MILANO PIZZA - Perth ON

This review is from Feb 2020 #lotwwintercatchup

Back in February the wife and I went on a little weekend getaway to Perth Ontario. I love this little town - it's so picturesque and filled with historic buildings and stories (did you know the last duel fought in Canada happened here?). On our first night in, we decided to just stay in our hotel, order food, and just chill out. We felt like a classic delivery food so we went for pizza and wings.

I went online to do some quick research and while there were a few places that fit the bill, but the one that seemed to be the most interesting to us (and safest bet) was Milano's Pizza. Milano's, if you are not familiar with the chain, it's been operating in the Ottawa region by the Kassis family since 1974. There a few local chains out this way (Gabriel's and 1 for 1 for example), but I feel like they are under the radar a bit. I enjoyed the wings at the Milano's in Gananoque but it may not be part of the chain. The location in Perth opened up I think sometime in 2018.

I was on their take-out website and saw one deal that appealed to both of us: The Perfect Combo Deal with PopCurds. Pizza, wings, PopCurds and drinks. I called in the order to clarify the questions instead of ordering online, and spoke to someone who sounded very busy, but was friendly, sweet and accommodating. She was rad. Our delivery lady came right to our hotel door, and she too was very friendly. She told us she brought us some vinegar packets for our pizza. Vinegar on pizza? I had never heard of such a thing. She was very enthusiastic about doing so and said it really brings out the flavours of the pizza. Wow.

The food was delivered quick and still hot. There were lots of dips, sauces, plates, cutlery, napkins and everything we needed for our dine-in feast.

We got a medium 3 topping pizza.  It looked pretty good. We asked for light on sauce, and they obliged. Our 3 toppins were Bacon, Italian Sausage, and Onion. They had a pizza dough ball in the middle to keep the lid from crushing the cheesy pizza. I have never seen this in Canada, but heard that many pizza places in parts of the US do this. We usually just have the plastic table, but this is better. Too bad the dough isn't soft or edible really.

The other toppings were chopped pretty fine, but there was a lot and almost all parts of the pizza were covered. The sausage was not spicy. The bacon was strip bacon chopped up (not crumble like some places). The onions were red diced onions. There was a nice layer of cheese on there as well, but not a brick like many Ottawa-style pizza places have. I found it a little too dry without the normal level of sauce on here. It was a good pizza, but we didn't love it.  We did try it with the vinegar, and it actually was pretty good! It did enhance the flavours so maybe this is something that might catch on with us?!

We also got it with a side of their homemade garlic sauce (I asked the girl on the phone if this was like Lebanese garlic sauce, but she had no idea what I was talking about. They do shawarama at this Milano's, and it was). It was thick and garlicky and went well with the pizza.

The combo also came with a 1/2 pound of PopCurds. PopCurds are cheese curds that are breaded and deep fried. Basically a mini curd mozza stick. The breading on these has a strong flavour that is bigger than the cheese curd itself. It came with marinara sauce for dipping. These are pretty addictive and easy to pop in the mouth, but they would have been much better fresh out of the fryer.

Then there were the wings. This is the part I was most looking for.

Milano's wings are ordered by number, either 10, 20, or 30. They came in a Styrofoam clam-shell lined with food paper. They were pretty even flats and drums. We ordered our sauces on the side, so I have no idea how saucy they would have been. They did come with a container of sour cream ...

The wings were not that big. Kinda small. They were not particularly meaty either. But the wings were very crispy. That naked skin was crispy/crackly and salty good.

The meat was not particularly tender either. It was almost dried out, and pulling apart the bones was not that easy. So while we had a really nice crispy skin, we got a tougher meat because of it.

As I mentioned before, we got our sauce on the side. This is usually the best course of action if you want a crispy chicken wing. We went with two sauces, Hot, and Suicide and applied the sauce ourselves. Not as good coverage, but we did have crispy skin.

Hot was a classic cayenne pepper hot sauce, probably Frank's. Frank's is good, it's tasty, it is what it is.

Suicide was 3rd Degree. No doubt. I'm a #3rdDegreeAddict so I liked it. It's not crazy hot, but you get a bigger zip than hot sauce.

FINAL SCORE:

We had a very filling meal that fit the bill for the night. Pizza had lots of toppings. PopCurds were salty cheesy treats. The wings were crispy and had some good commercial sauces. The food was not bad, but nothing really special. The service we got was really special, and I really appreciated it. 7.5/14

Milano's Pizza
54 Wilson St, Perth ON (and other locations)
wilsonstperth.milanopizzeria.ca