Terroni: Dinner In Italy, Minus the Flight

720 Queen Street West Website
Phone: 416.504.0320

Profile

Map

Posted by Tanja
November 26, 2007

Currently 3.36/5
1
2
3
4
5

Rating: 3.4/5 (33 votes cast)

I've mentioned Terroni in other reviews on the site, but when it comes to doing a review of this authentic Italian eatery itself, I've never managed to get any co-diners to hold back long enough for photos. Most everything on this menu is so delicious that everyone just wants to sink their teeth in.

This time though, I've convinced a few friends to give me a second for a picture, only to have the waiter inform me that they prefer people not take photos of the food. I'm annoyed, but decide to get this listing up without more photos -- the food is worth it.

We arrive at the Queen West location and for the first time in all my visits, we are seated right away. It seems we arrived in a rare window of time where there is no line-up. We order some drinks and look over the menu. It's a long famished while before anyone returns to take our order, but on the bright side, at least we're not standing outside.

Fresh bread with olive oil are presented first as we await appetizers and pizzas.

Our Quartet of Appetizers includes mini eggplant parmigian, saffron rice crocchette (alla Milanese), deep fried ciabiatta bites filled with buffalo mozzarella and anchovy and grilled bufala wrapped in speck and radicchio.

For $16, everyone at the table got the chance to try a couple unique appetizers, all of which were rich in strong traditional italian flavours. Even the ciabatta-mozzerella wraps were balanced so nicely with subtle anchovy that the latter didn't overtake things. I normally wouldn't touch anything an anchovy touched, but enjoyed these a great deal!

On to the pizzas...

Pizza Marinara, the simplest of offerings - tomato sauce and basil - is light as air, crispy and savoury. Most pizzerias don't offer this cheese-less pizza because their sauce can't truly hold it's own. Here, the sauce is proudly presented as the feature item.

Terroni's Quattro Stagioni (four seasons) pizza is also incredible. Rivalled perhaps only by the version at The Big Ragu (1338 Lansdowne), it arrives steaming and casually topped with prosciutto, olives, mushrooms and grilled vegetables.

The true test of a fresh pizza (handed down by mamma dearest) is that the cheese should be piping hot and hard to handle. If it goes to slide off the slice or burns your finger, it's going to be good eatin'. If it sits nice and behaves, you know you've got a pre-made, loveless pie.

Terroni's passes that test with flying colours as we are using our cutlery plus hands to handle the Quattro Staggioni.

With a friend celebrating her birthday this week, we insisted she order up one of Terroni's rich homemade desserts to celebrate. Spotting a Souffle di Nutella on the specials menu, she decides that Nutella trumps everything tonight. We order it up and the waiter returns with extra spoons (4 total), assuming we might to share.

Perhaps he'd never seen this dessert 'cause when he returned 10 minutes later, he was carrying a dish with an espresso cup containing the souffle. It probably contained 1.5 tablespoons of warm baked Nutella, at most. Tasty, but for $7, it was a little ridiculous.

Instead of ordering something else to fill in the gap, we enjoy our cappuccinos and reminisce of the delectable Nutella layer cake at The Big Ragu. That's one that even Terroni just can't beat.

Storefront photo by Tim Shore.

Reader Reviews and Comments

Submit a Review or Comment

Oh Tanja, thanks! I didn't know they had cheeseless pizza. I'm so excited :)

Posted by: Maria at November 26, 2007 3:15 PM

I love Terroni's! Very odd that a pizza place doesn't allow photos of the food.

Posted by: Debbie Ohi at November 26, 2007 3:25 PM

Maria, I believe there is also another grilled veggie pizza that is cheeseless!

Posted by: Tanja at November 26, 2007 3:30 PM

Their Pizza Margherita is heaven on earth. As is everything else at Terroni's. The Victoria street location is my favourite, but it is always packed with business folk on weekdays.

Posted by: Laura Bee at November 26, 2007 4:00 PM

The new location in the Courthouse building at 57 Adelaide will be opening any day. I've heard conflicting information on whether they will be keeping the nearby Victoria St. location open. It's cozy, but as Laura Bee says, way too busy to be relaxing.

Posted by: Gary at November 26, 2007 4:07 PM

Did they say why they don't want photos?

Even though I think Terroni has the best pizza in town, I almost never order it, because the hand-made pasta and other dishes are so fantastic. The garganelli geppetto and the new orichiette al ragu d'agneau e pecorino lead me into lands of ecstacy.

In my experience, Terroni is the closest you can get to being in Italy while staying in North America.

Posted by: Aaron at November 26, 2007 4:16 PM

I do love Terroni, but the noise levels in there can get absolutely out of control at times. I've had two evenings there where I figured the decibel levels in theory warranted hearing protection as per WSIB regulations ? not only could our server not understand what we were saying, but it was very difficult to have a conversation while waiting for our food.

That said, my idea of Hell is being shackled next to that one party of eighteen of the loudest early-twentysomething girls I've ever encountered, obviously without the delicious bucatini with pancetta and peas.

Posted by: jordan at November 26, 2007 5:02 PM

Their web menu says the Margherita pizza includes Mozzarella???
Do you mean Marinara?

Posted by: Amanda at November 26, 2007 9:41 PM

@Aaron - no they didn't.

@Amanda - I do!! Thanks - will correct that slip right away.

Posted by: Tanja at November 26, 2007 9:53 PM

Been to Terroni's on Balmoral, and tried the new one on Adelaide East last night, and was crudely disappointed. Mind you, my friend had the pizza. But I was had the misfortune to order the daily fish, swordfish that came oddly sliced thin laterally (!?!) , some slices with holes from the dubious enterprise, and as tasty as hospital food - no spices, no herbs, no nothing. Even the fris?e that came with it had not a sprinkle of oil, vinegar, or even lemon let alone specks of parsley. The menu offered much done with ricotta, notorious for imbibing sauces and leaving them clumpy. Where's the marscarpone? They brought us the wrong lemon (ricotta!) cake at dessert too. This can only be southern Italian/North American cooking. While it may make for good food at home, it doesn't "cut" it in gastronomy.

Posted by: Louise P. Doren at February 23, 2008 6:58 AM

I unfortunately a poor experience there and it appears that one of their policies is not patron-friendly. When I asked for some mayonaise for the calamari, I was told that they had none. When I asked for some sauce for it I was told they had none. Surprised as I was that I was in an Italian restaurant without sauces, I asked how that can be given that they make pasta here. I was told that their policy is that they will not add or modify any of their dishes in any way and that includes asking for sauce. Ridiculous way to treat a customer as far as I am concerned.

Posted by: DZ at March 7, 2008 4:34 PM

for the vegetarians, i've heard that they apparently boil their pasta in chicken stock? not sure if that's true or not, but definitely something to keep in mind when you go.

Posted by: laurel at August 7, 2008 10:42 AM

I hate the no substitution rule. I have food allergies and the server was really rude about it. I understand they are busy but most restaurants
now understand that accommodating is the norm.

Posted by: ANouk at August 22, 2008 12:14 AM

No Substitutions Explained:

1) People in Toronto seem to think that when it comes to Italians, it's a free-for-all to scrutinize anywhere from the stereotype of always having plastic on our furniture to all Italian males having crude mannerisms with their privates in public while speaking 1000x louder than anyone else present. On that note...

2) You would never, ever go into a French restaurant and ask for substitutions of the main dish or the garnish. This shouldn't be any different for this restaurant.

3) Menu: no, you will not find Penne a la Vodka or Alfredo sauce or any other North Americanized dish that are made constantly in this city, even in establishments that aren't even Italian. The ingredients and the recipes used are taken seriously and are not found anywhere outside of Terroni's. I.e. the tomatoes are the highest grade tomatoes available in the world, the oil served to customers (for free) costs $20 a bottle retail, imported from Italy. Most establishments use bottom grade oil and therefore don't mind putting vinegar in it to taste better.

3) Wine, wine and wine: Terroni's serves wine that is normally 400% more expensive anywhere else, and on top of that, Terroni has wine served that isn't available anywhere else in Canada.

Bottomline -- you get the real deal at Terroni's, which means no substitutions. But after all of that, why would you want to?

Posted by: ontherun at September 20, 2008 8:43 PM

The food at Terroni is fine, the attitude of the staff is over the top, which in turn ruins the food. Who wants to be treated like a second rate citizen when you're forking over the money?! The no substitution rule is fine but, come on, they can't give you vinegar for your caprese? Wth? Why do they care if you want to use vinegar?
I think I'll stick to the wonderful staff and great food at Grazie.

Posted by: Caitmase at September 30, 2008 2:12 PM