Neapolitan dough for a bit longer, making it light and crunchy.
Other NYC-style slices to try
Mac’s Pizza
759 Dovercourt Rd.
Revolver Pizza Co.
388 Royal York Rd.
ONO Pizza 581
Pape Ave.
Baddeley says that the Toronto pizza scene has been steadily improving for the last 10 years. Toronto diners are global eaters. Sure, over half of Torontonians are born outside of Canada, but they also travel around the world, learning about other cuisines and bringing home what they tried on vacation. Previously, the city has experienced similar booms with ramen and tacos, Baddeley explains. And, as one of the world’s most popular foods, there is an endless selection of pizza styles to introduce to Toronto.
On top of that, Badiali might be influencing the next generation of slice shops to raise the bar even higher. Baddeley says that their massive popularity has “inspired a lot of people over the past few years to up their pizza game around the city” to keep up. “I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all.”
Windsor-style
Ambassador Pizza Co.
946 Bloor St. W.
Hawai’i Time
The polarizing food, which tops pizza with canned pineapple and ham, is actually a Canadian invention — and has nothing to do with the U.S. state. Greek immigrant, Sam Panopoulos, created it at his Chatham spot Satellite Restaurant and named the pizza after the brand of canned pineapples he used.
Canada isn’t just the adopted home of internationally developed pizza styles; the Great White North also has a few unique regional pies of our own. On the East Coast, pizza dough is topped with garlic butter, parsley and cheese to make garlic fingers, which are dipped in donair or marinara sauce. In Hamilton, residents pledge fealty to Roma Bakery’s slab pizza — massive, rectangular, bready ‘zas that are slathered with sauce, cheeseless and sold in grocery stores around the Hammer.
But one of the best-loved regional slices hails from Windsor. A Windsor slice is characterized by its flour and cornmeal dough, which helps prevent it from sticking to the pizza paddle; pepperoni that’s been shredded into thin matchsticks for even distribution; canned mushrooms for extra moisture; and, most importantly, Windsor-made mozzarella from Galati Cheese Company, which has a higher fat content than other cheese on the market. Torontonians need not venture onto the 401 to get a taste of Windsor: Ambassador Pizza Co. on Bloor West is slinging pies just like they do in the City of Roses.
Gaetano Pugliese, the chef and co-owner of Ambassador Pizza, was born and raised in Windsor and takes pride in the Windsor expats who’ve told him an Ambassador slice reminds them of home. “If there’s one thing Windsorites are proud of, it’s our pizza,” he says.
According to him, Toronto is having a pizza renaissance because there isn’t a distinct style here. The ability to put nearly anything on pizza has led to the current pizza moment, he says. “We take styles from all over the world and we showcase it here.”
Other Canadian specialties to try
Garlic fingers with donair sauce at Maker Pizza
Multiple locations
Slab pizza at Roma Bakery
233 Barton St., Stoney Creek
Hawaiian pizza at The Good Son
1096 Queen St. W.
Detroit-style
Slowhand Sourdough Pizza
99 Pape Ave.
Windsor has its regional pizza, but just south of the border, a very different kind of pie is a local favourite. Detroit-style pizza’s closest Italian cousin is the Sicilian pizza — a rectangular, focaccia-based pizza baked in a dish. Motown takes the Sicilian to the next level by garnishing it with Wisconsin brick cheese, all the way to the edges. Sometimes, more sauce is added on top in long “race stripes” after baking.
On the east end, Slowhand Pizza is dishing out “Detroit-ish” pies. Slowhand uses a sourdough base — baked first as bread, then rebaked when it’s topped for pizza — for a lighter crust. And, controversially, Slowhand doesn’t add more sauce to the top of their pies after baking.
Dan Ewing, Slowhand’s co-owner, says that they’re borrowing from three different traditions: Sicily, Detroit and San Francisco, where the sourdough starter originates. “This blend is very Toronto — you take aspects of other things, flavours and techniques from here and there, and meld it all together to create something new and different,” Ewing says.
Ewing also finds that Toronto’s pizza scene is increasingly scientific. Pizza makers are becoming obsessed with optimizing moisture, temperature, gluten, pH levels and flour strength — and taking experimental approaches to the dish, adding all sorts of ingredients in pursuit of the next great thing. (Slowhand, for example, is home to a pickle pizza, surprisingly a customer favourite.) “If you’re not precious about it, you can have a lot of fun with pizza,” says Ewing. “It’s just bread you’re putting things on, and it’s delicious.”
Other Detroit pizza joints in Toronto
8Mile Detroit Style Pizza
9 Charles St. W.
Descendant Detroit Style Pizza
1168 Queen St. E.
Detroit Pizzeria
1093 Bathurst St.
Neapolitan-style
Pizza e Pazzi
1182 St. Clair Ave. W.
Naples is often cited as the home of pizza. Not only is the Italian city the birthplace of modern-day pizza, the Neapolitan pizza is also one of the most popular styles around the world. Napolis take their pizza very seriously: The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana awards certification to pizzerias that strictly adhere to the Neapolitan tradition.
Pizza e Pazzi in Toronto’s Corso Italia neighbourhood is one of the few places in the city that serves certifiably legit Neapolitan pizza. Dylan Gow, their pizzaiolo (or pizza chef), says that the restaurant tries to keep things as simple as possible. That means a basic dough of salt, water, yeast and flour; a searing 750-degree oven; and a brief 90-second bake.
But the traditionalists have noticed the recent explosion of new types of ‘za throughout the city. Gow cites the pandemic’s influence on the restaurant industry: Workers had to scramble to make ends meet, leading to chefs working in different restaurants and learning new skills. “I was jumping around restaurants just trying to stay afloat and picked up a lot,” he says. “It’s definitely influencing what I’m doing now at Pizza e Pazzi, and I’m sure others in Toronto would say the same.”
The COVID-era experimentation has led to a proliferation of fusion pies. While Gow hasn’t noticed one general trend, he says that pizzaiolos in the city are “infusing their personality and having fun with such a simple food.”
Other Neapolitan pizza places to try
Piccolo Piano Pizzeria
89 Harbord St.
Napoli Centrale
964 Bathurst St.
Pizzeria Libretto
Multiple locations
Totally unique styles
Levant Pizza
899 Bloor St. W.
While Toronto is home to so many recognized pizza styles, some with decades, if not centuries, of history, the city is also the perfect place to iterate on the beloved dish. At Bloor and Ossington, Levant is uniting Palestinian and Lebanese flavours with Sicilian-style pizza.
Levant’s owner and chef Nader Qawasmi says that the focaccia base found in Sicilian pizzas is the perfect vessel for their pies, which are super topping-heavy. Some of their pizzas include an OG Shawarma pie that’s loaded up with beef brisket, and a Meat Habibi that’s topped with pepperoni and sujuk, a spicy fermented sausage. “There’s hardiness to the flavours that we put on our pizzas — they are dishes themselves,” Qawasmi explains. By calling their dish “not pizza,” they wanted to draw attention to the non-authentic nature of their pizzas, Qawasmi says. “We didn’t want to offend Italians.”
Toronto is the perfect place for a pizza joint like Levant because of its diversity. Qawasmi says that Toronto diners aren’t just worldly eaters, they expect and support experimentation. “We have such a multicultural city that experimenting with foods and different backgrounds and finding the common thread between flavours and ingredients is something Toronto allows for.”
Other totally unique pies
Filipino pizza at Saints Island Pies
6236 Main St., Stouffville
General Tso Chicken at Martino Pizza and Asian Kitchen
178 Dupont St.
Jerk seasoned pizza at Caribbean Slice
230 Queen St. W.
In a city that’s home to so much great pizza, is there such a thing as a definitive Toronto slice? With so many competing styles, it’s impossible to imagine how one singular type could win out.
A “Toronto slice” could be any one of the pizza spots in the city that have settled here and called it home. Perhaps the “Toronto slice” is best represented by what’s offered at low-key pie shops like Fresca Pizza and Pasta, where Vietnamese immigrants have added garlic oil to Neapolitan-ish pizzas to take them from good to great. Or, maybe it’s the most popular spot in the city (for good reason), Badiali Pizzeria, with its consistently long lines.
A “Toronto slice” could be any one of the pizza spots in the city that have settled here and called it home. Perhaps the “Toronto slice” is best represented by what’s offered at low-key pie shops like Fresca Pizza and Pasta, where Vietnamese immigrants have added garlic oil to Neapolitan-ish pizzas to take them from good to great. Or, maybe it’s the most popular spot in the city (for good reason), Badiali Pizzeria, with its consistently long lines.
