Arugula — Restaurant in North Bay

So happy to find a place like Arugula in a town like North Bay. Moment you walk into the waiting area, you could see the kitchen staff working hard preparing freshly prepared pizza and getting ready to put in the fire oven (Italian Style).

Staff were friendly. I came here twice in two nights. On 1st night, I came here for the pizza, I ordered the "Cured Meat", made to order with various meat ingredients. The pizza, OMG! So good! The cheese is gooey and you can do a "Cheese Pull" super easy for the gram. Luv the crispy crust and generous amount of meat topping. A good selections of draft beer.

On the 2nd night, I placed 2 orders of its nachos and 1 order of Calabrese oven pizza to go. I told the kitchen staff we luv its wonton chips nachos but need to bring it back to Toronto.

They said they will not cook the nachos but provided me with all the ingredients needed to put in an air fryer or oven to make it fresh. They also separated the cheese, secret sauce, tomatoes bits and onions separate to avoid the wonton chips being soggy.

Also, the pizza, they half-oven baked it so when we go back to Toronto, just heat it up a bit and the pizza would still be delish.

I really appreciate the staff took the time to explain to me how to put everything in the oven and decided to separate all the ingredients so it doesn't get soggy when I bring it back to Toronto.

MoVernie TIP: Make sure to inform the kitchen staff that you want your nachos separate if you plan to bring it back to Toronto or Ottawa or elsewhere on a road trip. They should be able to accommodate you.

I would definitely come back again in the near future the next time I visit North Bay again.

Highly...

Placed an order at 5:03 today. Was told it would be 45-50 minutes. At an hour and fifteen minutes I called to see if the order was on its way and was told it should be here shortly.

I called again at 6:55. At this point in time I informed them I no longer wanted the pizza. We planned on going elsewhere. I was told it's out for delivery and there's nothing they could do. I had paid and tipped in advance. Worth noting because I'm sure had I not already paid, they might have been able to do something. They passed me on to the owner, who again told me nothing they could do, it's not their fault.

Not once did they accept responsibility. The only person to actually apologize was the receptionist, who has the least amount of blame here, so thank you for staying sweet throughout. The owner on the other hand, could have done literally anything to make the situation better and instead blamed the trace amounts of snow and the delivery service. She also mentioned that the order left 30 minutes ago, which was an hour and 20 minutes after I ordered.

I've always loved their food, but won't order from here ever again after being dismissed by the owner, with zero responsibility or ownership from the owner.

$75 for two cold pizzas, and a salad over an hour late, and terrible service from the owner. A small apology from the owner would have gone a long way to diffuse the situation, instead she blamed everyone else, and seemed pretty content that she had my money and there was nothing I could do about it.

I've never left a negative review in my...

Ordered a traditional Margherita for pickup - I was actually in the parking lot when I ordered and was told 10-15 minutes until ready. My wife went in around minute 8 and it was already boxed and ready to go! I expected this though, because the pizza consists of sauce, cheese and basil so it's a simple pie to construct, plus using a wood fired oven means very fast cook times.

The pizza was nice and hot - the cheese offered a familiar, yet sharp flavour which I enjoyed, the sauce was sweet and I imagine the base of the sauce was made from San Marzano tomatoes the way a traditional Italian pizza might be made. The crust was light and crispy on the outside, and the fresh basil garnished the pizza, adding a wonderful aromatic to the entire pie.

The pizza came in around $20, and I'm almost ashamed to admit that I consumed it entirely on my own. This isn't really the type of pizza you order before the game, it's meant to be savoured. Probably not a bad spot to go for a first date or an anniversary. The product is far from being a "utility pizza".

Based on this first traditional pizza I will definitely go back to try the others they offer.

I encourage those who have only eaten delivery pizza, to try Arugula - expand your horizons and treat...