Wednesday, 22 July 2009

PRESTON PIZZA ~ Ottawa, On

RIP - Preston Pizza is NOW CLOSED

It's the end of the week. The fridge is empty because we're leaving for a week, so there's nothing to be had. Between packing, a business meeting, a colleagues funeral for a family member, and some last minute cleaning, there's no time to cook. That leaves take-out/delivery. Deciding to take a chance on another local pizza joint, we turned to a flyer from the mail and decide on Preston Pizza.




LJ made the phone call and experienced some comical reactions from the person taking orders. First, the buzzer to our apartment. Its a funny number, and for security reasons will not reveal here. Then, it turns out, someone in our building, on our floor, ordered the exact same pizza (only bigger) just a few minutes before. What a coincidence!

We were all over the place in what to order, but we went with a small pizza, the 6 Munchie Pack, and an order of wings.




The Pizza.

We ordered the "House Special" which was hot peppers, pineapple, and pepperoni.


It was Ottawa-style. We are not a huge fan of Ottawa-style. Basically the sauce and toppings are under a thick layer of cheese with a relatively thick crust. I mean there was nothing wrong with the pizza, but I would rather a thinner crust crust/sauce/cheese ratio. It is a heavy slice. But it was much better for breakfast and served cold the next day.



The 6 Munchie Pack.

There are 3 things that are common to many pizza places in Ottawa:
  1. They will serve Lebanese food.
  2. They will serve subs/burgers.
  3. They will have breaded/frozen snack pack combos.

Our snack pack combo consisted of breaded/fried zucchini, cheese sticks, chicken bits, egg rolls, shrimp and mushrooms. These combos come in variations of these above items as well as fries, wings, chicken fingers, onion rings in varying quantities.
Mmmmmm brown and golden yellow plainness. What can I say? It's nothing you couldn't get in any freezer isle. Our combo pack came with 2 dipping sauces: garlic sauce (ie Lebanese), and cocktail sauce.



LJ wanted to try the snack pack, I wanted to try the wings. Surprising, eh?


Wings come in at a pound an order, and I got 1o wings in that pound. I really want to know who measures these pounds because one place a pound is 9 tiny wings, another place a pound is 10 big wings. Something is not right in the restaurant world.



The wings were pretty crispy. Almost chewy due to the wait after delivery. But still good.

I was impressed with the size on the wings. They were large. I like that. They weren't particularly meaty, but they didn't skimp on the chicken either. They have a good supplier.



The wings were Buffalo style. I like that too. That means no breading, deep fried, then tossed in cayenne-based hot sauce. Nothing fancy. The smell took me back to my old days of wings from New York state. The heat was weak, and that was a little disappointing, but not unexpected.




They were tossed, but not super saucy. That meant every wings had sauce, but there wasn't any extra for dippin. So while I would prefer more sauce, less of the sauce meant the wings didn't get soggy.



FINAL SCORE: Wings were classic buffalo style, crispy, and not very hot. But I did like them. The pizza was ok, and the snack pack was alright. Nothing really stood out but that's ok. Nothing was done wrong either. Would I order from them again? Maybe, but I might try another place next time too.


Preston Pizza
125 Preston Street, Ottawaprestonpizza.ca



Go over to the Wing Bucket to see their take-out menu.

7 comments:

Chris said...

I usually avoid wings from pizza places but around here pizza places are basically Papa Johns and Dominoes.

Lord of the Wings said...

Chris - I'm always hearing about supporting your local chain. Very few here in my city have really stood out. I did a dominoes review a while back (I remember them being ok) but the closest Papa Johns I know of is 7 hours away - but I take it not that special.

Teena in Toronto said...

It's been a while since I've had a pizza with the stuff under the cheese ... I like it!

Anonymous said...

Avoid Preston Pizza at all cost.
The service is absolutely terrible. After 2 hours of no food, and a list of excuses we cancelled our order only to be sworn at over and over until we had to eventually hang up

Lord of the Wings said...

Anonymous - Sorry to hear you had a terrible encounter! Where do you recommend for good wings and pizza take-out here in Ottawa, cuz I'm not turning up many good places!?

Unknown said...

I agree with anonymous, Preston food is okay, but the service is aweful. Whatever you see on a takeout menu, even if it was just printed, expect them to add 2-3 dollars to that when (if ever) it arrives at your door. No, not a delivery charge, they just purposely post lower prices on their takehome menus and then copout behind the fineprint "prices can be changed at any time". Also, when they say "real turkey" in the club sandwich description, it really means "dark meat chicken".

Lord of the Wings said...

Alex -sounds like you've had some negative encounters there too. Where do you get take-out pizza & wings??