FAT PIE PIZZA

Vancouver’s got no game when it comes to Chicago style deep dish pizza, like literally. There may be a couple of pizzerias offering pizza similar to deep dish, but their variations are just a higher crust. Not necessarily more toppings. So with a quick Google on our next door neighbour Washington, I managed to discover Fat Pie Pizza! I have to disclose despite never tried deep dish pizza, it really looked like something I would fall in love with. And I have always wanted to try it ever since I was a little kid.

Fat Pie Pizza is located in Bellingham and specializes in Chicago deep dish, Detroit square pan, Brooklyn New York thin style, and Pan Pizzas. In addition to pizza, they offer pastas and sandwiches. 

Dallas Pizza & Souvlaki

Saying there is a lack of Greek cuisine restaurants on my blog is an understatement because by "lack of", there is currently only one. In addition, the only "one" happens to be Dallas Pizza & Souvlaki! Throughout my SFU years, I spent quite a fair time trying to find the best donair joints along with Greek restaurants serving up roast lamb. This was harder than it sounds and I soon discovered that the higher the price, the heavier the fall.

Formerly known as "Dallas 2 For 1 Pizza & Souvlaki", the family run business moved a couple of units down to a larger retail space. The interior is nicely renovated and looks less like a typical fast food joint. But more importantly, the interior is very clean too.

Boston Pizza : West Broadway location

Boston Pizza is one of my favourite chain restaurants and I only come here for the cactus cut potatoes, wings, and pizza. I love BPs twice baked wings because most of the time they are juicy and flavourful! Honestly, BP is my favourite place for wings.

Like every BP location, the restaurant is large and spacious. There is a bar/lounge area along with the dining room and plenty of large television screens. We arrived after midnight so the restaurant was not busy, but our waitress was friendly and attentive. At most BP locations, the service is non existent whenever the restaurant is slow.

Papa John's : Burquitlam location

If it was not for Papa John's being one of the few pizza restaurants in the Lougheed Mall area, I would not even know about them! Papa John's is a franchise and their slogan is, "Better Pizza. Better Ingredients". Furthermore, if comparing Papa John's to Domino's and Pizza Hut, I believe the last two are more popular.

My friend and I ordered from Papa John's twice and on both occasions, the delivery drivers were friendly and arrived within the time stated. On the second visit, the pizza actually arrived fifteen minutes before the estimated time of arrival. As for the delivery charge, it is $3.00 which we could have saved, had we walked literally across the street lol!

Little Caesars Pizza : Austin Heights location

In the area, starving, and knowing better than to try some of the restaurants near by, I needed a snack before dinner and went for Little Caesars. Little Caesars is a fast food chain pizza shop and advertises on their "hot n' ready $5.50 medium pizza". Is it hard for pizza to taste good? Not really. The only complaints I ever made about pizza would be undercooked dough or if it is burnt. Other than that, the only minor issues would be an overly salty pizza or a weak tasting sauce. However, the higher price you pay for pizza, the more minor issues there are.

Stan's Pizza Joint

The only open restaurant after 10:00pm in North Burnaby, Stan's Pizza Joint. My first impression, two doors? Previously two shops now turned into one? I hate getting pizza with BF because he does not even eat pizza and I like to order two to three different kinds. What is the point of having pizza when you can only have one kind? I might as well just get one slice. The pizza joint has a few greasy tables and is not the cleanliest, such as having pasta sauce on some of the seats. Also, the seating arrangements are a bit cramped and this is coming from someone who had a whole side of the restaurant to themselves.

Bella Pizza : West Broadway location

My sister was running late and I am still hungry after Veras', so I went to grab a slice of pizza. I already ate alone and a second time will not hurt.

The ham and pineapple ($2.50). Presentation wise, you see a lot of cheese and a good amount of pineapple. The pizza is average, tastes home cooked and is not salty or oily. They re-bake it before serving which is nice too.

I like this kind of crust! 

The cashier is friendly and gave me a bag stapled shut with my pizza which was nice of him because I assume most people just grab it on the go with the plate.

Food: 2.5/5

Service: 4/5

Boston Pizza : New Westminister location

This is my favourite Boston Pizza location. My boyfriend is sick and I made him drive me here last night because I knew it would be worth it. My favourite location used to be the one in Coquitlam by Coquitlam Centre until they pissed me off too many times and I felt like eating there once to twice a week was not worth it, and we changed our location to the Coquitlam one by Ikea and they kept disappointing me and pissing me off too so we tried the one in New West because my boyfriend suggested it. I originally thought New West would be the worst location since it is in New West, well now it is my favourite location!

The first time I came here the chicken wings were burnt black, and the pizza was soggy and very very undercooked. Obviously I was pissed so went home and e-mailed them. The manager was so nice and we went back, ever since then (a year?) we are their regulars and have never been disappointed! There is this one server Chelsea and ohmygosh she is what someone would say a "perfect" server. I saw her remove the booths and clean every spec, who does that nowadays? It is so hard to come by!

Anyways, since Me n Eds' really pissed me off, it made me crave for PROPER chicken wings and pizza.

When it is late night they put a sign up asking you to join them in the lounge, so it is a lot better than other locations when the hostess does not stay at the front and you end up waiting 10-15 minutes (Coquitlam locations).

The lounge has booths all around and high chairs in the middle.

The bar.

Double order of chicken wings oven roasted in honey garlic and salt and pepper ($19.95). We always get our wings oven roasted because it is double baked plus not fried so it is healthier. The wings are always juicy never dry, and done perfect. I swear Boston Pizza makes the best wings. We have tried their boneless all meat wings, but they are more dry and not really good. 

Small Tropical Chicken pizza, creamy alfredo, pizza mozzerella, cheddar, smoky bacon, spicy chicken breast and pineapple ($17.55). I thought it was a bit small last night! I swear we said medium because we always get medium. Now I think it is a small. My first bite was so good, and it made me pissed thinking about how horrible Me n Eds' was. The crust was perfect, toppings were good, pizza was crisp and not soggy.

Slow roasted pork back ribs with Jack Daniel's BBQ, vegetables, mash potatoes and garlic toast. ($16.75/half rack). My boyfriend ordered this to try their ribs, I usually stay away from dishes that I think will disappoint me. I was surprised the ribs are really tender and the meat fell off the bone. It could have been more tender and flavourful, but it is pretty good for Boston Pizza. The sauce was mild which I like and the mashed potatoes are real potatoes which is good. 

Overall this is my favourite location and the food here has always been good and consistent for us (except our very first experience), and service wise it is pretty good (keep in mind we come here late at night though). Our server refilled our drinks when they did not need to be, and knew we are the type to eat and leave fast so she asked if we needed things to be packed whenever she thought we were done (a bit too fast, but better than us waiting around).

Since I am trying to eat "healthier," we only order pizza, wings and whatever my boyfriend wants. But my usual appetizers which never disappoint me are the cactus cut potatoes ($10.25) and goat cheese spinach dip ($10.75). For their chicken wing flavours, I have never had a problem with any of them. The only thing if anything would be that their hot sauce is never really spicy.

Some of the things I do not recommend...

• Nachos: I usually get mine with chicken, and every Boston Pizza does not know how to make nachos. What you get is a plate of empty nachos, and chicken (if you add it) on top and cheese on top. That is it. So when you eat the first layer, the chips are empty on the bottom! I even tried adding extra cheese, so what you get is a thicker layer of cheese on top and empty nachos on the bottom. Why can they not make it perfect? It should be, nachos, chicken/cheese, nachos, chicken/cheese, nachos, chicken/cheese. So easy gosh.
• Calamari: Nothing special, sometimes it can be soggy too ugh.
• Thai Chicken Bites: Maybe one of the worst things on the menu, I prefer chicken nuggets.
• Southwest Potato Skins: If you never had Cactus Club's, then order it. These are average. But if you had Cactus Club's, these are not comparable and not good.
• Bacon wrapped steak skewers: One of my 2 favourite things, but they are not good together here. The mini steak is so chewy all the time.
• Sticky Ribs: They are usually always pretty chewy.
• Pasta: No one I know ever enjoys them and they are just meh, even the jambalaya which is supposed to be the best is just whatever.

Here are some photos from other times at different locations,

New West

Calimari ($11.00)

Double order of oven baked wings salt and pepper and mediterranean ($19.75)

Large tropical chicken pizza ($25.99)

Seafood fettucini changed to linguini pasta ($18.75) .. so wasteful because they forgot my boyfriend asked for penne and they gave us linguini because our server thought he wanted linguini, and it pissed me off he was such a brat and could not eat it. I hope someone in the kitchen ate it :(

Coquitlam across from Ikea

Double order of oven baked wings honey garlic and teriyaki ($19.75)

Nachos with chicken and extra cheese ($11.75 +$4.00 +$3.00) .. there is a lot of cheese, but the bottom of the huge stack of chips are empty.

Apple crisp ($7.00) .. I used to get it all the time when it was good, but after 6-7 times they started making it different, and the "crisp" is soggy like wet cookies.

Russian borsch soup ($?) .. my boyfriend drinks this when it is late night and there is no more daily soup, it is meh

Individual size meteor pizza ($12.00) .. never order an individual size! Even a small is much better, individual size does not have many toppings and looks ghetto

Double order of oven roasted wings honey garlic and whisky bbq ($19.75)

Double order of oven roasted wings mediterranean and salt and pepper ($19.75)

Bacon wrapped steak skewers ($13.00) .. these are the driest things ever, I do not recommend

Food: 4/5

Service: 4/5

Me n Ed's Pizza Parlor : Highgate location

Where to begin...

I have been wanting to come here for SO long and SO bad. A lot of people say Boston Pizzas' pizza is not even that good, but I always enjoy them. Somewhere in my crazy head I thought Me N Eds' is supposed to be good?

The inside is nice, you see the bar on the left where the girls make dessert too, and people baking pizza on the right.

There are booths as well as wooden chairs.

We ordered the hot wings, baked lasagna, gangster pizza and bbq chicken pizza.

The hot wings ($10.95/dozen) are oven roasted. It tastes like they were boiled and tossed in hot sauce. Their hot sauce is spicier than Boston Pizzas', but the wings are worse than frozen ones from supermarkets. I thought maybe it should have been oven roasted longer, but I guess this is how they make it here.

The meat lasagna, "classic italian style. Our rich and tasty meat sauce spilled over layers of moist noodles and topped with lotza motza" ($14.05). There is lots of mozzarella which is good for cheese fans. Rich and tasty meat sauce? No... not really, the meat sauce is not rich or tasty, it is below average. And moist noodles? No, it cannot be moist because it tastes like it was previously over boiled, then frozen, and when a customer wants to order them, you put sauce and mozzarella all over and bake. This is the worst lasagna ever, it makes Knight and Days' taste like a luxury (Knight and Days' is average).

Sigh, now to the pizzas.

The gangster, "a high-calibre pizza fit for a Don, with a spicy blend of Italian meats including salami, pepperoni, capicollo, and italian sausage, topped with mushrooms an onions." 

The bbq chicken, "succulent barbeque chicken, smoky bacon, onions and cheddar cheese on a spicy barbeque sauce base. Topped with green onions."

Let me think how I should begin.. This was on Saturday. I came here and gave up a good dinner because I prefer dining out on weekdays when it is less busy, and I thought my boyfriend and I should come here because I swear somehow I thought this place is supposed to be one of the best.

We got our pizzas, I took a bite, and the dough was still raw. For both pizzas. I flipped it upside down and the bottoms were still white, I removed the toppings and below you can see the uncooked dough. 

I do not know if you can tell from the photos and if is just useless for me to post them, but oh well.

So what happened was I asked our server if she could check if the pizzas are cooked properly, but she said she did not know how, and since it is my first time here, this is how they make it. Okay, since it is my first time here I was not 100% sure if it is raw, or just the way they make it because she then mentions no one has ever complained before. What I thought is that the heat was too high to make the crust puff up, and it did not cook all the way (I make pizza at home). She then suggested for them to re-bake it. If something is raw especially dough or batter (cupcakes, cookies), once it is out of the oven, it is too late to re-bake because it does not work like that. Especially when it has been sitting at our table for 10-15 minutes. I understand if we asked if she can make it more crunchy, but if it is raw, the oven will not cook the pizza dough after it has been removed from the oven (even if you re-baked partial raw dough, baked till the whole pizza is black, the partial raw dough will still be raw).

We agreed since I guess she is not the one baking the pizzas, and she does not know when raw dough is removed and put back in the oven it will still be raw. When we got them back, the dough was still raw (look at the bottom though, it is brown unlike the first time, yay). In general if a customer says something is not right, a restaurant should be able to check and confirm that or just give a new one, you do not re-heat something especially if it is raw. Soup, cooked dishes, obviously those can be reheated. If someone who baked the pizza came to us, and confirmed the pizza is 100% cooked, then I would have tried to eat it. But since it is raw flour, I did not want to get sick. In the beginning we did ask if she can check which is a lot better than wasting food.

She offered to give us another one, and we told her to take the Gangster pizza. We wanted to see if that is how they bake it or if it is raw, I did not want to waste two pizzas. After we got our new pizza, it was fully cooked. It kind of sucked because the bbq chicken was wasted since it is still raw, but oh well. I did not really enjoy the new pizza either to honest, it just did not taste good. Even .99$ pizza at shady pizza joints are better to me. I felt like our pizza, even the new one is so "doughy..." and the crust is too. I read many reviews that their crust is different because it is flaky? Why was none of ours flaky?!

It is not the experience that ruined the pizza, I just did not like it. And I love ANY pizza, seriously. It just did not taste good. We packed it up and left, and I complained about how we wasted our dinner time. We threw the raw bbq pizza out and gave the gangster one to a homeless man since only one piece was taken out.

Overall I did not enjoy this Me N Ed's and I do not recommend it. Service wise, the whole process was wrong in fixing our situation. Yes, in the end we had a re-baked one, but all we needed was someone to confirm if it was raw or not, and suggesting to re-heat the pizza does not do anything because it was still raw. I have no idea why I wanted to come here so bad and thought it was supposed to be good, this is the worst pizza restaurant ever. I read some reviews saying the crust is supposed to be thin and flaky? Ours was doughy, elastic and stringy, now I can confirm myself it was definitely raw.

We had the Saturday special, 2 small pizzas for $25.75. I was greedy and wanted 2 mediums, good thing my boyfriend did not let me and we got 2 smalls instead.

Food: 1.5/5

Service: 2/5