1080 Pleasant Park Rd. at St Laurent – 523-0000
Date of order: January 3rd, 2009
Cost: ~$16.00

Yes, our loyal readers, I know. It’s been a while. It’s just that we drifted apart – that spark, that excitement we had between us just faded. It wasn’t anyone’s fault…it was bound to happen eventually. But now, with an infusion of capital from our good friends at Google (keep clicking those ads!) we’re back and ready to eat some pizza. We both now live in different parts of the city so expect some new perspectives on the Ottawa pizza landscape. And if you’re extra smart you can map the pizza places we try and figure out where we live…please don’t stalk us, though.

We had been to the grand re-opening of the Mayfair the night before. As longtime patrons of the Old Ottawa South landmark we were happy to see the Mayfair get another chance to shine. It was doubly better now that they would be showing more movies that we’d actually like to see, instead of the usual Hollywood drivel! (To be fair there were usually one or two cool shows a month, but those were getting fewer and farther between.) The local short films were great – I highly recommend ‘Skins and Rubbers’ or any of the Harry Knuckles films if you ever have a chance to catch them – but the highlight was a screening of Metropolis with a live band. We were impressed that a silent film kept the capacity crowd’s attention for the full two hours; no small feat in this age of YouTube and Twitter.

Our first pizza of the new era was ordered from Super Duper Pizza on Pleasant Park near St Laurent. We were intrigued by the name – was the pizza really ‘super duper’ or just ‘super’? It also helped that their location was close to our testing facilities. We needed some good pizza to help get us through what would become a rollercoaster ride of emotions, with the Canada/Russia game as well as the Senators game and NFL playoffs all on at the same time. To combat the issue of having three things to watch at the same time we set up three televisions. To be fair, two of the three are setup in a side-by-side configuration permanently, one for watching TV and the other for video games. The third TV only comes out on special occasions. It reminded me of the Dire Straits video for ‘Money for Nothing’ only with less cheesy 80s computer graphics.

We ordered one large plain (our standard) and one large vegetarian. Prices were what we think of as standard for a non-chain pizza place. They were ready for pickup (save 10%!) in under 40 minutes. It definitely looked pretty good – standard ‘Ottawa style’ pizza with lots of golden cheese and a thick, crispy crust. The toppings on the vegetarian looked well proportioned and didn’t make the crust so soggy that it was impossible to pick up, as others that we reviewed have. The cheese was tasty but not too greasy. There was a good amount of sauce – over saucing is the worst pizza abuse! – and it was mildly spicy without being overbearing. The crust was chewy without being too chewy and was a nice golden brown. While we here at Pizza Ottawa feel that a good crust doesn’t need dipping sauces to enjoy, the folks that do suggested that the small amount of browned cheese on the crust removed any need for it.

All in all this was some good pizza. I might not live up to its name – it’s gotta be great to be ‘super duper’ – but if you’re in the area we definitely suggest trying it out.