House of Pizza Walkley

5-1574 Walkley Road - 523-6666
Date of order: June 8th, 2004 at 9:37 PM
Arrived: 10:43 PM
Cost: $12.60 + tip

   We've been eating pizza from this place for a few years now. Whenever we are in the mood for non-chain pizza (which is most of the time now) this is where we go. On this occasion, we ordered a large plain pie at 9:37 PM on a Tuesday night. Besides the pizza (and the cheese sticks until they jacked up the price), we are big fans of House of Pizza because of their online ordering system at delivery.ca. We at Pizza Ottawa are lazy and avoid social interaction, so the internet is a welcome alternative.

   The problem that we've encountered with HoP is that their delivery times are somewhat erratic. Sometimes it clocks in at under 30 minutes, and sometimes it takes an hour. This time it was the latter, clocking in at 1 hour and 6 minutes. We here at Pizza Ottawa haven't determined any sort of pattern from the varying delivery times, so until we do it's definitely a good idea to plan for the worst. Calling in the order might also speed it up, and I'm sure if you ask they'll tell you if they're running a little slow.

   On the upside the pizza always arrives hot, and this time was no exception. At a cost of a mere $12.60 + tip, one would expect this pizza to be skimpy, but it isn’t. The generous amount of cheese looked well-cooked and the thick crust was nicely browned. In the flavour department, this pizza shone. The cheese was chewy and tasty and the sauce was thick and spicy with a great texture that felt like real ingredients. Toppings-wise, the pizza was great stuff.

   The only shortcoming of this pizza is that the crust is just a little too thick. Otherwise, it’s a very good crust. It’s slightly crisp (though it could be crispier) on the outside, chewy on the inside, and tastes really good. There are those of us who prefer quite a thin crust, and others who do like a bit more, but all of us agreed that this was just a little much. On the plus side, thick crust is more filling so a little goes a long way, but given a choice, a thinner crust would taste better.

   The bottom line is that House of Pizza Walkley makes a delicious, inexpensive pizza. Further investigation will have to be made into the delivery times (maybe later evenings are always slower), but we can say that as long as you’re willing to wait you will be rewarded.

Ratings:

Crust: 7 out of 10
Sauce: 9.5 out of 10
Cheese: 9 out of 10
Grease: 9 out of 10
Presentation: 8 out of 10

Overall Rating: 8.6 out of 10

Posted by Jim at July 12, 2004 08:51 PM