Return of the pizza safari

• Name + address: House of Pizza, 160 Richmond St. W

• Type of food: Pizza

• Menu: $6-$37

• Diet: Meat with limited vegetarian options

• Wheelchair accessibility: No

• LCBO Licensed: Yes

• Website: www.houseofpizza.ca

The pizza safari is back and this season I’ll be reviewing a few new, new-to-me and well-established locations and I hope I touch on a few spots that you enjoy.

I begin with the 30-year veteran House of Pizza in Westboro. They have a new location on Richmond Road and as large a pizza menu as you’re likely to find in Ottawa.

The restaurant itself is rather large with a second floor offering a space for gatherings. It’s casual and owners Nadine and Gabriel Khater are clearly proud of their decades-long success and the fact that their sons have become involved in the business.

They offer 37 different pizzas, from the Ottawa style that we all grew up with, to the wood-fired Neapolitan style. They also do a credible job with all the other casual foods we’ve come to love from burgers and fries to wings and a broad range of sandwiches and salads.

When I suggest that they are proud of their business, I see it in the small touches they add from the house-made BBQ sauce on their wings to the fact that the restaurant is very clean. We all know this is not always the case with casual eateries.

I’m always up for trying wings at establishments that are new to me. There are however two things that can very easily kill a wing experience: over-frying and cheap industrial sauces.

In this instance the BBQ sauce on the wings was so nice that I wish I’d ordered a side of it for dipping rather than the commercially made “honey” garlic sauce.

The wings themselves were nicely prepared although I felt they’d spent perhaps a minute too long in the fryer. All in all however, it was fresh and proper and there was a lot of finger-licking going on.

I will head back at some point to try their wood-fired pizza but on this visit I stuck with the style most Ottawans know.

As usual I ordered my preferred toppings of pepperoni, mushrooms, green olives and onions and was happy to find that they include these on their HP Special but asked them to leave off the green pepper.

Knowing what to expect, I ordered the 10 inch and once it arrived it still felt as if it weighed five pounds.

Gabriel informed me that they make almost everything in-house and that includes the tomato sauce. I was happy to find that the sauce did not taste over-cooked and that while the pizza was heavily weighted with toppings, the crust was light, airy and surprisingly sturdy. The thing simply wouldn’t bend under the load. That’s an accomplishment.

He also mentioned that they have a different way of preparing the bacon that goes on the pizzas. They take a fully cured slab of pork belly and slowly roast it for many hours in order to render off all the fat. It’s cooled to room temperature and then frozen. When bacon is required they simply take it out of the freezer and shave off what’s needed. It’s an efficient way of reducing food waste.

House of Pizza is a classic of sorts. It’s not re-inventing any categories but it hits all the right notes for delivering good food and good portions that are fairly priced. If you’re in that part of town and the gang’s squabbling about where to eat, you can easily find something for everyone at this family-friendly eatery.