Meet the man on a quest to review every pizzeria in Windsor-Essex

Do you remember exactly when you last had great Windsor-Essex pizza?

LaSalle's Mike Zakoor does. For the past year, he's been posting detailed reviews of locally-made pies on his Instagram account titled Shredded Pep.

It's his record of his ongoing — some would say impossible — quest to review every pizzeria in Windsor-Essex.

"This project could easily take me five to 10 years. Even more, honestly," said Zakoor, 29.

"So yes, this is a daunting task."

Zakoor's project began in December 2023, with Armando's LaSalle as his inaugural review.

"For my first post, I wanted to do a chain that is synonymous with Windsor-style pizza," Zakoor wrote, giving good marks to Armando's LaSalle for crust, sauce, cheese, and toppings — for a final score of 8 out of 10.

"Ultimately, these reviews are my opinion," Zakoor stated in a disclaimer. "Please keep in mind that each person has different tastes."

Zakoor says his passion for eating pizza began in his childhood, and he feels blessed to live in a place with a great pizza reputation. But his desire to document and review pizzas began in earnest around 2019, when he started organizing his assessments in an Excel spreadsheet.

"I like to consider myself in the loop when it comes to Windsor pizza," he said.

Feedback from friends and family inspired him to review pizza more publicly and more in-depth on Instagram.

The Shredded Pep account has posted 18 reviews so far, with each containing multiple close-up photos of the ordered pizza.

For Zakoor, it's not enough to opine randomly about pizza — rules need to be followed.

Every review involves an order of a 12-slice 'meat lovers' pizza. Windsor-style is preferred, but not a prerequisite. If that's not an option, Zakoor selects a regular pepperoni.

Each pizza is given star ratings in the categories of crust, sauce, cheese, and toppings, which factor into a final score out of 10.

Reviews must be based on the pizza received on the day of the order, with no influence from past experiences with the business. Prices are mentioned in the post, but don't play a role in the assessment.

"Ideal crust, for me, would be a nice, light, airy crust," Zakoor declared. "The perfect sauce — less is more. You don't want it to be too runny, you don't want it to be too thick."

"You gotta go with Galati cheese in Windsor. It just melts perfectly... Toppings, I look for the amount, the freshness, and how they go together."

Zakoor said he understands not everybody needs that level of analysis of the pizza they're eating. And he's glad that he hasn't yet had to give any pizza a failing score.

"Windsor pizza is so great that I really have to focus on the most minute details to distinguish the score," he said. "I wish I could give every place a 10, I just love pizza that much. But I try to be as objective as possible."

A Slice of Pi in LaSalle and Armando's Amherstburg currently have Zakoor's highest scores, tied at 9.5 out of 10.

Shant Ilishya, owner and operator of Armando's LaSalle, said he respects Zakoor's quest — but he believes the pizza they make now would get a higher score than the eight out of 10 they received in December 2023.

That's due to improvements they've made in the pizza-making process over the past year.

"We take care of the dough. It's always consistent. It's all done by calculations, with the air temperature and the water temperature," Ilishya explained. "We also changed our yeast."

"We consistently put the same amount of cheese on the pizzas. If you put too much or too little, it's not good."

Zakoor said he's open to revising scores, because he appreciates how committed Windsor pizza-makers are to their craft. They're why he believes the region's pizza reputation — the subject of a short documentary — is highly deserved.

"It just goes to show that a small city like Windsor deserves to be up there with the big names — New York and Chicago and Detroit — because of how good our pizza is."

As for the future of the Shredded Pep account, Zakoor said he plans on increasing the frequency of his posts in 2025 — but not by too much.

"I gotta pace myself with these reviews. I can't keep eating pizza three times a week or else I'll start gaining weight," he admitted with a laugh.

"It might never come to an end, but I'd like to get to over 100 reviews in my lifetime."