Colonnade Pizza

280 Metcalfe St. - 237-3179
Date of order: August 21st, 2004 at 6:15 PM
Ready: 6:30 PM
Cost: $15.80

It was late afternoon on a sunny, cool Saturday in August. Most of our friends were busy with other things, so on a whim we, your Pizza Ottawa reviewers, decided to go for a walk downtown. Our initial destination was Sugar Mountain in search interesting microbrew root beers. On the way downtown, it was suggested that we also go to Cat Parliament, which is a shelter for cats/raccoons/other things that is just behind the centre block on Parliament Hill (south-west of the gazebo), and is run by an older man who took over the job from the founder when she died. Oddly enough, when we visited the raccoons outnumbered the cats 4-to-1. All of this takes place amongst the statues, monuments and gothic revival architecture of the hill. Walking around there on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon, we noted how nice our city was. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a camera, so we can’t share the scenery with the world. Take our word for it.

After Cat Parliament, we proceeded to Sugar Mountain. Sugar Mountain is a store that specializes in import candy and chocolate bars, as well as having bulk bins of various loose candies. They also sell soft drinks, and we were hoping to find some good root beer, having kindled an interest in root beer the previous day with Stewart’s root beer. Sugar Mountain had Stewart’s but not much else. We picked up some Swedish Fish, having a hankering for jellied candies, then left the store still in pursuit of root beer. We had passed a convenience store on the way to Sugar Mountain and when we left Sugar Mountain, we were at a loss for ideas. One of us wanted to keep wandering down the street, while the other wanted a more concrete plan. It was about this time that the wandering reviewer suggested that we walk over to the Colonnade to pick up some pizza. The other reviewer heartily agreed to this arrangement. First we walked back to the convenience store and got a birch beer and Stewart’s Cream Soda each. One of us went to order the pizza while the other walked back to the car.

Colonnade Pizza was just a block or two away from the convenience store, so it didn’t take long to get there. We ordered a large plain pizza at 6:15, which came to $15.80. The other reviewer arrived shortly after the pizza was ordered, and fifteen minutes later, our pizza was ready. We hustled out of there to get home as soon as possible and soon we were at our reviewers’ house eating pizza. We popped open the nicely decorated and solid cardboard box to find eight slices of pizza goodness. The perfectly sized crust (not too think or too thin) was crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside, and tasted spectacular. The bits of cheese that melted on the crust ended getting a little burned, which added a great dimension to the flavour. The cheese itself was delicious. It was a very strong-tasting, authentic cheese flavour, and Colonnade generously coated the entire pizza with it. Where most pizzas we had reviewed thus far had tended to fail in the sauce department, there were no complaints over the sauce this time. The sauce was flavourful, well distributed and added to the overall taste of the pizza without being too intrusive. On top of all that, the pizza was greasy without being messy, which is always a plus.

Colonnade pizza may very well be the best pizza in the city. Of the ones we have reviewed thus far, the Colonnade has been the best. The only knock against it is the fact that in order to get it, you have to go pick it up. On the other hand, if you have some time to spare and quality is your main concern, you can do no better than Colonnade.

Ratings:

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

Overall Rating: 9.375 out of 10

Posted by Jim at August 24, 2004 09:36 AM