Pizzeria Libretto on King West is one of the best — if not the highest quality — pizza chains in Toronto.
Pizzeria Libretto is easy to miss, hard to forget.
My first experience with Libretto was on Ossington, where the franchise originated. Since then, it’s spawned four other locations: three downtown, and one on the Danforth.
Contents
Down an alley
Checking out the location off King feels like a mysterious, hidden gem. You essentially enter a fully furnished basement. There are other places like this throughout King West, though this one does have a veranda leading up to it. It’s a nice escape with a European feel, to an otherwise busy street filled with bars and restaurants.
All good Italian places…
Serve Peroni and Moretti. The menu has Italian headings (e.g. bianco, spumante, rosso, etc.) They ask if you want cappuccino after your meal, and have a dolce menu with Tiramisu. And they tend to have a list of every brand of San Pellegrino, save the chinotto. (Why is it so hard to find a chinotto in Toronto? This might be why I enjoy Terroni so much.)
…have to have wine.
There’s quite a lot of bottles in caged racks along the middle of the place. I’m not sure if they’re just for show. This is a testament to how good their pizza is: you should have it with wine. That’s not always my taste; I’ll go for a beer most of the time, but I can see the flavor appeal. For me, I’ll usually take a decent root beer, but a Blue Sky (a brand I’m not too familiar with) can help too.
Blue Sky Rootbeer, and Librettos homemade chili oil.
Shot of the tables of Pizzeria Libretto.
Decor
Bright red chairs, white tables, simple. Entertaining bathrooms (just check em out), some quaint seats for two, and some for parties make this a great place of a quick bite, or a large gathering. Large LCDs and a well stocked bar make this feel a somewhat modern and comfortable place for young and old.
Pizzeria Libretto’s tiramisu, in a mason jar.
Tiramisu
As always, my standards for tiramisu are quite high. Libretto goes the mason jar approach, which is fairly common. The great mistake they make here: they dunk the entire lady finger (if you can still call it that at that point) into espresso, thus dissolving the structure of the cookie. This causes the cookie to feel “ground-up” in the mouth, and doesn’t give the cake any consistency or body. The cheese is decent, the cream is good, and the flavor is fine. But alas, I can’t recommend it.
Excellent service
I made an offhand comment about the tiramisu having something crunchy in it, maybe it was an egg shell, a piece of sugar, something; doesn’t matter. However, the waitress automatically refunded the $7 off my bill. It came as a giant surprise since I wasn’t making a complaint. To me, this is the best kind of service, and the best way to treat your clients, and I will never forget the kindness Pizzeria Libretto offers. (Geez, don’t I feel like a Don?)
The daily special. Fantastic.
At Pizzeria Libretto, it’s all about the Pizza
Napoletana style. Fresh, and served under 5 minutes. It’s quite fantastic. It helps when a place is VPN certified, and Libretto has the standard all other flat crust pizzerias’ should be compared to. Of course they have other menu options, too. (But why bother? This place is called Pizzeria Libretto)
A shot of Pizzeria Libretto’s menu.
The Menu
D.O.P. pizza sauce. (Denominazione d’ Origine Protetta: this goes hand in hand with being VPN. It means the ingredients are of a certain quality, and come from Italy.) This is what Italian gourmands want. The menu states it, and they come in the Margherita and Marinara variety. Simple isn’t just better: it is simply the best. Get these.
What is the best?
To be a certified VPN holder requires certain standards. These are imported DOP ingredients: (tomatoes, OO flour, specified woodfire dome ovens, spring water, cooking time, etc. I’m no expert, but once you taste Libretto, you will know the difference.
Location
[usrlist “Decor:9.0” “Pizza:9.7” “Cocktails:7.0” “Noise Level:8.5” “Service: 9.7” “Tiramisu: 6.5” “Price: 9.0”]