Over the last couple of years some of the big pizza chains have moved into the city. Papa Johns in the latest American entry into a very competitive market.
We have seen a retreat of the chicken restaurants lately. KFC had a major contraction in the last two years and Chicken Delight retreated from the prominent corner they inhabited on Corydon Avenue.
Chains such as Pizza Pizza and Little Caesar's have started flooding the market. In my area, Presto Pizza closed rather than compete against Little Caesar's across the block.
We have always been price competitive in Winnipeg on pizza. We have also had some amazing pizza joints over the years such as Santa Lucia as well as some dominant players such as Pizza Hotline and Domino's.
Sushi and pizza seems to dominate new places opening while the chicken places continue their decline. Chinese food restaurants seems to pass from family to family over the years.
It is difficult to see what the margin is on pizza but Winnipeggers love the stuff and there will be knock down, take out brawl in the next year.
Now, if we could get more Indian restaurants and pubs setting up.
There have been some new independent pizza places opening too, like Santa Ana on St.Mary's and Carbon's on Taylor. I can recommend Santa Ana's wood-fired & stone oven pizza, but have not tried Carbon's coal-fired 'za.
ReplyDeleteI hope these independent places do well. Would hate for there to be no choice but chain pizza.
The quality of the presto pizza in my area went downhill last year. (Main Street location).. I look forward to trying Papa Johns. Maybe it's just me, but Pizza Pizza seems to be made primarily out of laxatives. I think they closed the Chicken Delight in the Green Brier too. Still, Santa Lucia and Gondola are always reliable (though expensive). I'm not a fan of Pizza Hotline or Little Caesar's though. Dominos tastes like they use a spicy ketchup for their sauce half the time.
ReplyDeleteI agree with chernkov. Santa Ana has awesome wood fired pizza. Diana's on St. Annes is also excellent but expensive and they just opened a sit down restaurant.
ReplyDeleteThe competitive pizza market has created a bit of a race to the bottom in terms of quality... only Pizza Hotline seems to serve up a reliably decent product out of the discount pizza joints. Some of the hole-in-wall 3 for 1 joints are barely edible by comparison.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise for good stuff you have to go upmarket and as Reed said, that can get a bit pricey.
Indian food rocks! The Tandoori Hut on Corydon just changed to new management & the food is spectacular now!
ReplyDeleteCherenkob: I have been watching the Taylor development and wrote about it. Haven't sampled their pizza. I hadn't heard of the St. Mary's place.
ReplyDeleteReed: I haven't had Gondola in ages. I did have Pizza Pizza once. Thought it was made of leftover Domino's but that was way back and not the one in this city. I don't mind Pizza Hotline but variety is good.
Anon: Sounds like I will have to check out St, Vital for pizza with Diana's.
OMC: I agree that it might be a downgrade for some of the pizza deals out there.
Vern's Pizza, though pricey, is quite good. Lots of toppings on them, too.
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