Nomtastic Times At Boston Pizza Yonge & Sheppard

On Wednesday last week a bunch of us from the North York area and as far north as Thornhill got together to grab a drink at Boston Pizza Yonge & Sheppard (@BostonPizzaYS). Little did we know the nomtastic experience we were about to embark upon as Calvin @cdot_in_tdot decided to use us as guinea pigs for some new Boston Pizza menu items which will start appearing as being featured as of April 4th.

It all began so randomly it took us a while to remember how it began – Persian New Year (Norooz) celebrations at Mel Lastman Square March 15. I was sitting at home, actually writing a blog post, and Warren (@WaterProofWeb) tweeted at me to ask me, as a fellow North Yorker if I had heard the loud banging & popping noises outside. I hadn’t but I went outside to listen and still didn’t hear anything. That prompted Meg (@MegButton) and Jesse (@JesseHernick) to chime in that they had heard the pops too and didn’t know what they were either. We all wondered if they had been gun shots or fireworks until Warren found an announcement online about the celebrations and all became clear. But one more question remained for me – since when did Meg live in North York? For some reason I am unsure why I had decided with no prompting from her that she lived out west in Mississauga or Etobicoke but she is a North Yorker like me, so we all decided it would be a great idea to grab drinks and have our own little North York Twitter meetup. Then at some point in the next week the whole thing grew a bit.

Warren waits impatiently for me to pass the Effen Vodka.

Over the course of the week we somehow added Corey H (@cellguru), Cory S (@corysilver), Miranda (@running_cloud), Jorge R (@rosalesj), Vanessa V (@sesssa), and Vanessa’s friend Kate (who has Twitter but says she is barely on it so I never got her handle).

On to the night, unfortunately Jesse was unable to make it due to last minute stuff that just came up but the night grew quite a bit from just being me, Jesse, Warren, Meg, and Calvin.When I got to Boston Pizza, Warren was already there and I was the second one to arrive (I don’t count Calvin’s arrival because he works there). There was already a bottle of Effen Vodka – insert swear word jokes here – on the table chilling on ice so I knew we were in for a treat!

As everyone started arriving – this took time because March 23 was the day of that snowstorm which turned Toronto driving into hell – and getting settled in drinking some vodka we asked Calvin if we could see some menus and he told us not to worry the food was already ordered. Food was already ordered? Whaaa? I already knew Calvin was awesome and the bottle of vodka was quite enough already but he ordered food? OK…this night just turned from awesome to awesomazing.

The first to arrive at the table once we were somewhat lubricated with Effen Vodka was a sweet large vegetarian pizza which looked absolutely delectable. It was so delectable, in fact, that I didn’t even have a chance to take a picture of it before there were a couple pieces already missing – ok, you caught me, I’m the one who did the serving of the slices, must be my experiences from my Jewish mother had an effect on me…they all looked so hungry! Like skin & bones I tell you!

The pizza was really good – and one would hope so from a place with Pizza in its name even though that isn’t the only thing they serve – it was good enough that I began to fear the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were going to come up from Manhattan and steal it off the table but I figured Calvin and Boston Pizza had probably put security in their sewers so there was really nothing to worry about. I did keep looking outside looking for the orange flash of Michaelangelo’s bandanna  in the drainage grates on Yonge St though. But this pizza, as far as I know, wasn’t anything new for Boston Pizza and you’re probably thinking, “Get to the guinea pigging out already, Dan!” so here we go.

Boston Pizza had been finding that their baked wings, while the obviously healthier choice, just wasn’t as delectable as their fried wings so Calvin and the test kitchen folks set out to improve on that problem. As well, they found a supplier who supplied much bigger wings so they look better and have more meat on them and the picture below is the result. We tried 3 new types of wings although I only got a picture of two of them: Caribbean Jerk Wings, Asian 5 Spice and Sweet Thai Chili Oven Roasted Wings and they will all be featured as of April 4th.

In the picture above, the wings on the right are the Caribbean Jerk Wings and they were my favorite of the bunch. I am not going to lie to you, I really, really cannot for the life of me remember if I took the other picture of the Asian 5 Spice or the Sweet Thai Chili but I think those are the Sweet Thai Chili. The other two I would say are a tie for deliciousness and more than a match for any other of your standard fried wings. They are both definitely great choices but I implore you to scarf down some of the Caribbean Jerk Wings. The thought of them is making my mouth water as I write this and I may have to head over to Boston Pizza tonight and try to convince Calvin to have the kitchen whip me up another special batch – ya, they’re that good.

The other complete treat which we ate and which now cause me to anxiously await April 4th are the Los Grande Nachos. As you can see they are nachos which are baked with some amazing goodness right onto them including bell peppers, meat, cheese and jalapeños. There’s a very good reason they are served with a spatula…they are so top heavy that the chip might otherwise break if you try to pick one of them up without proper support. These things I loved and I think I would have been happy to munch down the entire two plates Calvin had brought of them to myself. Therefore, I warn you that once they are on the menu if you order them tell your friends you are going to the bathroom and have them brought to you at the bar so you can quickly shove them into your mouth and then sprint back to the table. Boston Pizza is going to have to beef up security once they introduce this appetizer April 4th as I envision them causing numerous fights breaking out. Instead of guys proposing to their girlfriends they may end up breaking up with them when their girl tries to reach across the table to sample some.

So all of the things we ‘sampled’ at Boston Pizza that night were damn good as I think I have made clear. However, my two top choices of the night remain the Los Grande Nachos and the Caribbean Jerk Wings. I encourage you to go to Boston Pizza Yonge & Sheppard (I assume they are going to be offered at other locations but don’t know if that’s how it works, I will update this when I find out UPDATE: I asked Calvin about this and he said most of the locations in Toronto should have them but not every location will) and try all 4 of these new treats once April 4th rolls around. The wings are a definite huge win in my books especially with the Final Four happening soon, the start of the MLB season, and the soon to start NBA Playoffs we will all be eating a lot of wings and why not try to be as healthy as you can about it if you can still have all the taste and more. (Damnit, now I sound like one of those diet soda commercials but I swear I’m not lying!)

Get out there and try them and let me know if you agree with my choices! There may also be more stuff coming to Boston Pizza’s menu on April 4th but only time will tell!

• Boston Pizza Yonge & Sheppard’s address:

4841 Yonge Street, North York, Ontario, M2N 5X2 (Google Map) Right on top of Sheppard-Yonge Subway Station

• Boston Pizza Yonge & Sheppard’s website http://www.bostonpizza.com/en/locations/yonge_and_sheppard0463
• Boston Pizza Yonge & Sheppard’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/BostonPizzaYS/
• Boston Pizza Yonge & Sheppard’s Twitter page: http://www.twitter.com/BostonPizzaYS/

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