Friday, February 01, 2013

Mediocre Pizza Boyz

For lunch today I visited Pizza Boyz (1577 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa).  I checked out their lacklustre website with only their latest flyer uploaded, took a gander and visited the Alta Vista Plaza to place the order in person. 

When I visited at 11:45 A.M. there was one person in the store making the pizzas.  He welcomed me and inquired what my order was.  I placed my order as he worked away.

The Order: 1 Medium Pepperoni Pizza (12" pizza). 

He said it would be 15 minutes.  I replied, so about noon it will be ready?  He looked at me quizzically.  I explained it was about 11:45 A.M. so 15 minutes would be about noon.  He nodded his head. 

When ordering pizza and receiving a time the pizza will be ready (i.e. will be ready in 15 minutes) I like to reiterate the time that meal can be expected.  This ensures that the employee doesn't lose track of time and forget the order.  They also know that they have agreed that my order should be ready for around noon. 

I visited the nearby Tim Hortons to grab a coffee and then return to get the pizza. 

Upon my return, it was 11:55 A.M. so I grabbed a newspaper from the window sill and started reading.  At 12:05 P.M. I got up as a couple of guys came in to look over the menu for lunch.  Another Pizza Boyz employee had arrived to help out with what looked to be the start of the lunch rush. 

The original employee brought out my pizza in a plain white non descript box.  I waited as he rang another customer through and then I paid $15.80 (including taxes) and headed home. 


Pizza Boyz Pepperoni & Cheese Pizza

After arriving home I opened the box to find a smallish medium sized pizza. Admittedly it looked about 12" though true to Pizza Boyz's advertising. But I was left wondering how a 12" plain pepperoni pizza could cost $15.80 when the chains can do the same thing for $9.00 to $10.99 before taxes?

Added to this pricing issue, I could barely spot the pepperoni slices on the pizza.  The pepperoni appeared to buried in the cheese.  Most regular Pepperoni pizzas form other pizza parlours have the pepperoni slices on top of the cheese.  Was Pizza Boyz trying to hid the pepperoni for some reason?  Only one way to find out, taste it.


Pizza Boyz Pepperoni & Cheese Pizza

The pizza tasted like any other pepperoni pizza you would eat from the chains.  Nothing fresh or special about the crust or toppings.  In fact I was hard pressed to find the pepperoni slices on the pizza.  As far as I could tell the pepperoni slices were only placed around the outside edge of the pizza just before the crust and were not present closer to the middle of the pizza.  The cheese itself was also just average run-of-the-mill pizza cheese.

With the above in mind, why was the Pizza $15.80 including taxes?  I'm not sure. 

Overall, Pizza Boyz is an overpriced average pizza parlour.  For the price paid, I expected a pizza that a little closer to the gourmet stylings of Abruzzo Pizza in Richmond Hill.  Instead, I got an small sized average tasting pizza that costs $3 to $4 over the average price served by the local chains.  I will have to try somewhere else to find a decent slice.

2 comments:

  1. Your description or so called analysis of the Pizza you bought at Pizza Boyz is completely false. I am a regular customer that orders on average 1-2 times a week. Like any other small local based pizzeria, the price is slightly higher when compared to big chain franchises such as Pizza Pizza. Therefore to say the cost is to high is misleading. The Pizza Boyz Pizza is delicious and made from scratch. Such a scheme (i.e. Buying the Pizza and then going home and taking a few pictures before eating it) seems planned or staged. Comparing it to the Pizzeria you mentioned at the end of your blog implies your are promoting for them by making false statements about Pizza Boyz. This blog is clearly amateur (you made a couple of spelling mistakes) and staged. This information is irrelevant and incorrect.

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  2. Hi Robert,

    Thank you for stopping by.

    I believe each customer to a restaurant, whether it be a chain or individually owned restaurant, has their own opinion on it. This is because each person has their own tastes.

    I didn't stage anything on this pizza place at all. I merely did what many people on Urbanspoon.com (a Restaurant Review site) did and take photos of my meal. Feel free to visit Urbanspoon to see what other bloggers are doing and you will notice most of it is not staged.

    The pizzeria mentioned at the end of the blog I'm not shilling for. I do not own Abbruzzo Pizza in Richmond Hill (near Toronto). As well, Pizza Boyz is not a direct competitor to Abbruzzo as they are not even remotely in the same market. I only provided a comparison to Abbruzzo as I've done a review on them in the past.

    I also don't believe I've provided false statements about Pizza Boyz, but only the my own observations I had on my pizza order.

    Finally, the blog isn't perfect. I do not have high priced editors or professional layout designers. This, like many others out there, is a personal blog and really is ownly updated and revised by the company of "Me, Myself & I" thus there may be errors in spelling sometime because nobody is perfect.

    Thanks again for stopping by and feel free to enjoy Pizza Boyz.

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