Leopard - Review
Some taste at a high price
I avoided Leopard for a while as friends were giving me mixed reactions about their pizza. So coming here I was a bit hesitant and after dining there last night, I totally agree with why some people don’t like this place.
The night started on a weird note as I learned quickly that they had no sodie pops. No diet Coke or Pepsi, no Sprite no iced tea. They serve in house-made soda of only root beer and orange cream soda. The most obscure flavours for pizza. I was very cheesed that they don’t have Coke. Pizza and coke are the ultimate combo and couldn’t believe they didn’t even carry any. My grandma had ordered the root beer and it was 80% ice, for $5. It seemed like the ultimate rip-off as the amount of sarsparilla in the soda was so watered down and tasted nothing like root beer. This drink seemed only acceptable if served by 5-year-olds who set up their root beer stand for charity. Expensive and diluted.
Moving on to the pizzas, these were much better than the root beer. The sourdough crust had a good flavor although it leaned heavily to the doughy side and didn’t have any crisp. Was an elevated Panago pizza IMO. We had 2 pizzas the Hawaiian and Carne both were ok but I felt the Carne was the better of the two.
Hawaiian had San Marzano tomato sauce, provolone, smoked tasso ham, IPA caramelized pineapple and jalapeno zhug. The one thing about this pizza was the ingredients were diced up so small in some areas that it reminded me of Pizza Pop filing. Little square chunks of ham and pineapple. It made it taste like the true taste of a Hawaiian pizza was minuscule in each bite. I needed that full pineapple taste. It wasn’t that hot either considering there was zhug on this and fyi zhug is a Yemeni hot sauce but didn’t seem present in flavor here
The Carne had the same San Marzano tomato sauce, fennel salami, mortadella, meatball, fior di latte, and garlic butter crust. This was a more full-filling and tasty pizza. The salami was a chef’s kiss and combined with the fior di latte (mozzarella) made a truly tasty pie.
Overall, the service was excellent. They were very accommodating to my grandma and her disappointment with the amount of ice in her drink. So I’m grateful they were willing to help. The location is in prime real estate of Westblock and would probably be one of the better food options. With a hit-and-miss pie and a lack of soda flavours, this is more geared toward an older and casual beer drinker demographic. At around $23 a pie per small-sized pizza is not great value but it comes with the location. My friend had asked me if I got the Caesar salad as it was “really good” but I came to a pizza place for pizza and no salad will be defining what’s in your restaurant name.
Sal says: Just Try It (2.8/5)
