La Pizza Week 2022 reviews

This year’s edition of the nationwide restaurant festival la Pizza Week continues through May 14, with dozens of Montreal restaurant participating in-house and deliviering via DoorDash. Here are reviews of five Pizza Week 2022 offerings, most of them available exclusively this week:

Hang Time Pizza

The ’90s never really left at Hang Time Pizza, and their special creation this week gives a knowing wink to the halcyon days of family restaurant pizza when Ninja Turtles and Pizza Huts reigned supreme, but also, depending on when you grew up, that first taste of adulthood at a dinner party thrown by your parents. Available in either nearly foldable NY style or thick squared Detroit style (you may remember Detroit pizza aficionado Jordan Biberkraut from his Fungool NDG days), this pizza ($20) skips the tomato sauce and instead opts for spinach and artichoke dip under a thick cheese layer. It’s doubly creamy and the dip doesn’t overwhelm. With just enough crust so it’s not too bready, not too flimsy, the Dip pizza is an absolute winning combination and turned me on to the nostalgic power of Hang Time’s pizzas. Was even better cold the next day. (Erik Leijon)

Bacaro

The Monkland location of the solid local pizza chain Bacaro offered up Gigi for Pizza Week, a delicious concoction of rosé sauce, mozzarella, roasted mushrooms, prosciutto and shallots. The ingredients were well-prepped and a winning combo, and pizza lovers who aren’t into the wall of lactose laid on by a lot of old-school pizzerias will appreciate that there seemed to be just the right amount of cheese. Though the topping ratio initially looked a tad light on prosciutto and the pizza appeared a bit dry in places, the prosciutto offered just the right number of doses of salt, and crispy bubbles in the dough come with the territory when you’re dealing with neapolitan style. The dough also made the every bite well worth eating, from the crust to the mozzarella- and mushroom-covered centre. (Tim Salhany)

Angela’s Pizzeria

A late-night-eats staple of west downtown, Angela’s has been slinging pies in their dining room and across a huge swath of the city until the break of dawn for over 40 years. Their Pizza Week offer, the Pizzaburger, held simple promise: ground beef, both mozzarella and cheddar cheese, and red onions on top of their standard tomato sauce.

It’s a little too simple, though. Angela’s is usually a pretty trusted go-to for a reliable pizza. Delivery from their location near Guy to the Point took nearly an hour at 10:30 on a Friday night. By the time my order arrived, it was south of lukewarm and dried out, and its thin crust had all the texture and charm of two stale Melba Toasts stacked on top of each other.

As for burger-worthy status, a little backstory: I am somewhat disgusted to reveal that I’ve been known to enjoy a frozen Delissio cheeseburger pizza from time to time. 

And it pains me to say that those are way better than Angela’s Pizzaburger. On top of being dry and lifeless, this mashup of classic fast foods lacked any true burgeresque oomph. While I concede that I was initially attracted by the simplicity of the idea, I couldn’t help but think some pickles and maybe a little bacon could have helped add some burger flare. 

I tried a bit of yellow mustard on a slice to see if that would do the trick. But it was just gross, because who the fuck puts mustard on pizza, anyways? 

Perhaps piping hot, in the coziness of Angela’s, wasted at 4 a.m., one could give Pizzaburger a chance. 

But on delivery, it was a dud. I hate to knock a local institution, but suffice to say that Angela: Ronald McDonald, you ain’t. (Darcy MacDonald)

Gentile

Westmount’s Café Gentile (aka the Gentile Pizza Parlour) has an especially catchy Pizza Week special. Cacio If You Can ($35) has it all: a great name, “sexy dollups” of ricotta infused with cacio e pepe (translation: cheese and pepper), a cheese blend with mozzarella, onions, cured and maple-roasted pork belly. Despite the crust being a little charred around the edges, the thick slices were loaded and tasted amazing. I can’t say enough good things about the chewy, salty-sweet pork belly, which were distributed generously across the pie, as were the onions — in this case, this was a good thing. The portions of cacio e pepe and mozzarella cheese were also pretty heavy, making for a decadent pie — and the mystery base sauce added something special to every bite, but I have no clue what that was. (Tim Salhany)

Pizzeria Bros

Pizzeria Bros has a Pizza Week pie stacked with dedicated carnivores in mind. La Paysanne has pepperoni, bacon, ham, BROS sausage, soppressata and prosciutto atop a base of rosé sauce, mozzarella and a thin crust that manages not to collapse. This is far from your average overloaded meat lovers pizza though — the toppings, though generous, are sliced and shaved thin, and the cheese and sauce they’re embedded in somehow retain their personality even amid all the delicious meaty morsels. The soppressata (a dry Italian salami) and BROS homemade sausage were especially nice additions to the usual meat lovers’ spread. So good. (Tim Salhany)

For the full list of Montreal restaurants participating la Pizza Week and more details about the festival, please visit the official website.

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