Thursday, January 10, 2013

GF Restaurant Review: The Pizza Factory


The Pizza Factory on Urbanspoon

The Pizza Factory is located in the quaint, picturesque town of Peterborough, Ontario. This establishment has been around since at least the 80s, the owner is a Greek immigrant from well, Greece. The menu comprises of mainly Italian cuisine but has a few signature greek dishes. Albeit, a pizza/pasta joint such as this is probably going to be the least likely of places to offer GF options but there were some. Below is a sort of point-form version of my review, a format I will likely utilize in the future. I hope you enjoy reading!

Establishment: The Pizza Factory

Date/Time of Visit: Wednesday January 9, 2013, 8:00 pm (EST)

Gluten-free Options: Yes

Examples of GF Options;
Starter - loaded potatoe skins, escargot
Main - Chicken, Ribs, Souvlaki, Greek Fisherman's Delight, Pasta
Desert - none

My Meal

Starter/Side

I had the side caesar even though the server informed me that there were breadcrumbs in the dressing. It didn't quite compute, I think she meant to say there were croutons. I don't think caesar salad dressing is traditionally made with bread crumbs but correct me if I am wrong. I ordered it anyway.

The caesar salad was great, just how I liked it, drenched in dressing but it was a tad on the garlicky side. 

Main

I ordered the Rigatoni with tomatoe meat sauce. It took 25 mins to receive my main and it was Penne not Rigatoni, like I requested. I inquired about the difference and the server said they have only one of the two options (so why did she mention Rigatoni?). The penne came out undercooked and so I sent it back. The server said it would be about another 10 mins. I thought to myself, so why did it take 25 the first time around? The second time around, I just had the pasta packed up; I couldn't be bothered to wait any longer. When I got home, I had a few bites. The sauce was kind of bland with barely any meat, it tasted like Ragu from the grocery store.I struggled to continue eating it. I ended up remaking the pasta by adding more ingredients in a saute pan and then combining everything. It tasted much better with my own touches.

                               Penne with Meat Sauce, The Pizza Factory

Atmosphere: Old timey with a hint of chince but I liked it. Spacious, tall, wooden bankettes. Nice murals of Peterborough landmarks. 

Will you be back a second time? No. I think the owner should stick to cooking greek food.

Additional Notes: none
Star Rating: 

... at best

I'm Gluten Freed!

My journey into becoming a gluten-free-ite begin a couple years ago but since before the New Year of 2013, I made a commitment to go gluten free for good. I decided to begin the endeavor at the hardest time possible, right before Christmas. My grandmother also flew from Hungary to Canada to spend the holidays with us this year, this proved to be even more challenging as traditional Hungarian cooking is chalk fool of wheat! I will admit, there have been a couple of slip ups, I may have sneaked some stuffing onto my Christmas themed paper plate at a couple of Christmas dinners but all in all, I've been doing pretty well. I decided to document my journey by employing the handy dandy blogger blogging website and created this blog, theglutenfreed.blogspot.com. Note, this is not my first endeavour in food blogging. I used to blog at a site called foodporn but have since disabled that site in order refocus my efforts on all things gluten free and gluten free only. I hope you enjoy reading the trial and tribulations of this gluten free girl. Please feel free to comment or email me at any time.

P.S. I do not have celiac's disease, I just have an intolerance to gluten. I do not have any other dietary restrictions although I try to control my intake of processed sugar and sodium. Side note, I have no intolerance to oats or barley, I think there may be some debate whether these grains are gluten free or not. Cheers.