Downtown District: District Cafe (109 St)
After seeing some very positive reviews of downtown's District Café and their authentic style Neapolitan pizza, well, it's needless to say that the PizzaMonsters were pretty excited to pay a visit and chomp down on some Italian deliciousness.
As their website proclaims, District is open morning, noon & night and handles your needs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But you'll have to be there between 4pm-Close Monday through Sat to have a chance to try the za. (Pizza is on the Dinner Menu only)
District Café is located pretty centrally in downtown Edmonton on the ground floor of the Peace Hills Tower on the corner of 109 St and 100 Ave. Parking can be an issue with only a few street spots available outside, but soon we were parked and on our way in.
It's a bit of a strange wrap around layout that takes away from the atmosphere slightly, and it didn't feel like a place that a lot of 7 year olds visit, in fact, the dim candle lit room would be a great place for a date. But the friendly staff helped us settle and soon we were drooling over another delicious sounding Edmonton pizza menu.
There are just six pizzas on the menu, but District does a lot more than pizza, so it's understandable. Now here's the kicker...they're all served on a sourdough crust. And noticeably sour at that. In fact, both Kingston and I agreed that it overpowered the other flavours from the pizza. We both liked it, and think it would be great with butter on its own, but as a pizza crust it was a bit much.
The Grub
1x Salz Sausage Pizza (Sausage, Red Onion, Basil w/ Mozzarella & Provolone)
1x Orange Juice
1x Common Crown Brewmaster Blonde Ale
The Damage
$25.71 (-tax & tip)
Kingston
The Place: 2 - Well, it's ok. It's really dark, but a bit boring.
The Crust: 3 - I can taste a lot of sour. I like it, but it's strong.
The Sauce: 3 - I can't really taste it, it's a bit plain.
The Cheese: 2.5 - I think it's good, but there should be more.
The Toppings: 3 - The sausage was ok but could have more flavour, and the basil was yummy.
PizzaMonsters Verdict: 3 The whole thing was just ok. The place and the pizza. Just like too normal. I don't want to go back.
3/5 PizzaMonsters
Steve
The Place: 3 - I didn't love it, I didn't hate it. I didn't get much from it. It was just there. The window in to the Dough Room was neat.
The Crust: 3 - Well, as mentioned, it's a sourdough crust which while crisp and golden, is just overpowering and distracts from the rest of the flavours.
The Sauce: 2.5 - A fairly plain tasting sauce...and you guessed it, not enough of it.
The Cheese: 2.5 - Again, there could have been more as considerable areas had little to none. Not a lot of taste either considering there were two cheeses.
The Toppings: 3 - Was a little disappointed with the sausage, as it was a bit bland, but the overall combination with red onion and basil worked nicely.
PizzaMonsters Verdict: 3 Looking back, I have an overwhelming sense of tasting nothing but the sourness of the crust which I think explains why the sauce, cheese, and topping flavours were lost and they came across as bland. Did we get an overly sour crust, or is this the norm? It was certainly too much for me.
3/5 PizzaMonsters
As the weeks & months go on, the PizzaMonsters explore YEG's pizza places and munch our way through their best pizzas to try and find the Magic Golden Super Best Pizza in Edmonton!
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