After our dinner at Figures (we weren’t full), we headed towards Pi Co. for some pizza as a second dinner.  I hadn’t been to Pi Co. yet despite this being such a popular spot and having been shared by foodies all over Instagram at one point (I think there was a media tasting there).

We went to the original location of Pi Co. which was at Bay and Bloor (right in the heart of Toronto).  (They also have a new second location at Yonge and Eglinton and their website tells me that they will have two more locations coming up in the GTA as well in the next two years.)  I was excited to try Pi Co. to see what their pizzas would be like/what the hype was all about.

The process at Pi Co. worked exactly like at Blaze Pizza: you pick the dough you wanted, then the pizza sauce, cheese, and unlimited toppings for a set price.  There were a good number of people dining in here when we arrived.  They have two tables and some stools for dine-in, but it seemed like a lot of people opted for take-away orders.

Ken and I shared a Craft Yours Pizza.  We chose a regular dough, with some Crushed San Marzano Tomatoes sauce, followed by four types of cheese (I was trying to relive the delicious Blue Sally Pizza I had at True True Pizza recently) — blue cheese, goat cheese, fior di latte, and parmesan — followed by a good helping of vegetables from Ken’s picks like basil, sun-dried tomatoes, and then bacon and ground sausage (my pick).  Then our pizza was thrown into the 1,000-degree oven for 90 seconds for a classic Neapolitan pizza style.  (I remember having this kind of pizza at Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria at Yorkdale Mall many eons ago.)

 

 

 

It was a very, very quick cooking process.  After paying for the pizza at the cashier and waiting just a few seconds, I saw the staff bring out our pizza from the oven, plop it into a pizza box (we asked for it to-go), and cut it up for us.  Ninety seconds was incredibly fast and thus there was practically zero wait time from start to finish.

We all dined in and enjoyed our pizzas at their store.  Luckily, the two tables had cleared out just in time and we were able to all sit comfortably.

Even when I was watching the staff assemble our pizza together by throwing on the toppings that we selected, I felt that he wasn’t as generous as the staff were at Blaze Pizza.  I also felt that the male staff threw all of the toppings into the centre part of the pizza and didn’t scatter them out evenly.  This made for a potentially lop-sided pizza where not every bite had the substantial toppings to taste.  (Although I could have asked the male staff to add more ingredients in if I felt like there wasn’t enough, the staff at Blaze Pizza in comparison put down a lot of generous toppings without asking.  The customized pizza at Blaze Pizza also costs less at $10.)

I also noted that our pizza was quite burnt in two places on the top and also on the bottom.  I know that it must be hard to judge the pizza’s cooking time especially since they have other orders in the 1,000-degree oven too but these were the things I noticed.

In terms of taste, I really liked the chewy thin crust of the pizza.  What I didn’t like were the underwhelming number of ingredients and burnt parts.

I was surprised that I didn’t end up liking Pi Co. that much for a first visit.  I know I’ll be visiting again this month so let’s see if my opinion changes when I retry their pizza.  (I definitely think that if the staff put on more toppings generously, it will change the game.)