Gema Pizzeria — Restaurant in Montreal

Food: 1 Service: 1 Atmosphere: 2 Value: 1

TL;DR - Your money is better well spent somewhere else than here. Came for the custard, left without it and a ton of regret.

We made reservations via their website for 7 PM and arrived around 7:15 PM, after grabbing a scarce parking spot. Walked-in and was greeted friendly enough. The seating area is fairly small, I'd say about 40 max capacity. Our server sat my wife (who is 5 months pregnant) and I in-between a noisy family of 4 and an older couple. She opted for the chair while both our table and the older couple's table and to be moved out of the way (interrupting their meal) so that I could sit on the bench side.

With me being the designated driver and my wife being pregnant, we just opted for water with slices of lemon. We were given our water and lemon slices which had some weird sticky reddish stain on them from cross contamination.

We waited around another 15 minutes before the waitress decided to finally pay attention to the fact I had my hand in the air ready to order. She first asked if we wanted booze, which we declined, and ordered the calamari appetizer ($11, Calmars Frits) to start and a Vetri pizza ($19, homemade mortadella, pecorino, pistachio pesto, quebec mozzarella di bufala) to share. She asked again (almost in disgust) if we wanted booze, which we declined again. In a huff, she grabbed the two wine glasses on our table and took off to the kitchen.

After about 15-20 minutes of waiting, our appetizer arrived. It was decently portioned and just enough for the both of us to share. It came with a couple of lemon quarters and no sauce. The batter was light and the calamari was cooked just right. We were pleased with the choice and was looking forward to the pizza.

Skip ahead 40 minutes, the couple seated 10 minutes after us was served 2 pizzas. The large group seated 25 minutes after us was served their 6 pizzas. The group sitting behind my wife also received their pizzas. The waitress said that they "had" to make the pizzas for everyone else first and mumbled the rest half-heartedly.

Another 15 minutes and our pizza arrived. It was about 8 inches in diameter, burnt on the bottom, soaked in olive oil, soggier than a dog in a typhoon and had toppings haphazardly thrown on top.

It tasted terrible. There must have been a whole garlic bulb in the pizza, the pistachios only added a nutty texture, the olive oil made the bread chewy, the cheese/meat couldn't overcome the garlic. If I was blindfolded and ate this pizza, I would have thought I was eating a pita bread that was soaking in a tub of garlic oil and olive oil for an hour. It actually made me want to have Pizza Pizza to help blank-out the memory of what I just put in my mouth. Hell, I would rather of spent $19 on a pita smothered in natto beans and durian with a shot of Buckley's cough syrup to wash it all down with. That bad.

Food aside, service was terrible. We got the impression they were only interested in serving larger groups and heavy drinkers. Not once did the server ask how our meal was going or apologized for anything.

After waiting around for 20 minutes with looks of disappointment on both our faces and a lot of annoyance. The server came back and asked if we were done with our dishes. Not out of common courtesy, no. She asked because she wanted us to pay and leave so a larger group could be sat down at the table. Instead, we decided to sit there for another couple of minutes, trying to decide if we wanted to give them more of our money for the dessert (frozen custard) we made the trip here for originally.

Because we didn't take-off. The server asked the couple beside us (who was in the midst of conversation and their meal) to get-up and move over.

At this point, we had enough and decided this place didn't deserve any more money nor patronage. So we paid and left (with no tip).

Stefano Faita and Michele Forgione are probably living it up somewhere sunny right now; as their restaurant and reputation turn into the stuff that was clogged/over-flowing...

IMPASTO/ Porchetta, Hot Cherry Peppers, Smoked Caciocavallo, Salsa Verde . I've know about Stefano Faita and Michele Forgione since out of culinary school and for some time before. They are one of the 'empires' of the food scene in Montreal and Little Italy. They have 3 well known spots called Impasto, Chez Tousignant and the one we will be chatting about here which is Pizzeria Gema. . I am I big fan of the two locations Gema and Tousignant, I've still yet to go to Impasto but I'm hoping real soon! What I love at these spots is everything is trying to be sourced locally in the community and made in house. From the doughs, the pastas, the sauces (which they sell in IGA's across MTL) even the hot dogs and buns they make in house. There isn't much they don't make or try to make these guys! It's pretty impressive. . Now getting down to the pizza. I wanna start by saying the pizzas at Gema are in my top 3 of best in MTL and I'd almost give it the title but it's so close with 2 others I still haven't decided hahah 😅. . The Impasto was the first pizza that I got their and I have to say it delivered 🙏. The dough was perfect, wasn't soggy and had a nice texture and crust to it giving a crunch threw out. The Porchetta was amazing and tender, not to salty. The smokeyness of the Caciocavallo really gave threw but wasn't at all overwhelming. Salsa Verde lent some freshness and acidic nots to the pizza which complimented it really well and the pickled peppers gave a nice kick. . A perfect spot, perfect duo,...

One of the best pizzas in the city. Even on a Wednesday night, it was very busy and it was easy to see why.

We started off with the calamars frits (calamari), pallote marcovecchio (meat balls), and salade de pieuvre (fennel, potato, and octopus salad).

They were all really good. When you get the calamari, ask for spicy honey to go with it because it adds a bit of sweetness and a kick of spice, along with the brightness of lemon. However, if I had to pick one, I would suggest the octopus salad because it was so tender and soft and the charred flavour of the octopus went great with the light taste of the fennel and the potatoes.

For the main dish, we only shared one Capricciosa but I think that we made the right choice because it was fantastic! I personally really liked the dough - it was able to hold its structure without softening too much even with the tomato sauce on top. The marinated artichoke went perfectly with the mushrooms and ham and we couldn’t get enough. I think capricciosa is a must if you visit here.

For the desserts, we went with the cheesecake and the vanilla frozen custard. I enjoyed the frozen custard more than the cheesecake but the desserts weren’t a home run compared to the appetizers and the main course; but that’s maybe because we were both so full.

Aside from the desserts, the meal was fantastic and I would recommend this place to anyone who enjoys fantastic atmosphere and greatly executed...