First Impressions

Wasn’t this place Monte Cello’s last week?  Or a Mexican place a year ago?  A lot of places have come and gone from this location in the Target centre at Brown and Power.

The inside is much more elaborately decorated than you’d expect from the strip-mall surroundings:  tiled floors, faux-finish internal walls, and formica tables to look like marble.  Even the necessary LCD TVs were out of the way and looked tasteful.

The Menu

While Pisa focuses on pizza, they also offered a large range of lunch sandwiches, and some Italian pasta, chicken, and veal dishes, most available for catering.  The pizza selections tended towards the more traditional types, but the offering of a 18″ pie was a welcome option when many places are heading towards smaller sizes.

Food

We opened with some garlic knots– strongly flavoured but not offensive, and lightly done so they were not unpleasantly crisp.

Next came bruschetta.  Again, it remained crisp in spite of having the expected heavy topping of tomatoes, cheese, and a hint of oil.  Fairly impressive.

Finally, our pizzas arrived.  While crispier than you’d expect from New York style pizza, it was still thin and generally well-balanced.  The three-cheese plus pepperoni pie had plenty of cheese, without becoming overpowering, and the “special” style had plenty of sausage, pepperoni, and peppers, while not overwhelming the base.

I found the vodka-style pizza with chicken the weakest.  While it was rich, it was a bit of an acquired taste I haven’t acquired, and it seemed a bit skimpy on chicken.

Service

The service was very attentive and sensible– asking if we actually wanted our drinks refilled, rather than stealing half-full cups, and constantly trying to find our opinions on the meal.  Perhaps we tipped our hand about doing the site too early, or perhaps they’re really keen on refining process at a new place.

Conclusion

Pisa Pizza has potential.  The food’s competent and the service is excellent.  It could skew moderately upscale in a neighborhood with few similar options since the Italian grocery became a carpet store.  However, I worry their location is permanently doomed to disaster.