Descendant Detroit Style Pizza – 1168 Queen St E, Toronto, ON M4M 1L4
Country: United States of America 
Seating: Limited indoor seating (8-10 seats max)
Must-try dish: Gatt-Daddy 
Dinner guests: Cam the Man and Nic Jr. 
The high: Even those who don’t LOVE pizza, you’ll adore it at this place! 
The low: There are only seats inside for eight people to dine in, and they don’t take reservations so keep your group small. 

Detroit-style pizza differentiates itself from all other pizza varieties starting with its history dating back to Michigan’s glory days when the automobile industry was booming in the state. This unique form of pie was originally baked in deep trays used to store car parts, and its of course known for its thick bready quality and the reverse order of toppings – dough, cheese, and then sauce on top. 

Descendants is one of Toronto’s best known pizza joints. Despite not actually hailing from Detroit, the owner has a history working at one of the city’s other favourite pizza restaurants: Danforth Pizza House. The menu is concise, and filled with a range of ingredients that can easily be eaten with any of the selection of the local craft beers. 

Let’s get to the cheesy stuff. Each pizza flavour has a fun name, and can be ordered in either a size small, or large. Our gang of four people opted for four small pizzas, each with four slices, and we still had some for lunch the next day. These pieces are generous, but also addictive. 

You could almost argue that there was a three way tie for the must-try pizzas of the night, but if we had to choose one favourite pizza to recommend, it would be the Gatt-Daddy, which is classic in its toppings: cheese, fennel sausage, peppers, red onion, cheese, and fresh herbs. It has a little more character than the plain cheese pizza  or the pepperoni pizzas. Each slice was comparable to a large piece of lasagna in thickness and in weight. 

Things get a little more exciting with the Truff-Ghi pizza – a heavenly mix of mushrooms, double smoked bacon, truffle aioli, cheeses, caramelized onions, garlic, lemon zest, and fresh thyme. These flavours simply make sense together. For those less keen on the strong taste of truffle or the texture of mushrooms, you’ll be converted with this guy! 

Our taste buds were turned up even more with the Daddy’s Favourite pizza. This Sri-Lanka inspired pie takes you on a roller-coaster of flavours ranging from sweet to sour to savoury to fresh, and then back again and again. Although there’s a bit of a kick in heat thanks to the kothu roti and jerk chicken, the cheese and the aioli balance it nicely. If this is the only pizza you ever have with mango chutney, you’ll die happy. 

At first glance, the Barese pizza ticked all the boxes with cheese, tomato sauce, sausage, pickled peppers, and olives. However, it ended up being our least loved of the night mostly because it was too salty and felt like it was trying to do too much at once. This being said, we still ate our fair share and took the rest home for lunch. 

Detroit is a bit of a forgotten city, but if the pizza is any indication of the food scene there, then sign me up for a trip. 

Eat with you soon, 

Mandrea Bike
(Mat & Andrea)