Taste Test: Vancouver’s Best Late-Night Pizza

These are the slices you want to grab after a night out on the town.

Vancouver is full of artisan pizza spots, but after midnight, the real heroes are the ones serving cheap, cheese-covered slices. Which of these six wedges will satisfy your late-night cravings—and which of them will you forget by morning? We asked an expert panel of judges to find out.

Best in Show

Pizza Garden

The judges loved the chewy-and-charred crust of this slice: “Anything from a wood-fired oven has got my vote,” said Stewart. Our other taste testers agreed, praising the quality of the toppings (the onions are delicate in flavour but provide a nice crunch) and the creamy béchamel-style sauce. “You’re not going to get better quality than this after midnight,” said Voon. Multiple locations, pizzagarden.ca

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Honourable Mention

Hot Pie

The volume of toppings (“It’s a two-hand pizza, for sure,” said Iranzad) and smoky flavour of Hot Pie’s bacon and mushroom pizza impressed our judges, who were all surprised to learn the slice came from this humble late-night spot in the centre of Gastown. 4 Powell St., hotpiepizza.ca

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Uncle Fatih’s

Described by our judges as a “standard” late-night slice, Uncle Fatih’s Hawaiian pizza “needs some sort of dipping sauce.” But they did like the generous portion of ham and the sweeter-than-average tomato sauce, which “maybe wouldn’t work with other toppings” but pairs nicely with pineapple. Multiple locations, unclefatih.com

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Fire Pizza

“Those peppers are way too overwhelming,” said one taste tester. Further described as “lacklustre in flavour” and “dry,” the spicy mushroom pizza from this Commercial Drive shop was our judges’ least favourite. 1918 Commercial Dr., firepizza.ca

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Goldies

Goldies’ meatball pizza earned a nod of respect—the mozzarella extends right to the edge—but the extra-thin crust left one judge hungry for more: “I probably wouldn’t be satisfied with just one slice.” Multiple locations, goldiespizza.com

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Megabite

The cream-based sauce made this pizza seem cheesier than it was (“It’s a clever cheat”), but the judges still enjoyed the Philly cheesesteak-style toppings—red and green bell peppers, mushrooms, caramelized onions, tender steak—and the sesame seed crust. Multiple locations, megabitepizza.com

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Meet the Judges

James Iranzad is co-owner of Wildebeest, Lucky Taco and Bufala. In the spirit of late-night eats, he brought a bottle of bubbly to share with his fellow taste testers.

Kaitlyn Stewart is a self-proclaimed pizza junkie, no doubt a result of pulling the late shift at Royal Dinette—named Best Pacific Northwest at our 2017 Restaurant Awards—where she works as bar manager.

Jeff Voon is our Twitter contest winner. This librarian and business development research specialist knows his way around Vancouver’s pizza scene: he correctly guessed two of the day’s samplings (a VM Taste Test first!).