We independently select everything we recommend. Buying through us may earn us a commission, which supports our work. The Citizen’s restaurant critic, Peter Hum, has put years of work into this list of Ottawa-area pizza purveyors, taste-testing and reviewing each spot along the way. We’ve compiled every pizza-themed review we’ve published over the last five years in one spot, to help you decide where to go when it’s time for some pizza. Sign In or Create an Account This roundup post is based on the past few years of reporting and reviews. Information here may not be up to date. We’ve listed the publication date, so we are all on the same page, plus the original links so you can read the full article. 119 Beechwood Ave., 613-913-7997, lindenpizza.ca At this Beechwood Avenue eatery that opened in April 2025, exceptionally well-crafted pizzas feature what must be Ottawa’s thinnest and tastiest crusts. They are a few millimetres thick but sturdy enough not to flop should you want to eat slices with your hands. Chef Mackenzie Combes’s toppings game is strong, and pies such as the “Gorgeous Gorg” that combines gorgonzola cheese, poached pear, mozzarella, fior di latte and rosemary, plus some supplementary prosciutto can be flavour bombs. The namesake “Linden” pizza was also very good, with blobs of tasty fennel sausage dotting a bed of melty gruyère, creamy roasted leeks and garlic confit. Linden’s version of the trendy hot-honey pepperoni pizza is called the Valentina, and it’s also a winner. Read the April 2, 2026 review of SchoolHouse Pizza here . SchoolHouse Pizza 11 Springfield Rd. and 348 Preston St., schoolhousepizza.ca 11 Springfield Rd. and 348 Preston St., schoolhousepizza.ca At SchoolHouse Pizza, which has a location each in New Edinburgh and Little Italy, pizza crusts are distinctive and enjoyable — thin, texturally on-point marvels with an appealing combination of crispness and chew. Made with high-protein bread flour, the dough is fermented for about three days so that pizzas are lighter, crisper and more easily digested. Pies that hit the mark included the “Made in Brooklyn,” a fancied-up pepperoni pizza with premium ingredients and extra flavours, the mushroom pizza made with locally grown Le Coprin mushrooms plus hits of garlic and truffle, and the cacio e pepe, that won us over with its garlic and black pepper cream, cracked black pepper and coppa ham. Read the April 13, 2025 review of SchoolHouse Pizza here . Where to eat ramen in Ottawa? The Ottawa Citizen's restaurant review roundup Where to eat tacos in Ottawa? The Ottawa Citizen's restaurant review roundup Advertisement 1 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Louis Pizza & Restaurant Opened in Vanier in 1960 by Louis Rizk, who came to Ottawa from Lebanon in the 1950s, the diner-style Louis Pizza & Restaurant is an Ottawa pizza institution. Four generations of the same family, numbering more than 30 people, have worked at the restaurant. Among them are pizza-maker Mounir Saab, 74 and still going strong, and his daughter Rema, who works out front and is the kind of host who instantly calls strangers “sweetheart” and means it. Of all the old-school pizzerias in Ottawa, Louis may be the friendliest. It also may have the best crust of all of them. Here, the perimeters of the pies are crisp and deliciously cheesy. Read the April 13, 2025 review of Louis Pizza & Restaurant here . 160 Richmond Rd., 613-728-2422, houseofpizza.ca 160 Richmond Rd., 613-728-2422, houseofpizza.ca In Westboro, House of Pizza, which is owned and operated by the veteran pizza-making couple Gabriel and Nadine Khater, makes both thin-crust pizzas and the kind of old-fashioned, cheese-heavy pies that have defined Ottawa’s pizza scene for decades. Here, traditional Ottawa-Lebanese-style pizzas are well-made and hefty without being sloppy. Their house-made tomato sauce is zesty, thanks to spices that the Khaters will not divulge and their cheese is a mix of mozzarella for gooeyness and brick for a salty flavour. The Canadian pizza, made with mushrooms, old-school pepperoni, bacon and double cheese, is justifiably popular. Among thin-crust pizzas, the salumeria pizza is a top-seller, appealing to meat lovers with prosciutto, capicollo and Italian sausage, not to mention mushrooms and the cheese and tomato sauce that are on all of House of Pizza’s pies. The more minimalist Margherita pizza sported a well-puffed, leopard-spotted crust. New Canadian military security force to be created as air force prepares for F-35s Defence Watch New Canadian military security force to be created as air force prepares for F-35s The Ottawa Hospital limits number of layoffs to 17 News The Ottawa Hospital limits number of layoffs to 17 Advertisement 2 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Senators fall to Montreal Canadiens in overtime as Opening Night nears Ottawa Senators Senators fall to Montreal Canadiens in overtime as Opening Night nears Ottawa CityFolk wraps up biggest-ever edition at new venue Life Ottawa CityFolk wraps up biggest-ever edition at new venue Jacques Martin helped build the Senators. Now he's calling it a career Ottawa Senators Jacques Martin helped build the Senators. Now he's calling it a career Read the April 13, 2025 review of House of Pizza here . 478 Bank St. and 44 Seneca St., pizzanerds.ca Pizza Nerds makes Neapolitan-style thin-crust pizzas and has developed enthusiastic followings for both its Centretown and Old Ottawa South locations. The pizzeria strives for quality, variety and imagination with 16 pies at an appealing price point. Pizzas here are between $19 and $25, while some premium pizza competitors can ask in the high $20s or more than $30 for their wares. We tried four Pizza Nerd pies. Three were winners that prompted disagreements about our favourites. I voted for the Maclaren ( prosciutto, apple, goat cheese and spicy honey), but the Lisgar (house-made sausage with local cheese, basil puree and tomato sauce) and Lyon (black-pepper-molasses bacon, local cheese, pickled red onion and chili-basil honey) were close runners-up. Only the mushroom-based Bank pizza fell short, we thought. Read the full Pizza Nerds review, published Apr. 9, 2024. Tennessy Willems 1082 Wellington St. W., 613-722-0000, twpizza.squarespace.com Opened in 2010, this Hintonburg wood-fired pizza joint serves thin-crust pies that are a little more North American than Neapolitan, which is to say that they are a little more rigid and easy to eat with your hands. The topping combinations here were first-rate, and the wild boar sausage pizza, which also stars sage pesto, apple and cheddar was fantastic. Not surprisingly, we were told that this pie was far and away the most popular pizza at Tennessy Willems. Read the full Tennessy Willems review, published Apr. 9, 2024. Colonnade Pizza (five locations) 280 Metcalfe St., 1500 Bank St., 1463 Merivale Rd., No. 2, 2140 Carling Ave., 896 Greenbank Rd., colonnadepizza.com More than a pizzeria, Colonnade is a brand. Its original downtown location on Metcalfe Street has been slinging pies since 1967, and Peter Dahdouh, son of original owner Kalil Dahdouh, has overseen Colonnade’s franchising so that there are four more Colonnades further flung from downtown in Ottawa. Colonnade serves good, thick, heavy, lots-of-cheese, Ottawa-style pizza. However, at a recent visit to the downtown location, we found that the pies were a little light on the sauce, and the less meaty pies were under-seasoned. It might be that Colonnade’s legion of fans value its signature brick cheese above all else. Read the full Colonnade review, published Apr. 9, 2024. 1029 Dazé St., 613-521-0498, ksonthekeys.com Like the Colonnade, KS on the Keys is one of Ottawa’s pizza old-timers. The South Keys eatery’s original location opened in 1971, and like the Colonnade, it’s a Lebanese-owned business known for its timeless, particular-to-Ottawa, hefty, cheese-blanketed pies. The KS pizza (pepperoni, mushroom, green pepper, green olive) will make lovers of old-fashioned combination pizza swoon. More modern palates might prefer Colonnade’s “gourmet pizzas,” which were more like flatbreads that featured garlicky or barbecue sauces and chicken.

Read the full KS on the Keys review, published Apr. 9, 2024. Tangerine Pizza 969 Cummings Ave., 613-745-2525, tangerinepizza.com This 15-year-old Italian-Canadian eatery in Gloucester has won over regulars who like hefty, heavy-on-the-toppings pies such as the Tangerine special, came fully loaded with pepperoni, green olives, mushrooms and crisp bacon. The mom-and-pop operation also grows some vegetables that feature in its food, and its vegetable and bean soup was surprisingly good. Read the full Tangerine Pizza review, published Apr. 9, 2024. Roberto Pizza Romana 241 Chem. Old Chelsea, 819-827-2882, robertopizzaromana.lightspeedordering.com Roberto Pizza Romana in Old Chelsea makes exceptional pizzas in the Roman style, rectangular, with a thin, crispy crust. At our visits, roughly 10 pieces were available by the slice, all with gourmet toppings. Confit tomato and house-made ricotta was very, very good. But so was the mortadella and pistachio slice. Equally simple yet top-notch was the pizza topped with ham and a soft, brie-like cheese. The truffled potato pizza was so good that another slice of it was in order. Speck and hazelnut pizza impressed me a little less, which is not to say that I would disapprove of having it again. Read the full Roberto Pizza Romana review originally published Oct. 6, 2023. 122 Preston St., 613-234-5747, retrogustoeats.com At Retro Gusto, pizzas shared thin and crisped but pliant crusts, with toppings spread almost to their edges, which have no elevated rims. The crusts here hit the sweet spot between usually saggy and sometimes soupy Neapolitan pizzas and more chewier North American thin crusts. Read the full Retro Gusto review, originally published Oct. 1, 2022. Toppings Unlimited 306 Preston St., 613-565-0971, toppingsunlimited.ca Toppings Unlimited, a pizzeria that opened in May 2022 on Preston Street just north of the Queensway, practically invites you to spin the globe before picking your pizza. Pies at this fast-food eatery range from the usual “New York” pepperoni pizza to more unique pies described as Caribbean barbecue to Manila adobo to Spanish paella to Delhi butter chicken to Australian-and Irish-style to Da Lat Vietnamese pizza. Even if we experienced more novelty than deliciousness, I give full marks to this business’s owner for committing to his concept. Read the full Toppings Unlimited review, published Aug. 25, 2022. Lil Z’s vegetarian “Lil Z” pizza, with ricotta, garlic, chili flakes and more on an everything-bagel crust. This ByWard Market pizza place consistently made pizzas with distinctive and enjoyable crusts that were thin but both sturdy and chewy, less Neapolitan and more North American. Of the more creative pizzas, we really liked the eponymous Lil Z ($20), a vegetarian pizza that delivered a cavalcade of flavours thanks to ricotta, garlic, red onion, chili flakes, basil, and lemon zest, plus zucchini, on an “everything bagel” crust that also had hits of hot honey, the pizza garnish of the moment. Read the full Lil Z’s Pizza review, published June 30, 2022. Pepperoni pizza at Giulia on Elgin Street This sibling brand of the Ottawa restaurants Riviera, El Camino and Datsun opened its first pizzeria in the summer of 2021 on Elgin Street. More recently, a second location in the ByWard Market opened. At one visit, the pepperoni pizza was a showstopper — zestily sauced, notably, but not excessively salty and blessed with a fine, thin crust that combined crunchy blistered spots and stretches of pleasant chewiness. Read the full Giulia review , published Aug. 7, 2021. Heartbreakers Pizza 465 Parkdale Ave., 613-724-1144, heartbreakerspizza.com Owners Juliana Graf and siblings Andrew and Lizzie Chatham opened Heartbreakers Pizza just before the pandemic began, and subsequently made their stellar reputation with upscale takeout thin-crust pies. The dining room eventually opened, and a curated menu of nine pizzas is in force. Pizzas that I’ve had over the years have always had pleasingly chewy crusts and admirable toppings. Read the full Heartbreakers Pizza review, published Apr. 23, 2020. Stay Gold Detroit-Style Pizza Bee Sting pizza from Stay Gold Detroit Style Pizza. In 2019, if some U.S. food writers were correct, Detroit-style pizza was having its moment, spreading in popularity far beyond Motown. There, culinary legend has it that rectangular, pillowy pizzas with crisp, cheesy edges and uniformly browned bottoms were first baked decades ago in blue steel pans used by automotive workers. In Ottawa, Stay Gold was a pioneer of this pizza style. To love Stay Gold’s pizza, you really have to love bread, because these loaves, if I can call them that, brought to mind focaccia with pizza-like garnishes. Among them, the Bee Sting pizza, made with pepperoni, soppressata and chili honey, tasted meaty, sweet and spicy. Read the full Stay Gold Detroit Style Pizza review, published March 13, 2021. 416 Preston St., 613-422-4416, delpiacere.ca Pietro Amariello, chef-owner of Del Piacere on Preston Street, cooked in Lucca, Italy for 30 years before he came to Ottawa in 2018. He worked at La Favorita, the veteran pizza and calzone eatery 100 metres up the street, but left to open Del Piacere in early October 2020. While Del Piacere is not exclusively about pizzas, its open kitchen includes a wood-burning oven, and we tried one of Amariello’s 10 pizzas. The tasty prosciutto and mushroom pizza that we took home was massive and thin of crust, true to the Neapolitan style Amariello promises. Gluten-free pizzas are also available. Read the full Del Piacere review , published Dec 17. 2020. Pi Co. Pizza Bar 236 Richmond Rd. and 170 Metcalfe St., pi-co.ca The Toronto-based fast-food franchise came to Ottawa just before the pandemic began . At Pi Co. locations, they make Neapolitan pizzas to order, sliding pies with customer-chosen toppings selected from a bountiful mise en place station into a sleek ceramic pizza oven for a 90-second spin in 715 F heat. Read a feature on Pi Co and other franchises, published Feb. 20, 2020. 492 Rochester St., and 806 March Rd., Unit 1, farinellaeats.com The two Farinella locations — the 2019 original in Little Italy and its 2021 Kanata spin-off — specially in oblong, Roman-style creations with bread-y bases that are almost one-metre long and toppings that “are strictly traditional,” according to Ottawa-raised co-owner Cesare Agostini, who spent four years making pizza in Rome. Past highlights have included a potato pizza, flecked with rosemary and notably peppery, some mushroom pizza that tucked its fungus under dollops of gloriously molten whipped ricotta, a pizza that played vibrant fresh tomatoes against their sun-dried cousins and some utterly simple zucchini pizza. While the first Farinella did roaring business selling pizza basically by the slice, the pies now are sold in full-metre and half-metre sizes. Read the full Farinella review , published July 17, 2019. Editor’s note: This roundup post is based on the past five years of reporting and reviews. Information here here may not always be current. Click through to each article to see the date of publication. Where else should Peter Hum go for pizza? Leave a suggestion in a comment or send a suggestion to: phum@postmedia.com Want to stay in the know about what’s happening in Ottawa? 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