So I’m killing some time at Metrotown while waiting for my phone to be repaired today and I need something quick to eat.

Scanning the food court I see no viable options. Eating in a sit down restaurant isn’t really an option today, Amanda doesn’t want to eat.

We run across Hellcrust pizza as we are strolling around.

The first thought that came to mind was the memory of my last pizza from Hellcrust. If I recall Hell no! was my reaction after tasting it.

If only I had taken my own recommendation and kept walking.

What an offence to every pizza lover on the planet.

The ONLY flavour on this slice was the pineapple. Cardboard would even have more flavour than this. I couldn’t even taste tomatoes. It must take some actual effort to make pizza this bland. Don’t think I could fail this bad if I tried.

Does anyone out there think Hellcrust Pizza is good?

Seven dollars well wasted.

The first time should have been the last time.

One bite, everyone knows the rules…

2.5

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Well it’s pizza night and Merilynn wants something different than the usual Pepperoni or Hawaiian that I love.

Honestly when it comes to pizza we are not a good match. She doesn’t like pepperoni, I won’t eat mushrooms. Two of the most commonly found pizza toppings there are.

So it was with some despair I hopped online to look at delivery options, knowing I was unlikely to find anything that w.e both would like.

Consider some of these options that I found.

I saw one with a white sauce, Italian sausage and broccoli. You read that right. Broccoli. Vile weed. Quick, pass me the honey mustard.

Another shop offers a white sauce pizza with brisket, pickles and mustard seeds. Do I look pregnant or something?

And the worst yet, a pizza with whipped potatoes, prosciutto and black pepper. Whipped potatoes on a pizza? Seriously, I’m being Punk’d right? Is that Ashton Kutcher sitting at the other end of the bar…

I finally tossed the phone down, threw my hands in the air and suggested we just walk across the street to Piva. We have had a decent pizza there before. (Just don’t get the duck and fig one.) Merilynn will be making the decision, no fungus being my only stipulation.

She ended up going with the Modern Italian.

Roastd game hen, onions, garlic, capicollo, pesto sauce and topped with freshly grated parm.

I will start with the good. The crust was fantastic. Great undercarriage and a chew that would make any Napoletani proud. All the components ingredients were actually very good. My favorite ham, though could have been spicier. Nicely cooked poultry, whole garlic cloves with a mild, beautiful flavour. The onion basil pesto was delicious. Parm is Parm right? My favorite cheese.

So with a plethora of fantastic ingredients thus pizza should be a home run right? (I’m struggling to think of an appropriate Italian analogy. An easy slot in from the penalty spot maybe?).

Somehow though all those great ingredients didn’t coalesce into a fantastic pie.

The crust was the best part of the pizza. I even found myself picking up Merilynn’s uneaten crusts, that’s how much I loved that pizza dough.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad. Underwhelming is the word.

But it was different. And it didn’t have potatoes.

I’m already looking forward to my Hawaiian next pizza night.

One bite, everyone knows the rules…

6.5

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i originally found out about this pizza maker from Merilynn’s work. They order it in sometimes for their staff birthday lunches.

But unless you happen to go to Steveston or someone tells you about the place your unlikely to have ever heard of it.

They don’t do delivery.

They don’t do Uber Eats. Or Doordash. Or Skip.

They don’t have any tables to eat in at. Seriously none. Not even a stool at a bar.

in fact, good luck getting more than two people in the place to even order.

And it’s certainly not cheap.

They only do medium pizzas.

No large. No small. No personal size.

Just medium.

And they aren’t cheap. Our medium pizza was $33.

I found it hard to believe an establishment that has this type of business practice could survive in today’s world, with all the convenient delivery options out there. Especially in Steveston. I mean great little community. But as far as Vancouver goes it’s at the end of the world. How many people are going to drive that far just for a pizza?

As soon as I had my first slice I knew.

Lots of people will drive for this pizza.

It’s that good.

I may have to start rethinking about maybe moving to Richmond just o be closer.

Loaded with a ton of high quality toppings, this is an excellent pizza.

Lots of gooey cheese, ham and and extraordinary amount of pineapple. And yes, pineapple belongs on pizza.

You will be hard pressed to find a better pizza around I think.

And there is soemthing for everyone here, there’s a very broad menu. After a quick count of their online menu I see 37 options.

And should you have $850 to spare they even have the C6, a pizza with lobster, steelhead, prawns, truffles and caviar on it. Not sure if that is any good, and I’m not likely to find out.

If you have tried it please let me know how it was.

Franklv thought that $33 was just about perfect. Would another $815 be that much better?

Unlikely.

So next time you want excellent pizza and feel like going for a bit of a drive, head out to Steveston. Enjoy a nice walk on the wharf. Do a little browsing at all the quaint little shops. Pick up some local fresh seafood off the boat or at the fishmonger. And get yourself one of the best pizzas out there.

One bite, everyone knows the rules…

9.3

The post Steveston Pizza appeared first on Gregs Food Blog.

I’m in Prince George again this weekend visiting family and of course I’m going to be trying a local pizza joint.

My son tells me he heard good things about Red Tomato Pies so that is our destination today.

We will get our pie to go today, the shop does have a couple eat in tables but it’s not an atmosphere I would want to spend a lot of time in.

They have gelato at this location. But I think I’m going to wait til Italy next year for that.

So to the pizza!

We are going with a large Pepperoni with extra Pepperoni.

This pizza reminds me a lot of Pizza Hut pizza when Pizza Hut pizza was good. (It’s not very good anymore)

It’s greasy, but just that right amount of greasy. The cheese is just the right amount of gooey. The Pepperoni tastes great. I just wish there was more of it. Can you have too much? I say no!

This is a solid Saturday night, it’s football playoff season and I’m not cooking pizza.

One bite you know the rules…

7.6

The post Red Tomato Pies appeared first on Gregs Food Blog.

Mediterranean Fire Pizza on Commercial Drive used to be just that, fire.

There were many a 3am on a Saturday night, on the way home stops, for a late dinner in the past.

I thought it is some of the the finest pizza in the city frankly. It wasn’t, strictly speaking, Neapolitan. It was a bit of a hybrid between Neapolitan and New York I suppose.

Well things have changed. How the mighty have fallen.

It now ranks right up there with Freshslice and Pizza Pizza

In other words, absolute shite.

They seem to have roughly the same variety of pizza by the slice.

There’s about 10 options there in front of you.

But the quality has declined. Considerably.

The cheese was greasy and flavorless. The toppings, meager as they were, very poor quality. My Capicollo looked like no Capicollo I have ever seen before. Didn’t taste like Capicollo either.

Sophia’s Chicken Caesar pizza had the same awful cheese and way too much of a way too garlicky sauce.

The Ephasus, a Mediterranean inspired pizza with olives, artichokes, tomatoes and spinach also left much to be desired. The flavour combination just didn’t work.

When asked about her opinion on her slice Merilynn’s reply was “I regretted breaking my fast for it.”

I am not sure what’s happened here. Did they get new owners and they have changed the recipes? Has inflation caught up to them and they switched to cheaper ingredients rather than raise their prices?

Whatever the case, the fire at Fire Pizza has burned itself out.

One bite you know the rules:

Merilynn 4.0

Greg 3.7

Sophia 5.0

The post Fire Pizza appeared first on Gregs Food Blog.

One of the few pizzas we haven’t tried in New West is Vancouver Pizza Heaven.

People rave about it. But everything I look at on the menu I get turned off. It’s the two pizzas for one thing. I’m sure lots of people like it. It just screams cheap to me.

But we are biting the bullet tonight.

A Tropical Hawaiian.

This pan pizza style really isn’t out favorite.

The “tropical” comes from the addition of pineapple juice into the tomato sauce, going to a sweet element. Plus a smokey flavour which I’m guessing comes from the bacon.

You can just tell though this pizza isn’t the highest quality. A bit overdone I think too.

i really didn’t care for the cheese or the sauce. The flavour seemed a bit off. Not bad, just wrong.

But if you need a cheap Friday night poker pizza it will do.

Good thing I play poker on Saturdays.

One bite, everyone knows the rules…

5.1

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Another long day at work.

Another day I have no energy to cook.

Another day it’s looking to be pizza time.

Since I’m passing through Port Moody after missing my usual bus Emilio Finatti seems like a good choice.

This is a 10″ thin crust Pepperoni and Pepperoni, (that’s two kinds of pepperoni) with Capicollo added. There’s a tasty hot honey on the crust.

Crispy undercarriage and lots of protein. A really great pizza. A perfect size for $23. Pretty good deal for the quality.

One bite everyone knows the rules….

9.2

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Another pie tonight.

One I’ve had before. But it’s been a few years.

Ignite is Neopolitan style pizza with a three day pizza dough crust fired in a pizza oven at 800°, Right up my alley.

The Meat Lovers

Tomato based sauce with mozzarella, sopressata, prosciutto cotto and pancetta.

A great under undercarriage and some great toppings came together to make a great pie.

Just as good as I remember

One bite, everyone knows the rules..

8.3

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Pizza is the perfect food.

It’s often called the perfect food for good reason. It offers a balanced mix of carbs, protein, and fats, plus nutrients from veggie toppings. Incredibly versatile, it can be tailored to fit any diet—from vegan to gluten-free.

With its crispy crust, melty cheese, and endless topping combos, pizza hits every craving. It’s great hot or cold and perfect for sharing, making it a go-to for everything from casual meals to celebrations.

I can eat it often, too often for my wife. Though when we got married she hated pizza.

Then I introduced her to good pizza.

So while I can’t get her to eat it every day, I do get it once or twice a week.

I do have a favorite. A customized version of Hawaiian from Pizzeria Ludica.

It’s phenomenal.

But as good as it is, I occasionally crave some variety.

And with the expansion of Uber Eats delivery areas there are many more options available.

So tonight we are trying Bufala in the River District.

Before we get to the pizza though I wanted to try their meatballs.

Pretty good overall, the combination of beef and pork do make for a nice flavored meatball. I do prefer my meatballs a bit softer, perhaps stewing in the marinara a little longer or a bit more breadcrumbs. Very nice, flavourful marinara sauce though.

The pizza was roasted pineapple and Ham.

Not the most impressive looking pizza, but looks were deceiving. it was very good.

It is Neapolitan style, though you wouldn’t know it necessarily from that picture.

The crust had a good chew though. The toppings were plentiful and tasty.

Pretty good from Bufala tonight. Will have to try dining in at some point.

One bite, everyone knows the rules…

7.9

The post Bufala appeared first on Gregs Food Blog.

When doing my research about best places to eat in Prince George there appeared to be, to me at least, a surprising amount of decent restaurants to choose from.

Who knew there would be that many options to choose from in this backwater little town?

But when a proper Italian pizza place, Betulla Burning came up on the list, that choice became very easy. My son recommending it only added to my conviction.

First let’s clear up the name. What the hell is a Betulla?

As it turns out, Betulla is Italian birch. Of which there appears to be plenty in and around the restaurant. Is it safe to assume this the fuel for the beautiful pizza oven they have?

That sure is a beauty.

Speaking of beauties, we are here in PG to visit the new addition to our family, my beautiful granddaughter Cecilia.

What a cutie!

But as cute as my granddaughter is we are all getting hungry, which baby watching does nothing for.

What will fix it is some good pizza.

Of which we are picking three.

Pizza #1: The Margherita:

Tomato sauce, Fior Di Latté, grana pafano, fresh basil and EVOO.

The classic. Very good flavours, needs a protein though.

Pizza #2: The Carne Amore:

Tomato sauce, pepperoni, Italian sausage, smoked bacon, bocconcini, chili flakes and fresh basil.

Bring on the meat! So awesome. The bocconcini gives a mild tangy flavour while the chili flakes add a mild heat.

Pizza #3: The Big Kahuna:

Tomato sauce, smoked pork shoulder, pineapple, smoked cheddar, shisito peppers, arugula and ranch dressing.

Nice flavours going on with this one. An occasional little kick from the peppers with a pleasant smokiness from the pork. The arugula gives it a mild peppery bite but that cools off with the ranch. Maybe just a bit too much ranch for me but still very good.

All three pizza’s had a beautiful crust, that characteristic crisp with a slight chew, slightly charred from that beautiful pizza oven.

Best of the three for me was the Carne Amore, but all three were very good. I don’t have a large baseline here in Prince George, but I’m gonna guess this is the best in town.

They have a nice looking cocktail menu tempting us.

Merilynn tried the Gin and Pimms.

Gin on gin, not too sweet, with a hint of ginger. Quite pleasant.

I had the Blood Orange Paloma

Tequila, Triple Sec, grapefruit and lemon juices and Blood Orange Pellegrino.

Very citrusy and refreshing. The rosemary imparted a nice aroma on the nose as I sipped.

With, great food, nice drinks, awesome service and a beautiful location you will certainly enjoy a meal at Betulla Burning.

One bite review, you know the rules:

#1 7.9

#2 8.5

#3 8.2

If you are in Prince George you will find them Downtown.

Check out their webpage here

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