Branching out beyond pizza at Toarmina’s

The Toarmina’s Pizza location on East Michigan Avenue is beloved by the City Pulse staff. When we need a fast lunch, the restaurant’s premade slices of pizza are just a two-minute walk away, and when we have occasional staff meals together, we typically order a few pies that are quickly devoured.

Recently, I’ve been wondering if Toarmina’s other offerings, like subs, grinders, calzones, wings and desserts, can hold a candle to its pizzas. So, I braved the snowy weather and made my way to the restaurant on foot and ordered five Bone-In Wings and the Bacon & Cheese Tots.

I’ll start with the tots, which were loaded with both liquid cheese sauce and shredded cheddar as well as bacon. As I’ve mentioned before, I love cheese more than almost any other food, and each potato puff was absolutely covered in savory, creamy,   stringy goodness. The whole dish was baked, so the shredded cheese on top was perfectly golden-brown, and the plentiful bacon bits added a crunch that paired well with the gooey cheese sauce beneath. Everything was a bit salty altogether, but that was remedied by the sour cream that came with the dish.

The chicken wings were crunchy on the outside but juicy and tender on the inside, the perfect consistency, in my opinion. They were tossed in Buffalo sauce, which I would have preferred to be a bit more creamy, but overall, the tangy and slightly spicy coating was more than enough to satisfy my palate. The restaurant included an even mix of flats and drums, which I also appreciated.

I don’t know that I needed to order all that food — the size of the tots alone was enough to fill me up — but the dishes paired nicely together, and I was able to confirm that Toarmina’s non-pizza offerings are, in fact, just as good as its pies.

I also want to mention the Sweet Heat Hot Honey Pizza, which is available for a limited time. I’d never had hot honey on a pizza prior to last week, but it really amplified the experience. Both sweet and savory, with a punch of heat, the pizza almost didn’t need the pepperoni and Parmesan cheese that it was also topped with. As an Italian meat lover, however, I’ll never say no to more pepperoni.

I’ll probably keep ordering the premade pizza slices since they’re quick and cheap, but if you have some time to spare, I’d recommend branching out and trying the other Italian-American dishes that Toarmina’s offers. They’re a comparable price to fast-food pizza chains like Domino’s or Pizza Hut, but they’re far superior in terms of quality and taste.