After months and month of hearing about this place we finally made it! We went to Pizzeria Libretto. I love pizza, the crust, the sauce and especially the cheeses – the latter I believe are the principle of this Neapolitan invention. After everyone -including the most picky vegetarian eaters- have bragged about this place, I was a bit skeptical of the hype. I don’t trust people’s recommendations of a restaurant that is surrounded with more hype than the opening night of the latest Harry Potter, because most of it is grounded in the need and desire to fit in. I was certainly not going to wait in the one hour plus line up, but I begged my boyfriend to take me on a weekday for an early dinner.
It was a beautiful Tuesday, for an unemployed gal like me Tuesdays are not surrounded with that bore that the middle of the week brings about, so I was ready to experience something good that night. I took the opportunity to call my friend who is visiting Toronto for the summer and invited her to the “Best Pizzeria in Town”. As you can see I also bought in to the Libretto craze and was making grand claims without ever having been within 50 yards to that pizza oven. We got there around 6:30 p.m., Ossington Av. was completely empty, making it impossible to believe for my out-of-town friend that in two or three hours those places were going to be filled with a melange of hipsters and office clerks getting their drink on. We sat down in the middle of the long and narrow dining room, trapped between a lime green wall and a display of old photographs with a bunch of old style light-bulls hanging from the ceiling. All the waiters seemed very young and somewhat attractive, and even though it was by no standards full they seemed to be running all over the place. We ordered a half bottle of wine for the two ladies and a beer for my boyfriend. The wine was not bad, a Masciarelli Montepulciano d’Abruzzo from 2006, recommendations of the waiter/on the spot sommelier. After looking at the menu for a second we decided that we just wanted what this place was known for: the pizza. We each ordered something different: I went for the Rapini (Goat’s Cheese, Black Olives, Ontario Fiore Di Latte Mozzarella), my friend Cristina after a long and well studied decision ordered the House-Made Sausage (Caramelized Onion, Ontario Fiore Di Latte Mozzarella , Chili Oil) and George- my boyfriend- went for his obvious choice: Duck Confit (Bosc Pear, Panna, Ontario Fiore Di Latte Mozzarella).
The crust was perfect — perfectly toasted, thin and flavorful. The lack of sauce, instead of hampering the taste of the pizza, gave way for the cheeses and well chosen ingredients to take center-stage in this masterful interpretation of Vera Pizza Neapolitana. The strong flavors did not clash with one another, but worked together to produce nothing but perfection in the palette. They were right, damn it! This could actually be Toronto’s best pizza joint; I haven’t been to all of them, but c’mon, this place lives up to and exceeds its hype. I cannot wait to try and savour all of the pizza choices — thank God they just have a dozen!
The perfect place for a date, with pizzas starting around 16$ it is not your average pizza night in front of the television, but it makes you feel you went to Italy without the hassle of packing. An extraordinary culinary experience just south of Dundas Av. on Ossington Av.
Esta pagina me parece estupenda como una guia para el buen comer en la ciudad de Toronto, siempre la consultare cuando este de visita en esta ciudad, por lo pronto visitare la pizzeria Libretto en mi viaje de Diciembre proximo. Suerte a las realizadoras de tan estupenda pagina y que continuen con tan acertados comentarios.
Hi! Ed forwarded your site to me! looks great
hope you start writing again soon!