The views expressed in this Opinion article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Narcity Media.
Whether you're picking up a slice of pizza in Toronto or grabbing a frozen pizza from the grocery store, a good pie is always a welcome treat after a long day.
I usually pop by the grocery store when I'm done work to pick up some last-minute ingredients when it's my week to cook for myself and my boyfriend, and I've recently been trying out more of their ready-to-eat meals, which I've found to be delicious.
With that in mind, I decided to try out some of the fresh pizzas made in-store at three of Canada's grocery stores to see which pie reigns supreme, and two of them are genuinely better than the pizzas you can get at popular chains like Pizza Pizza or Little Ceaser's.
I picked up a meat lovers pizza from Fortino's, Metro and Longo's and rated them each out of five in terms of how likely I am to repurchase it — and there's one I'll be picking up when I can't be bothered to cook.
Longo's
A stone-oven cooked Meat Lovers Pie from Longo's for $11.97. Right: Sarah holding a slice of the pie.
I rarely shop at Longo's due to there not being one close to me, so I was interested to check out the location in Liberty Village.
I called ahead to order my pizza and was told it'd be ready in 20 minutes and it was finished and sitting in a heated oven to keep it nice and hot by the time I got to the store.
Their stone oven-cooked Meat Lovers pizza comes with fresh pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, chicken breast, sausage and bacon, and all in all, it was pretty good, but it wasn't great.
For about $12, it's a decent pie, but the slice itself was quite floppy and the chicken wasn't a great topping as it was kind of dry and tasted overwhelmingly like rotisserie chicken just chucked on there.
That being said, it had a nice crust and my partner and I ate half of it for lunch with no fuss, so if I was in Longo's and wanted to buy a pizza, I'd perhaps get this again. I just wouldn't go out of my way to get it as there are better options that are closer to my home!
Rating: 3/5
Price: $11.97
Fortino's
Fortino's Meat Lovers pizza for $24.99. Right: Sarah holding a slice of Fortino's Meat Lovers pizza.
While doing my research for this, I truly couldn't fathom why this Meat Lovers pie cost about $25, but upon picking it up, I understood.
Y'all, this pizza was like as tall as a three-year-old and could easily feed six hungry men who had been doing manual labour all day — I was genuinely shocked when I picked up my order at the North York Lawrence location, which I had called in ahead of time.
In terms of ingredients, Fortinos says their Meat Lovers Roman Pizza is made with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, spicy cacciatore, double-smoked bacon and mild Italian sausage.
It was so good — it's super-duper meaty, which is obviously what you want in a meat lovers pie, and the addition of the spicy cacciatore gave it a surprising amount of heat. Although I found the crust to be a bit tough, the sauce was nicely seasoned and the cheese was thick and yummy, and overall, I just really enjoyed this pie.
That being said, this pizza is perhaps a bit too rich — like, after two slices I needed a Diet Coke to cut through some of the delicious fattiness and then I promptly needed a nap.
As well, given how gargantuan this pizza is, it's not something I'd likely order again as it's simply much too large for me and my partner to reasonably consume in a few days and its presence in my fridge has lowkey been haunting me for three days.
If I was having people over, I could see myself buying this again, but for my everyday life, this is a pass for me — but a delicious pass!
Rating: 4/5
Price: $24.99
Metro
A Meat Lovers pizza from Metro that costs $14.99. Right: Sarah holding a slice of pizza from Metro.
I was initially annoyed with Metro because they don't allow you to call your order in ahead of time which meant I had to wait while my pie cooked, but it only took about twenty minutes, so I was able to have a leisurely stroll through the store while I waited, which I actually enjoyed.
Although I asked for a Meat Lover pizza, I was asked to specify which three toppings I wanted so I opted for pepperoni, sausage and bacon.
Metro's pizza had the best dough and crust out of all three pies — the exterior was nice and crispy but the interior was delightfully fluffy.
The bacon was perfectly cooked, which added some snappy texture, and either the pepperoni or sausage had a bit of spiciness to it that was delicious.
I'd say the sauce and cheese were just fine, but I actually liked that they didn't bring too much to the situation as it allowed the toppings to stand out as they were the true star of this pie.
Unlike the Fortino's pizza, after two slices of the Metro pie I didn't feel like I was about to slip into a food coma which meant that I could still do some errands and cleaning up after dinner.
This pizza is pretty reasonably priced, delicious and could feed me and my partner for two or three meals, so it's getting full marks from me.
Rating: 5/5
Price: $14.99
I recently tested out individual slices of pizza you can get at big chain restaurants in the GTA and I'd say the pie from Metro and Fortino's is better than most of the ones I tried, perhaps even beating the slice I put in first place.
And, while I enjoyed all of the frozen pizzas I tried in an effort to find a dupe for Delissio, all the fresh pizzas I tried in-store beat out everything from that test!
These prices are confirmed at the time of publishing, but they can change at any time. Taxes and fees may not be included.
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