Queen Margherita

This Friday Carrie and I met up with our good friend Allie for dinner and drinks in the east end.  We rarely make it out that way so I knew we needed to hit up Queen Margherita.  Before I go on I’m obviously well aware of the fan feud going on between QM and Libretto.  That being said, after my second visit I’ve realized they shouldn’t really even be compared.  While they both do Neapolitan pies they have their own takes.  For that reason I’ll steer clear of any comparisons until the end of this post.

We showed up a little early and sat at the bar for a drink as we waited for Allie.  The space is beautiful.  The downstairs has a bar with a little bit of seating while the upstairs houses the main dining room and kitchen.  Tall ceilings, old factory style windows overlooking Queen Street, very cool light fixtures that look like kitchen pot racks, exposed brick and a great view of the oven in the back.  The menus are written on floor to ceiling chalk boards as they change daily.

We each got the pre fixe which I believe is on everyday.  $25 for a starter, any pie and desert.  I had the porchetta with caramelized onions and balsamic glaze.  Allie had the frizee salad with fennel and pomegranate seeds with a citrus vinaigrette and Carrie had the buffalo ricotta with baby potatoes and yellow beats.  All of us were really impressed.  The presentation was beautiful and the food tasted even better.  In trying to find the right way to express how I felt about my dish I hope I’m not overstating my point but... this was truly one of tastiest pork dishes I’ve ever had.  I would gladly trek out to the east end just for a full dinner serving of this pork.  Cubes of melt in your mouth porchetta sat atop incredibly sweet caramelized onion.  A drizzle of balsamic glaze sat off to the right of the plate to run a fork full of pork through.  Somewhere in the dish was a hidden spiciness I couldn’t place.  The kind of slow burn spicy where you don’t even realize it’s hot until you give yourself a second.  Again, unbelievable.  Carries buffalo ricotta was also incredibly delicious.  A super soft and airy cloud of ricotta topped with roasted potato and beets with a drizzle of nice olive oil.   Great balance between the potato and the sweet but mild cheese.  A perfect end of summer/early fall dish.  Allies frizee salad was also quite good.  Really fresh frizee with a very light, tangy dressing.  A touch sweet for my taste but everyone really enjoyed it.

Now onto the fun stuff.  Our pies came to the table quite quickly.  Side note, our server was great.  Friendly, attentive but not overly so and he really knew the menu and wine list.  I forgot to take a picture of the pizza menu and there is nothing online so I’m recalling these pies from memory.  Carrie had the mushroom and asiago pie.  Allie had a sausage and onion pie and I had the Margherita.  The Margherita is always the best judge of a pizzeria.  Left with only the basic ingredients there is nowhere to hide.  We split all three so we could have a taste of everything.  The pies actually took me by surprise a bit, not necessarily in a bad way.  For one they came to the table lightly browned with a few signs of char rather than the leopard spot char marks I was expecting.  The crust was also much thicker in both height and width than I was expecting.  And not just the end crust but the whole pie was quite thick.  Neapolitan pies don’t usually have overly large end crusts and are quite thin and soupy in the middle.  Had I come not expecting a soupy, light pie I would have been ecstatic.  The dough itself was good but could have used a touch more salt or maybe a longer fermentation.  I just found it a little lackluster.  The sauce was really great.  Nice, sweet and fresh tasting.  My Margherita was awesome.  The fresh tasting sauce, milky, sweet fresh mozzarella and perfectly charred basil came together to make a great pizza.  Carrie’s pie though topped with 3 different kinds of mushroom wasn’t overly earthy which was perfect for me.  However, the asiago was grated onto the pie after coming out of the oven.  I’m guessing as a hip substitute for parmigiano reggiano.  We found it didn’t melt at all and so didn’t really fit with the pie too well.  That being said, without taking the asiago into account it was a great pie.  Maybe my favourite of the night.  Allies sausage and onion pie too was quite good but a little heavy for me.  However, as is the case with all of this stuff, that’s my opinion and if you’re into that kind of thing you’d love this pie.

Sausage and onion pie

Mushroom pie

We all finished with the house made Pecan pie which was amazing.  Having a grandmother who worked at Cadbury my whole life I’ve basically lost my sweet tooth and am not a desert person.  That being said the pecan pie was amazing!  Everyone loved it.  As I’m writing this and mentioning the pie Carrie is telling me how she could eat it everyday.  The crust was nice and flaky but held together really well.  They got the ratio of pecans and filling just right so every bite had a bit of everything.  It was like someones Nonna was churning these things out in the back.  Awesome.

So, as a whole here are my thoughts.  One of the best pizzerias in the city hands down.  The starters are truly amazing.  The desert menu too, was awesome.  I feel the pies have changed overtime likely due to customer input (i.e. the thicker crust).  So while you’re not getting the classic, thin, soupy Neapolitan pie it is exactly what many people (often myself included) are looking for.  A wood fired, Neapolitan pie that is a bit thicker and sturdier.  You really can’t go wrong with anything at QM.  They know their stuff, have great staff, great pizzaiolo, great ingredients, amazing location, beautiful space and they really give a shit.  It shows.  

ps

I'll be getting a real camera in the new year. This is just getting silly. But that also means there will be video content coming to the site!