Gabriel's Pizza ~ Ottawa

Moving into the Ottawa Valley Region has been like moving to another country. Not so much because of the actual culture (although I haven't been exposed to so much French since grade 9 French Class and a few days in France), but the consumer culture. Ottawa has its own set of chains that aren't found in the areas I grew up in, and it is like a trip to the US where they have fast food outlets that do not exist in Canada. Pubs, chicken rotisserie and of course pizza chains. Gabriel Pizza is one of those.



Everywhere I go in Ottawa there seems to be a Gabriel Pizza. And I'll be honest, it never stuck me as anything special. The ads didn't seem to offer any great deals or anything that really made me want to order from them. Except their wings.


The menu has quite a variety: pizzas, pastas, subs, donairs, hamburgers, fish and chips, club sandwiches, poutine, salads and deep fried goodies of fries, onion rings and other breaded goodness. Variety is great, especially for a restaurant, but for a chain, fish/burgers/wings which have all these things, they have got to be frozen, right?

2008 THE SCORE 3.0: Gabriel Pizza ~ Ottawa

STYLE:	Pizza joint, deep fried,
PRICE:	$6.99 for 10 $12.99 for 20 $17.99 for 30
SAUCES:	Mild/medium/hot BBQ Smokey BBQ Honey Garlic Suicide	1/1
HEAT:	Suicide was packing heat!
SIZE:	Medium – not very meaty, but reasonable size	1/3
WETNAP FACTOR:	Dripping to drowning, there was a ton of sauce	2/3
CRISPINESS:	Crispy – almost a little too deep fried, but it was still good	2/3
FLAVOUR:	Suicide tasted like 3rd Degree, only hotter!	2/3
SIDES:	None, but it is a pizza joint	n/a
CLEAN UP:	See above	n/a
WING NIGHT:	See above	n/a
OTHER:	I don’t know what the pizza is like
TOTAL:	I loved the suicide sauce – chicken wasn’t special	8/13

The chicken for starters: a medium sized wing. Not particularly meaty at all, but deep fried well. It turned out to be a frozen wing, but it wasn't tough or chewy, just a really crisp skin. I was told they would be 10 mins, but it felt like much longer waiting for them to cook.

I was surprised how well the wings held up, considering it was half an hour before I had ordered them at the parlor and got them home. They were dripping in sauce, yet they were still crispy when I got them home.


While there was nothing great about the chicken itself, the sauce was great. I ordered their 'suicide' and the pizza gentleman (picture a 40 year old man) goes "woah!". "Ya, I'm in the mood for spicy". When I got home and opened them up, I inhaled a familiar yet wonderful scent: 3rd Degree sauce. Having been used to the less-than-killer-but-still-good 3rd Degree, I swished the drummy in the sauce and BAM! I was coughing like crazy. Where did the heat come from? It was killer. Each wing had a significant burn on the lips, the tongue and the whole mouth over all. Even after the wings were gone, I was still feeling the pain. I don't know if it was 3rd Degree spiced up or a very similar but different sauce, but it was hot and tasted good.

FINAL SCORE: Didn't have the pizza, and I don't really have interest in trying it. But the wings, while not big, were crispy and had a great suicide sauce. The wings were not overly expensive too, so this might be something I might try again. The spicy bbq sauce looks and sounds interesting. For a pizza joint, not bad. 8/13

Gabriel Pizza
780 Baseline Road (and other locations)
gabrielpizza.com