Best frozen pizza in Canada

We’ve all been there: too tired to cook up a satisfying dinner, too indecisive to know what the mood calls for and too hungry to wait for a delivery driver to navigate traffic to bring a lukewarm meal to your door. That’s when the occasion calls for a frozen pizza – convenient, affordable and easy enough to get the job done, even if they can never quite reach the heights of a restaurant-worthy pizza. Until now, that is.

The frozen pizzas of today are increasingly closing the gap between quality and convenience, coming to your local freezer aisle from chefs and pizzerias across the country. Today, you can find frozen pizzas – many of which were created to help restaurants make money during the pandemic – that offer loaded flavour that’s on a par with their made-to-order counterparts, taking the grocery-store staple from the last-minute meal of champions to a dinner option you’ll happily reach for again and again.

Best frozen pizza in British Columbia

1. Holy Napoli Pizza, Vancouver

Hand pulling frozen pizza out of takeout box that says Holy Napoli, a Canadian company — Courtesy: Holy Napoli

Francesca Galasso left her job as a research assistant at the University of British Columbia to pursue her dream of becoming a pizzaiola in 2014. She went on to study at California’s renowned Accademia della Pizza Napoletana and then returned to Vancouver and opened her own Neapolitan-style pizzeria, Il Castello. After customers started asking whether they could buy her dough to make pizza at home, she began tinkering with the formula for a frozen version. Il Castello has since closed, but Galasso’s expertise lives on with her line of premium frozen pizzas, Holy Napoli (founded in 2017). The pies are made with 00 flour (a fine Italian grade designed for pizza) and available in five varieties: Margherita, Pesto Roast Vegetable, Calabrese, Funghi and Quattro Formaggi. Find them at retailers across Canada.

holynapoli.com

2. Bicycle Pizza, Victoria

Knife cutting into freshly cooked frozen pizza from a Canadian Company — Courtesy: Bicycle Pizza

Victoria power couple (and avid cyclists) Andrew and Vanessa Johnson opened their takeout pizzeria, Bicycle Pizza, at the beginning of 2021, and soon discovered that the leftovers they’d bring home froze and reheated remarkably well. Within a couple of months, they expanded the business to offer a lineup of what they call “Frozen Craft Pizzas”: frozen versions of some of their bestselling menu items, like Bicycle Cheese and Grapes and Honey. You can buy them at grocery stores around South Vancouver Island.

eatbicyclepizza.com

3. Pizzeria Prima Strada, Victoria

Cooked pizzas from Pizzeria Prima Strada, a Canadian company — Courtesy: Pizzeria Prima Strada

Husband-and-wife team Geoffrey Dallas and Cristen DeCarolis opened Prima Strada in 2008 after realizing their Victoria neighbourhood was missing an authentic pizzeria. They now have two locations, and if you’re dining at either one, be sure to peruse the “house-made to-go” products available for purchase. On offer: take-and-bake takes of their classic Margherita, Pepperoni and Salsiccia (sausage) pizzas, as well as the Capricciosa Rosa pie, which is topped with artichoke hearts, mushrooms, red onions and olives and can only be purchased frozen.

pizzeriaprimastrada.com

Best frozen pizza in Saskatchewan

Solo Italia, Ogema

Cooked pizza being pulled out of wood oven from Solo Italia, a Canadian company — Courtesy: Solo Italia

Tracey Johnson returned to her hometown of Ogema, Sask., after a stint living in Italy – Italian husband Marco de Michele in tow – to open Solo Italia in 2013. The pizzas (made in a wood-fired pizza oven that de Michele built using supplies from his home country) quickly became popular in the nearby Regina area, and some of the pies they make at the restaurant can now be found in freezer aisles throughout Saskatchewan. Choose from gourmet varieties like Blue Cheese and Pear & Walnut or the Bella Italia (prosciutto, arugula, cherry tomatoes and smoked cheddar).

soloitalia.ca

Best frozen pizza in Manitoba

Kitchen North, Winnipeg

In Winnipeg, Oji-Cree entrepreneur Michael Birch (who grew up over 600 kilometres north of the city in Garden Hill First Nation) and his business partner, George Tsouras, run Kitchen North with the goal of making restaurant-quality pizza available to people living in remote Indigenous communities. They make pies using locally sourced ingredients and then freeze and sell them. The take-and-bake pizzas can be purchased at their own storefront and select local markets, and they’re also shipped to grocery stores in remote Indigenous communities across northern Canada. Try the Ultimate 3 Cheese with Manitoba mozzarella, cheddar and Swiss or the American-inspired South of the Border pizza, which has spicy pepperoni, chili beef, smoked bacon, jalapenos, peppers and black beans.

kitchennorth.ca

Best frozen pizza in Ontario

1. General Assembly and Piano Piano, Toronto

Open freezer drawer with frozen pizzas by Canadian companies inside — Courtesy: Piano Piano

Chef Victor Barry of the Toronto-based Italian restaurant group Piano Piano is on a quest for what he described to Toronto Life as “worldwide pizza domination, baby!” Barry’s well on his way. In addition to launching a line of frozen Piano Piano pizzas in 2020 (they boast a naturally leavened sourdough crust and come in fancy-feeling takes on classic varieties like Margherita and Pepperoni), he bought Toronto spot General Assembly’s popular frozen pizza line last year, offering flavours reminiscent of fast-food pies. Barry has no plans to slow down – you’ll find his frozen pizzas in grocery-store coolers across Canada. And while the pizza is in the oven? Make Piano Piano’s Rosemary Negroni.

pianopianotherestaurant.com

2. Pie Wood Fired Pizza Joint, Barrie

Every pre-made pizza from Pie Wood Fired Pizza Joint is baked in the Barrie, Ont., restaurant’s 1,360-kilogram imported Italian pizza oven before being frozen. The spot’s most popular menu items are available from the freezer, including the Muskoka Pie, which is topped with tomato sauce, bocconcini, pepperoni and caramelized onions. Find them in stores throughout the Muskoka region or get them delivered straight to your door if you’re within 125 kilometres of Barrie.

piewoodpizza.com

Best frozen pizza in Quebec

1. Pizzeria Magpie, Montreal

Cooked pizzas from Magpie Pizzeria, a Canadian pizza company — Photography, Rachel Cheng

It’s easy to see why these are this is best frozen pizza made in Montreal. Pizzeria Magpie became known across Montreal’s Mile End neighbourhood for its wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas, and now their frozen creations are spreading throughout the city. All are made with hand-stretched dough and local Quebec ingredients, requiring just 10 minutes in the oven to cook from frozen. Snag a Margherita, Pesto or lactose-free Trois Fromages (made with cheese from the nearby Fromagerie St-Guillaume) at grocery stores in and around Montreal.

pizzeriamagpie.com

2. La Station Shawbridge, Prévost

Your new favourite way to après-ski: La Station Shawbridge’s frozen Neapolitan-style pizzas made with their own beer-based dough and a zesty sauce starring tomatoes and herbs grown in their own local vegetable plot. Located in Prévost – a picturesque town nestled in the Laurentian Mountain ski country north of Montreal – La Station Shawbridge spans a microbrewery (where they brew the beer used in the pizza dough), restaurant and full-service grocery store, as well as the nearby produce garden. Grab a classic Quebecois All-Dressed with pepperoni, mushrooms and bell peppers.

shawbridge.ca

Best frozen pizza in Nova Scotia

Trattoria Vesso, Halifax

Courtesy: Trattoria VessoTrattoria Vesso is Nova Scotia’s only business certified by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana – that’s the international association responsible for inspecting and identifying authentic Neapolitan-style pizza around the world, which they do by evaluating factors like its dough ingredients, preparation process and baking time for adherence to traditional techniques. The pizzeria offers five heat-and-eat varieties, including the Northender (garlic cream sauce, pancetta, maple syrup and green onions) and the Southender (goat cheese, pears, sundried tomatoes and bresaola). Pick them up at the Halifax eatery or at retailers around the province.

trattoriavesso.ca

Best frozen pizza in Newfoundland and Labrador

Piatto Pizzeria, St.John’s

Piatto Pizzeria might be rapidly expanding (they’ve opened locations in PEI and Guelph, Ont.), but it all started in St. John’s. The family-run business offers take-and-bake pizza, pasta and salad kits throughout Atlantic Canada and at some stores in Guelph and Waterloo, Ont. Ready-to-bake pizzas are packaged with separate sauce packets to add a final, delicious drizzle—the Stephanie, for example, is topped with goat cheese, prosciutto and sweet caramelized pears, and includes balsamic reduction on the side.