When it comes to pizza, there’s thin crust, deep dish and everything in between.
To get a sense of what this area has to serve up, local taste-tester Phill Fuller has once again come up with a Comox Valley Tastes Good showdown.
This summer, he set out to find what he thinks is the best pizza in the region, at least according to his tastebuds.
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“I set out on this mission with the help of Jeff Crisp, a local Realtor, because I didn’t think there was any official top 10 best pizzas list,” he told The Record via email in mid-August, after finally reviewing all the pizzas.
Fuller had looked up places on Google, including ones no longer in business or not really worthy of a top 10 ranking, so he set about to rank the best local pies on his own, including ones from two years of pizza playoffs.
He had done less ambitious pizza contests before, along with other items such as beer — his first contest, which he set up as a fundraiser with Roy’s Towne Pub two years ago.
Fuller has tried plenty of options but included a cheese pizza from 24 different places, ranking them on a scale of zero to 100. A score of at least 80 means the pizza should be in the top 10; 70 to 80 is a solid pizza with a shot of making the top 10; 60 to 70 isn’t really on the top list but still satisfied the hunger; 50 to 60 meant it was a pizza he probably would not get again; and anything under 50 was simply “inedible.”
According to Fuller’s tastebuds, he found Church Street Bakery was tops overall and had by far the tastiest sauce full of fresh tomato and onion; Boonies was the most gorgeous looking, and every bite was crispy and delicious; and Beaver Convenience, with its “mouthwatering cheese blend” (and the first-ever pizza playoff winner), nudged out the 2021 champ from Cloves Deli for third spot.
The rest of the top 10, all of which scored at least 76, were Riders, Guerilla, Roy’s Towne Pub, Forbidden Zone, Islander and MRJ’s. Overall, Fuller expressed a preference for the more local fare, or as he said on the Facebook page, “I found most of the chain pizza places were cooked fast, which really left something to be desired. The actual locally owned shops were by far the best!”
Fuller has uploaded video reviews of all 24 pizzas to his Comox Valley Tastes Good Facebook page.
mike.chouinard@comoxvalleyrecord.com
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