Chicago Twist Pizza - Vegan Options

Vegan pizza is definitely becoming more of a thing all the time and I seem to be reviewing a lot of it (well, I like pizza!). However, I notice that particularly on frozen pizza (which we rarely buy) there is a hefty vegan tax despite the fact that there is affordable and decent quality vegan cheese available now. I always debate (with myself mostly) whether the vegan tax applies due to low volumes (no economy of scale) or the notion that vegans are generally wealthier (not this guy) and you can charge them more? Regardless, there are pizza joints too, that charge more and there are pizza joints that charge the same for the vegan cheese option and frankly, I am happy for either.

Chicago Pizza Twist seems to have popped up out of nowhere and there are already 4 branches in the lower mainland. There are branches in random places in Ontario as well according to their website. I noticed that their website menu has a plant-based section which is always nice and makes selection easy...so you would think. Ordering a plant-based pizza from the CTP plant-based menu does require some strategy. We used the strategy to order 3 pizzas for takeout from the White Rock location.
We started with a large Pepperoni which turned out to be a really good pizza!  I mean seriously, it was cheesy and tasty and the crust was not bad. The pepperoni itself was really quite decent and even a bit crispy. The only ordering problem is that the pizza is not really plant-based until you select vegan cheese for an extra $2. That $2 applies to any size so that is OK. Not too complicated so far and good pizza!
Next up was the vegan Barbeque Chicken Pizza which was again pretty good but here things got complicated. In addition to the extra $2 (the 2 bucks is nothing but the pizza is listed as plant-based and is not until you modify it!) I asked specifically if the creamy garlic sauce was vegan and I was assured on the phone, that it was. A few minutes later, I got the call that it was not vegan and that they could substitute their red sauce. I thought it was excellent that they called as I would never have known the difference. The same applied to the third pizza that we ordered which was the Tropical Curry (i.e. vegan Tika sauce was not vegan?) Anyway, the chicken was our least favourite thing on any of these pies. Not bad tasting but a little cardboardish in texture. Not absolutely sure what they use for chicken. The rest of the pizza was really quite good even with red sauce!
The third was the Tropical Curry Pizza Twist and I honestly don't know what sauce it came with. I think the vegan Tika Sauce is in fact vegan and someone on the phone was just confused about that one. Again, this was a really good plant-based pizza and I would order it again. Like many of the pizzas on their menu, this one was Indian flavour leaning which we love. Decent crusts on all 3 including the one that we ordered with thin crust (you have a lot of choices here).
The most amazing thing of all is that when we arrived to pick them up, they had made us a 4rth pizza at no charge! I'm not sure if it was over the confusion (which certainly did us no harm) or if they made the veggie twice thinking that they had to change the sauce. Of course, this is mostly a take-out place but there is lots of room to sit down and eat, if you choose to do so. Also, since we tried their pizza, they seem to have added like 5 more plant-based pizza choices. Nicely done CPT!
Food                       4 out of 5
Vegan Options        4 out of 5
Comfort                   3 1/2 out of 5
Service                    4 1/2 out of 5
Value                       4 out of 5





No comments:

Post a Comment