Mickey's Pizza

If you’ve ever doubted the power of word-of-mouth advertising, then I am here to prove you wrong. Case in point: Mickey’s Pizza. I hadn’t heard of it until someone on my Twitter account posted a picture of one of their pies, and my interest was piqued. A little bit of research and asking around the office and a few people mentioned that they heard about Mickey’s and how good they were. My interest piqued some more.

The website is interesting. Mickey’s has a “thing” for dragons and feeding them, and a cute story about the dragon fuelling their oven. There are cute videos on their website under “What’s with the dragon?” that had me hooked. That, and their guarantee that you’ll love their pizza or they’ll give you every penny of your money back, and I *had* to try it. Something that claims to be the “best tasting pizza you’ve ever had” is bold. Because I’ve eaten a lot of pizza.

We pulled up to the plaza one night when there were a group of boys playing hackey sack outside Mickey’s doors – kind of an inconvenience to walk around/through the group when the entire rest of the strip plaza was closed due to the hour, but I guess they liked playing with the smell of pizza wafting by. The store itself isn’t set up for dine in (no tables) and is brightly painted and lit. The walls are covered in quotes printed off from satisfied customers, and a chalkboard on another wall asks a question of the week where patrons can doodle their own answers with the available chalk.

There is a long counter of toppings behind glass (think a Subway or something like that) so you can see your pizza being made – or be like me, and ask for more/less toppings as they make them. A large round oven unlike anything I have seen before takes up a fair size of the space as well. It reminds me of a hair dryer you sit under at the salon, but I liked that it looked futuristic and it was completely open so you could see it. They were really nice at Mickey’s and even let me come behind the counter so I could get a good picture of our pizza while it was spinning around in the oven!

Speaking of really nice, the service here was phenomenal. Everyone was friendly and patient with all of the questions I had, and also with my indecision with what we wanted to eat. Although they have their version of a Chicago-style pizza, called the Killer King, we opted for the traditional crust (I couldn’t handle all that cheese so late at night) and went with their vegetarian pizza, the Green Dragon.

A large Green Dragon ($21) was enough to feed four of us, and was loaded with mushrooms, sautéed spinach, roasted red peppers, green peppers, caramelized onions and olives. We got a mixture of the kalamata olives and the black olives, and topped it off with goat cheese. We had asked for artichokes on it as well, but didn’t notice until we got it home that they forgot it. Regardless, it was still delicious. The dough was the perfect thickness so that it was a little crispy on the outside edges but soft in the middle. Actually, I would have probably preferred that it was cooked a little longer because the dough was so soft that the slices were a little flimsy with all the toppings, and could have stood a little more structure and crunch to it. That being said, the dough tasted fantastic. There’s a slight buttery smell/taste to it that really made it stand out. I know, buttery and pizza dough don’t usually go together, but trust me – it was delicious. The toppings were fresh and plentiful, and I’m glad we went with the goat cheese (feta or mozzarella were also options) because the bite worked perfectly with the subtle vegetables and buttery dough.  Hands down, the best tasting vegetarian pizza I have ever tasted. The boyfriend (I guess I should call him the fiancé now) is normally a meat eater, but he remarked that there was so much flavour and texture happening, he didn’t even miss having meat on it. Now there’s endorsement, for you.

A gem in Clarkson, Mickey’s stands out from the mundane pizza places that sit on every street corner. It’s brought a touch of gourmet excitement to a market that has been saturated with mediocrity. You think you know what pizza is? You have no idea until you try pizza at Mickey’s. They’ve certainly awoken my dragon, and he wants to be fed!

Mickey’s Pizza
1900 Lakeshore Rd. W., Mississauga
www.feedyourdragon.com