Posted : August 28, 2014
Our blog is chock full of great ideas for fun things to see and do in York Durham and Headwaters. We are always adding new content and updating old posts, but sometimes you might stumble upon something from our vault. If this article has inspired you to hit the road, be sure to double-check that the featured stops in this post are still welcoming visitors.
Where does one go for a slice of Neapolitan pizza?
If you’re in Central Counties then you should head to Pickering and grab a seat at a popular pizza joint featured on Season 2 of Food Network’s You Gotta Eat Here! show – PIE.
PIE in Pickering is the 3rd location to join the popular wood fired pizza chain originating in Barrie, Ontario.
Known for the perfect crust to cheese to toppings ratio, PIE makes fresh dough every morning and pizzas are cooked in an Italian imported oven at temperatures as high as 900 degrees.
In addition to pizza, PIE also offers appetizers, soups, salads, pastas, sandwiches, grilled dishes and desserts.
Our visit was solely for pizza so we focused only on this section of the menu.
With over 20 pizzas to choose from, including the Kobi 43 – named after Takeru Kobayashi (a competitive eater and reigning champion of PIE’s annual pizza eating contest) – we opted to order the one featured on You Gotta Eat Here! – Green Eggs and Ham – and one recommended by our server – Salty Pie.
Our kids ordered off of the Kids Menu and also chose pizza as their main dish.
Red, orange, yellow and brown are the main colours featured in this open restaurant and tables which double as the menu create a very relaxed and laid back atmosphere.
There’s a communal table right in front of the pizza oven and booths and tables along the perimeter of the restaurant.
Our 2 pizzas were about 12 inches in diameter and arrived perfectly cooked –crispy on the bottom and puffy along the edges.
The kids’ cheese pizza was similar but just smaller in size. Both devoured their 2 slices within minutes and then asked for some of our pizza.
The Green Eggs and Ham pizza was as good as John Catucci said it would be. Light and earthy in flavour, the sweetness of the basil pesto and saltiness of the bacon were mellowed by the potato, egg and mozzarella. It was my favourite of the two pizzas we ordered.
Salty Pie lives up to its name. If you’re an anchovy or olive fan, this may be the pizza for you. It was a bit too salty for my liking but my husband said he preferred this one over the Green Eggs and Ham.
To finish off the meal, our kids shared a vanilla ice cream and my husband and I split an order of Sweet Balls – a bowl full of fried dough topped with powdered sugar, cinnamon and dulce de leche.
They were sweet, had a similar texture to New Orleans style beignets – crispy on the outside, light and airy on the inside – and were the perfect way to end our meal – not too heavy and not too overly sweet.
If you consider yourself a serious pizza fanatic, try PIE’s Furious Canucker Challenge.
Finish a 3 layered pizza with 1 lb of poutine between the pizzas within 35 minutes and you’ll see your name on the Wall Of Fame and walk out of PIE without having to spend a cent.
PIE in Pickering is a family friendly place to meet, eat and have a good time.
PIE
1550 Kingston Road
Pickering, Ontario
905-492-9393
PIE is open 364 days of the year and accepts all major credit cards.
Cheryl is founder of Kids On A Plane – a blog dedicated to family travel in North America and the Caribbean.
When she’s not on a plane, you can find her exploring the GTA with her two young children and husband. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest.
