San Gennaro

It was a good café.
Went in to try their specialty pizza, the waitress recommended the onion with sausage flavour, it wasn’t bad but didn’t impress me.
The «donut» with Nutella was overly sweet, but the dough was quite tasty.

We stumbled upon this place while looking for a place to wait for our Airbnb check in. Everyone was so friendly! We had a large luggage and a puppy and were warmly welcomed. Someone even brought him a tub of water.
Had the pizza (super delicious !!), quiche, donut, and a specialty dessert (forgot the name), and several espresso drinks. Everything was yummy and the service was truly outstanding. Also the interior décor is lovely — clean modern lines with lots of natural sunlight. Great place to catch up with friends, get some work done, (or wait for 4 hours for your Airbnb.), etc.

If you dare to try a nutella-​filled beignet, just know all predecessors you’ll ever taste after delighting in this symphony of masterful taste, will be a total, utter, massive disappointment. Others may dare, but they will never compare. Try it. Why? BECAUSE YOU’RE WORTH IT.

This charming café serves portions of pizza from the kitchen of Bottega next door along with delicious Italian pastries and, of course, good coffee. The service is excellent — notably from the guy who seems also to be the manager. One of my favourite Little Italy spots.

Let’s start with the good:
It’s a really cute place. we came here on a Saturday afternoon around 5pm and there was nobody in the restaurant. They serve both pizzas as well as italian desserts. The service was great, the guys were really extremely friendly and helpful.
The bad:
The Pizzas. I’m not sure if it was because i had super high expectations or we came at the end of the day, but the pizzas really weren’t all that memorable. we had the margarita pizza & the sausage pizza and both were average. Usually I’m a huge fan of margarita, but this one i couldn’t even finish. It was very dry and non-​impressive.
I didn’t try any of the desserts so i might come back and give those a chance !

Pastries and snacks, cute and inexpensive.
Large terrace in summer, excellent coffee year round.

My new all the time craving. Yesterday I picked up a bunch of pieces of pizza for a picnic in the woods. We ate them not heated up or anything, a sausage and peppers one, one with mushrooms and ham, one with potatoes rosemary and cheese, they were all just crazy good. The pizza dough so fluffy and chewy and crispy; the sauce so perfectly plum tomato-​y savoury and gorgeous.
I’ve picked up a couple different kinds of baked goods here and they were all incredible as well, the best one was a kind of fig and pecan buttery upside down mini cake that I’m sad isn’t here with me now.
If you’re into Italian coffee this is a great spot too, I had an awesome cortado sitting in the window with my book watching St Zotique go by. No filter coffee, none of that third wave single source coffee stuff, but very excellent Italian mellow roast which sometimes is just what you need.

Adorable place.
Haven’t tried the coffee yet but stop here for lunch for pizza & pastries. You can also get ice cream, and there are a few shelves of pantry goods you can buy on your way out.

When I heard that the people behind Bottega were opening up another spot specializing in pizza al taglio I was excited since their pizza is the best in the city in my opinion. They also have a wide variety of italian pastries for sale as well as gelato. There isn’t that much seating but in warmer months there is a nice street terrasse.
The pizza is quite good. I had a vegetarian one, as well as one with cheese, sausage and potatoes. The vegetarian one was my favourite by far. I wasn’t too crazy about the potato on the other one but it was still enjoyable. I finished it off with a migliaccio which is a type of cheesecake made with ricotta. It was a little on the dry side but I did like the combination of lemon and ricotta.
Pricewise it’s worth every penny. My whole meal cost me $ 15 and that included a gazzosa along with the food that I had bought. It was in line with what I was expecting to pay and the quality of the product was very high. Customer service was another big plus and it was very good here. San Gennaro is definitely worth the trip if you’re in the Little Italy neighbourhood and I will definitely be back to try more of their offerings.

J’ai visité ce café aujourd’hui et j’ai bien aimé! J’ai dégusté un latte et un canoli, le meilleur que j’ai mangé de ma vie!!! Toute en douceur et en légèreté, je ferais un détour pour en remanger. Malheureusement, au niveau des pizzas, il y a eu une erreur dans notre commande alors nous n’avons pas goûté celles que nous voulions. Celle qu’on nous a servie était correcte, sans plus. J’ai trouvé la pâte trop épaisse et qu’il y avait beaucoup trop d’ingrédients sur la pizza. Il faisait un beau soleil alors nous nous sommes installés sur la terrasse et c’était très agréable! Je goûterai certainement aux pizzas à nouveau, en allant chercher des canolis!

Mon cœur a chaviré à la vue de ce beau comptoir rempli de douceurs italiennes.
Nous somme venus pour la semaine de la pizza et nous avons aussi succombé aux charmes des bonnes pâtisseries.
Le patron nous l’a expliqué: ici, on sert de la pizza dans le style romaine! Les goûts sont divers et originaux (choux fleurs marinés à l’œuf pimenté), la pâte est épaisse mais tellement moelleuse et surtout, caractéristique principale, ce sont des parts rectangulaires et non pas des pizza complètes. Ce qui permet de pouvoir en goûter plusieurs, ce que nous avons fait bien entendu! Elles étaient toutes très bonnes ;)
Au niveau du dessert il y a des choix très bon. Le migliaccio est très bon (sorte de gâteau au fromage italien), les beignes fourrés sont succulente et que dire de leurs glaces maison. Celle au basilic et citron est extraordinaire !
Le service est particulièrement agréable, le patron est un connaisseur de bonnes places et nous avons échangés des bonnes adresses :)
Tous est frais et de qualité dans ce restaurant, je né peux que vous le recommander et je trouve de plus les prix intéressant ! Je retournerais de sur :)

Thank you San Gennaro for starting off my Pizza Week 2015 on a high note!
From the moment I walked in and heard soulful blues licks on the radio, I knew it was going to be a good experience.
San Gennaro isn’t making an entire pizza as their special for Pizza Week, instead they specialize in Pizza al taglio, or pizza baked in a rectangular tray and sold in slices.
For Pizza Week, they’re offering a roasted cauliflower pizza, using both white and purple cauliflower, sprinkled with paprika and grated parmesan, lemon zest, and a little parsley.
While it’s not my favourite combination of toppings, in the spirit I ordered one piece, and also tried the Breakfast Pizza (eggs, fior di latte mozzarella, cherry tomato, and basil), as well as the marinated vegetable pizza (zucchini, eggplant, and peppers).
I immediately noticed that San Gennaro doesn’t use a standard pizza dough, it’s more crunchy and crumbly-​feeling. The dough is an important part of the flavour of the pizza here, unlike other places it has a distinct flavour and adds to the overall experience.
I found the special pizza to be a bit too «busy», I couldn’t really enjoy all the different components, a few were drowned out. That’s not to say it didn’t taste good, just that I felt it’s perhaps too ambitious.
I really liked the Breakfast Pizza however, and I’m looking forward to finishing the vegetable pizza later on.
I tried an imported Chinotto soda as an accompaniment (think Brio, but better :)), and finished off with a small plate of bombolones, an Italian fried donut sort of pastry, filled with vanilla cream or Nutella (I had both!). The bombolones were pretty awesome, if you like sugar (check!), pastry (check!), things that taste good (double check!), and don’t forget sugar (check!).
The staff were very welcoming and eager to answer all my questions. I really enjoyed the ambiance and the experience, and I think you will too!

Best espresso I’ve had in a long time. Homemade ice cream reminds me of Italy :-). Their pizza al taglio is delicious. You can’t go wrong with anything you choose here. Terrace is very nice. Great for hanging out and enjoying great weather…

Had read about this place online, and how they served Roman style pizza the roman way– by the weight. But we headed over on a hot afternoon and had no choice but to try the authentic looking gelato instead (no fluorescent colours here)! Oh mamma! That was the best choice of our day. The gelato had a beautiful, silky consistency and was not too dense, and was much cheaper than many of the not-​so-​good Montréal gelatos we have tried since moving here 5 years ago. Had both the chocolate and hazelnut flavours. It immediately brought us back to our trip to Rome, eating fresh gelato in the narrow streets late in the night. I would highly recommend trying this place! I cannot wait to go back and try the pizza (many vegetarian options, all fresh) as well as the delicious looking pastries (I saw nutella in many).

recently opened by the people behind Bottega, San Gennaro is located in the south part of Little Italy right next to its big sister.
what is it? it’s an italian café, pastry, pizza and grocery store. interesting concept. I was following their instagram and was salivating at their pastry pictures. was very happy when they finally opened.
so that’s what I did, made a first visit a couple of days after opening to try them out. I initially had a cannoli and a cappuccino.
the cannoli is piped on order so they stay fresh and very crispy, the way it should. was it good? it’s heaven! the ricotta filling had chocolate chips in it to give you that little delicious surprise. as for the shell, very crispy, taste fresh. can’t ask for better. size wise, it’s smaller than some very very good cannoli out there which is a bum. I’d say it’s about a quarter smaller but at the same price.
as for the cappuccino, I was very disappointed. was it smooth? yes. very easy to drink. but it lacked flavor. it lacked that very Italian taste to caffè. they may have spent lots of money for that super duper espresso machine but really, it’s all about the beans and frankly, it doesn’t hold a candle to the coffee shops nearby. and to top it off, it’s pricier than most Italian caffè.
now, my 2^nd visit was days later where a Unilocaler joined me. we were supposed to be more but most flushed me. anyway, I had my eyes set on the bombolone which is an Italian donut. they had pastry cream filled and nutella filled. nutella anything is good, most of the time, so I went with that one. fresh, sweet greasy sugar donut filled with nutella, it hit the spot real good. I don’t know if it’s Italian nutella they used as I didn’t pay attention. there’s a distinct taste to the real nutella that makes it godly good but I’d have to go back to really see if its Italian nutella. price wise, it’s quite inexpensive, a flat $ 3 if I remember right.
all in all, I’d say it’s pretty good. the pizzas looked very appetizing and they are sold by the slice/​weight. they have other very Italian pastries that looked very good. you can tell a lot of care were giving to the baked goods. their grocery side of thing looks to be decent. personally, I’m sticking with Milano’s.
as for seating, there’s 2 tables you can stand at, a window counter with a row of stools to sit and they have a terrace shared with Bottega.
in summary, it’s always good to have more choices especially when it’s quite good!