Over the next week, Calgary tourists and residents will be scrambling to choose from dozens of free Stampede breakfasts. If you need some guidance, the slam-dunk winner is the marvellous Ismaili Muslim breakfast July 12.
But you still need to eat lunch (maybe) and dinner. How about pizza? Not the greasy slices on the Stampede grounds, but the best artisan pies in the city.
Sorry if you’re a fan of deep dish or New York or Chicago styles, but this is my list, and I prefer thin, blistered crusts, with one exception. I’ve just reviewed Pizza Culture and will be covering four more pizzerias in the next few days, culminating in a declared winner. Here is the first of the other contenders.
I’ve been told the margherita is the perfect test for judging a pizzeria. That’s because its simple ingredients can’t hide under a bombardment of toppings or distract from the primacy of the crust. In fact, I’d happily chew an unadorned crust if it meets that high standard.
Which brings me to Calgary’s UNA Pizza + Wine. It aces the margherita test with only five ingredients: certified San Morzano tomato sauce, fior di latte, grana Padano, basil oil and Maldon salt. There’s still ample room on the edges for chewing the slightly blistered, thin California-style crust.
Marvellous margherita at UNA Pizza
UNA offers 11 other pizza styles, with toppings ranging from fennel sausage and roasted cremini mushrooms to smoked mozzarella. Make sure to leave room for a famous, mountainous kale Caesar salad, topped with crispy prosciutto and a hard-boiled egg.
Note: Both the margherita pizza and a small Caesar salad are available at the happy-hour prices of $10.50 and $7.50, respectively, from 2-5 pm and after 9 pm.
UNA has grown to seven, mostly Calgary, locations, since it opened on 17 Avenue SW in 2010.
Broadcast is one of five UNA locations in Calgary
UNA Pizza + Wine 618 17 Avenue SW and four other Calgary locations Opens daily at 10:45 am 403-453-1183
Perfectly blistered sourdough crust at Calgary’s Pizza Culture
I’m fast, ordering a roasted mushroom pizza as soon as I’m seated at Pizza Culture in north-centre Calgary. Thanks online research!
But apparently not fast enough. By the time I’ve read the other 22 pizza descriptions in the menu, my 12-inch pie has been delivered, thanks to a giant 900 Fahrenheit wood-fired oven that perfectly blisters the sourdough crust in 90 seconds.
Opened in 2020, Pizza Culture has fast climbed the ranks, earning coveted Napoletana certification status and being named 96th best pizzeria in the world.
Pizza Culture is in a brightly-lit space with an expansive, shaded patio
It covers all the pizza bases, from a standard marinara to ricotta truffle to n’duja. You can even grab a fresh-baked loaf of sourdough bread to take with you.
Pizza Culture 1114 Centre Street North, Calgary 403-277-4900
Slow-roasted tandoori chicken at Calgary’s Masala Bhavan
As I place my order at compact Masala Bhavan, I’m advised the tandoori chicken, marinated overnight, will take 15-20 minutes to roast in a clay oven. Fine by me; just means my meal is being made to order.
It’s a big, sizzling platter of food—four messy bone-in legs for $16, rounded out by four chewy pieces of naan and a refreshing goblet of butter milk.
Fragrant butter milk is new to me
Masala Bhavan is a celebration of South Indian cuisine, with a Red Seal chef crafting a menu ranging from the familiar butter chicken to the more exotic uttapam (rice-lentil pancakes) to paratha bread.
Masala Bhavan Express 103, 45 Greenbriar Drive NW, and one other Calgary location Opens 11:30 am Monday and Wednesday to Friday and noon on weekends. Closed Tuesday 403-534-1034
Don’t know why, but the word “authentic” is tied to Mexican cuisine like barnacles to a boat. You don’t hear much about authentic Korean food or authentic French fare. But Mexican without the attached “a” word is like fries without ketchup. I’m not even certain what authentic means, especially in a country that must boast a dozen regional cuisines.
Sure enough, Mestizo Taqueria uses “authentic” in describing the Mexican street food served in its Calgary restaurant in Kensington. But it then translates “mestizo” as a person of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry who, in this case, creates a fusion of flavours.
The family who owns the taqueria hails from Mexico City, which no doubt has its culinary peculiarities. But for me, “tastes great” trumps authenticity just about any day. And I must say, Mestizo boasts Calgary’s best tacos, which come in 19 styles, all served on corn tortillas.
One of many tacos (right) on offer at Mestizo Taqueria
My lengua (tongue) taco tastes much better than it sounds; the fried pork intestines will have to wait a braver day. My favourite taco is the suadero ($6.50), featuring slow-braised beef brisket, sauteed onions and a delightful, spicy arbol salsa.
Mestizo is down a 10th Street alley, up a steep flight of stairs and in a little dining room, where customers are serenaded with festive Mexican music. Didn’t ask if it was authentic.
Mestizo is off a Kensington laneway
Mestizo Taqueria 124 10 Street NW and one Calgary food market Monday to Wednesday 11:30 am-9 pm, Thursday to Saturday 11:30 am-10 pm. Closed Sunday 825-365-8607
With a name of Tacos Mexico, it’s not surprising this popular southeast Calgary restaurant does Mexican street-style tacos two dozen ways. Allowing me to test standards, like birria and brisket, and new-to-me marinated cactus ($13 for four). All first-rate stuff, doused with hot sauce and cradled in double, corn tortillas.
Tacos Mexico is an adjust-your-eyes to the gloom spot along busy Macleod Trail Southeast. It doesn’t matter. The place is hopping at lunch, attracting, I’m guessing, local workers, many speaking Spanish.
The darkened interior doesn’t deter the faithful at Tacos Mexico
Tacos Mexico 3725 Memorial Drive SE Opens 11 am Tuesday to Friday, noon on weekends. Closed Monday 403-457-6117
The days of $1 tacos at a rusty Mexican food truck, in the southwest U.S., are long gone. But I’ve found a way to partly turn back the clock, at Native Tongues Taqueria in Calgary’s Britannia neighbourhood.
It’s called happy hour. Between 2 and 4 pm weekdays, the Mexican restaurant offers its delightful tacos for 25 per cent off.
So on a quiet midday Thursday, I ordered a small meal of three tacos. One was a barria: braised beef in adobo sauce. Two a cochinita pibil: braised pork with achiote and pickled onions. Third, deep-fried haddock with chipotle mayo.
Happy-hour tacos at Native Tongues
Fabulous, messy stuff, with a cloth napkin to wipe up the spillage. All for the happy-hour price of $12.67.
Understated elegance at Native Tongues
Native Tongues Taqueria 829 49 Avenue SW and two other Calgary locations Daiy 11:30 am-10 pm 403-454-8976
But my sister has been relentlessly championing the burgers at A&W, a nearly 70-year-old Canadian chain. So when she proclaimed the new Steakhouse Teen Burger the “best burger around,” I had to check it out.
First, a bit of history. When I was growing up, many decades ago, the A&W Teen Burger was a highly sought-after treat, usually chased with a frosty mug of root beer. But as I grew more sophisticated (snobbish), I graduated to gourmet burgers, preferably from fresh-ground beef.
It’s a clean, efficient operation
Fast forward to today, when I darkened the door of a sparkling A&W outlet for the first time in many, many years and ordered the seasonal Teen Steakhouse Burger and russet-potato fries. Here’s the scorecard:
Steakhouse Teen Burger and fries
A&W is Canada’s original burger chain, predating McDonald’s by some 15 years.
The chain has embarked, in recent years, on a healthy kick, such as grass-fed, hormone-free beef for burgers. The only packaging for my meal was a compostable burger sleeve.
The Steakhouse Burger, in a toasted sesame bun, was indeed first rate, with avant-garde toppings such as arugula lettuce, bacon jam and peppercorn aioli.
The excellent fries were straight-from-the fryer hot. Not sure if the burger was cooked to order, but not surprising everything was ready in scant minutes.
The price: $8.49 for the steakhouse burger and $4.09 for a metal basket of fries.
The verdict: Pretty damn good for a chain.
Is it as good as the iconic American chain In-N-Out? No, but that’s a high hurdle to clear. Still, it’s definitely worth checking out.
There are many classic culinary pairings: bacon and eggs, burgers and fries, mac and cheese, peanut butter and jam. To this mix we can add beer and pizza, a longtime partnership that’s only getting stronger in Calgary as more craft breweries add gourmet pizzas to their pub food menus. So much so that you can go for the beer but stay for the pie.
Here’s a half dozen brewpubs that meet this high dual standard, sometimes baking their own pizzas and other times forging partnerships with existing pie companies.
Two House Brewing 1901 10 Avenue SW Sunday to Thursday 11 am-10 pm, Friday-Saturday 11 am-11 pm 403-287-0215
A couple of Two House pints
Tucked out of the way in Sunalta, Two House Brewing is the place to be on a sunny summer afternoon, with two spacious patios and big sliding glass doors. The eight types of pizzas keep flying out of the oven and go well with a flight of up to six beers. Prices are reasonable, with specials every day.
…and a couple of pies
Last Best Brewing & Distilling 607 11 Avenue SW and one other Calgary location Happy hour Monday to Saturday 3 pm-6 pm and late, Sunday all day 587-353-7390
Dirty Bird chicken pizza at Last Best Brewing
Talk about happy hour. Last Best offers at least five such hours every day—from $15 full-size pizzas to $5.50 16-ounce pints of beer to $10 martinis featuring house-made gin. I can sit by the pizza oven and watch my excellent Dirty Bird chicken pie bake or snag a seat on the sunny patio and sip a hazy double IPA Tokyo Drift, my favourite on-tap beer in Calgary.
Last Best pizza oven
Eighty-Eight Brewing 1070, 2600 Portland Street SE Opens daily, except Monday, at noon 403-452-5880
Replacing onetime in-house Noble Pies, 88 partner Portland Street Pizza features a unique, puffy focaccia crust and crispy squares. The beer, named in honour of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, remains excellent. Enjoy a pint of hazy Hi-Fi IPA with a spicy Magnum P.I. pizza in the tropical, funky taproom.
Eighty-Eight Brewing’s funky taproom
’The Mash 50 Greenbriar Drive NW and four other Calgary locations Opens at 3 pm Monday and Tuesday and at 11:30 am Wednesday to Sunday
The Mash’s brewpub
Here’s something different: craft pizza made from craft beer. At The Mash—just outside Calgary Farmers’ Market West—the beer on tap is from Cochrane’s Half Hitch Brewing. The spent grain, from the beer-making process, is folded into the pizza dough.
The spent beer mash goes into the pizza crust
The result is uniquely flavourful pizza, such as a 10-inch wild mushroom ($20.50), paired with a Papa Bear Prairie Ale. No doubt worthy of a monster mash.
This is a partnership between Tailgunner’s Czech-heavy beers anda dozen Acme Pizza Co. 12-inch pies. Grab a seat on the shaded Sunalta patio and try an Ajax dark lager and a Saporita pizza. The brewery’s name honours local World War II tail gunner Lint Stephenson, who survived being shot down and spending two years in an internment camp.
Tailgunner beer and pizza
Trolley 5 728 17 Avenue SW Weekdays 11:30 am to late, weekends 10 am to late 403-454-3731
Trolley 5 is at the top of the Calgary brewpub food heap for its burgers, wings and brisket sandwiches. So it’s no surprise its 10-inch pizzas rank up there, too. Try the Silvio Dante—featuring house-made San Marzano tomato sauce and smoked andouille sausage—along with a Cloudy Daze hazy pale ale.
Okay, this retro 17th Avenue spot doesn’t actually make beer, but with a name like Cold Beer & Pizza, it’s hard to exclude it from this list. They do make plenty of flavourful pizza, ranging from a slice to pie sold by the metre. How about a Dirk Diggler quarter-metre “shorty” and a $5 happy-hour pint?
Marathon Mouth 