Pizza Pide

949 Gerrard St E.
Toronto, Ontario
(416) 462-9666
Google Map
http://www.pizza-pide.com/

Date: July 7, 2006
Cost: Under $10/person including drink
What's on the menu: Turkish pizzas (thin or regular crust) with a selection of toppings, traditional pizzas/slices, Turkish desserts, meat ball/chunks served with vegetables
Drinks: Yogurt drink, pop and juice.
Atmosphere: Neighbourhood pizza parlour, more commonly referred to as "hole in the wall" pizza joint.

Review:
When I first showed CFO Pizza Pide's website we both could not wait to try this place. Pizza Pide is a Turkish pizza place at Pape and Gerrard in the Riverdale area. Having never had a Turkish pizza, our desire to try it was based solely on Pizza Pide's website pictures - pictures of canoe shaped pizzas with a sunny side up egg on top was all it took.

Our adventure begins on Friday night, July 7. Finding Pizza Pide was accidentally easy. We stumbled across it stopped at a traffic light. It is located diagonally across from Gerrard Square. Incidentally, Gerrard Square provides ample "free" parking to those who choose to drive. We quickly turn into Gerrard Square and made the short walk across the street to Pizza Pide.

Inside Pizza Pide lies your typical pizza parlour - large white counters, stainless steel pizza ovens and what looked like a brick oven used to cook the Turkish pizzas, called pides. Behind the counter was a nice man, who we'll call Mr. Pide. Mr. Pide, who I think is the owner, also takes your order, makes your pizza and gladly brings your food to one of the few tables at Pizza Pide, if you decide to dine in. Germaphobe's beware though, there was no evidence of hand washing after handling money.

After a short wait in line Mr. Pide takes our order. Being the decisive people we are (actually quite indecisive, everything always looks good) and having drooled over the menu many nights before we order number 18 from the picture menu on the wall. Number 18 is described "Karisik (Assorted - every slice is a different taste, contains variety of slices of our best seller pides)" - $9.99. We figure this is the best choice for first timers - a little bit of everything on our pie. Mr. Pide tells us "30 Minutes"...... 30 minutes? Wonder if he offers the Pizza Pizza guarantee? Seems a little long for a pizza, but this is no ordinary pizza, it's pide. Our hungry stomach's quickly reply "Ok".

Not wanting to wait around inside we decide to check out the rest of the neighbourhood. Our choice's were Gerrard Square or a western style karaoke tavern, that had an alarmingly high number of patrons at 6pm... we settled on Gerrard Square. Not much to see in there, they're currently renovating... excellent spot for a pit stop though. Anyways... back to Pizza Pide.

Back at Pizza Pide, we scope out the best table available - a nice spot by the door. Mr. Pide tells us "2 minutes" and our growling stomachs acknowledge. We watch Mr. Pide pull our pide out of the oven and as a finishing touch, brushes it with a little egg yolk. Our pide is delivered right to our table in a long tray. I get up to pay, but Mr. Pide tells me "later, later... eat pizza, have drink". CFO wanted to try one of those milky drinks everyone else was having. The drink is some sort of yogurt mixture, called aryan ($2.00). Needless to say it wasn't what we expected and didn't go well with the pizza. Think salty plain yogurt in drink form.

The number 18 pizza actually has 5 different sections - ground beef, mozzarella cheese and herbs, chicken, Turkish sausage and pastrami, and ground lamb meat. All is accompanied with lemon wedges, tomato slices and parsley. The taste is similar to a white pizza with only the Turkish sausage having a distinct taste to it... good taste that is, meat is Halal. Crust is flakey and the canoe shape allows it to hold all the toppings. Best slice? CFO says chicken, meat was tender. For me, it was the Turkish sausage. Although I thought it was all great. The only disappointment for us was it didn't come with an egg on top, which is half the reason we wanted to try Pizza Pide. No worries on future visits though - egg's on top available for an extra $0.99.

Our pide is devoured in under 10 minutes and we contemplate whether or not to get pide #2, one with an egg. After much deliberation, we decide to save it for a future visit. After cleaning our table, we pay for the pide and 1 yogurt drink - total is $13.67. Sadly, we left Pizza Pide a little hungry, but at least our curiosity had been satisfied, if not our tummies.

Overall, we had an enjoyable experience. Pide was excellent, service was great and all this for under $14.00. Definitely recommended to anyone who is looking for a different, but delicious, take on traditional pizzas. Oh and if you're thinking of adding an egg on top of your pizzas at home, it's a lot harder than it looks. CFO killed 2 eggs in the oven as they ran off the side of the pizza.

Approval Rating: