Tops Pizza: Inside this neighbourhood restaurant in Calgary

Tops Pizza is a staple in the Southeast Calgary community.

Located at 9919 Fairmount Drive SE in a strip mall, it’s a neighbourhood spot with friendly faces, weekly specials, great service, and high-quality bar food. 

Not only does it host fun events, like the Tune Go Fridays that are an absolute blast, but there are others as well, like the current pizza competition with a chance to win free pizza for a year.

We had heard about Tops Pizza before but never had the chance to try it out for ourselves, so we finally visited it and we were so thrilled that we did.

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Luckily, we went on a Friday when Tops Pizza hosts its tune go Fridays, a popular musical bingo game that had everybody singing along and a few winning prizes.

The menu at this pizza joint makes everything in-house and to order.

We started by ordering a few appetizers, based on the recommendations of our server and they were great ones.

We tried the homemade spring rolls, crispy coated wings covered in hot sauce and sides of blue cheese and ranch, and fried pickles. It was a lot to order for four people, especially when we wanted to dive into a few pizzas, but we couldn’t help ourselves.

We had two pizzas, all of which are made with parmesan made in Alberta, fresh ingredients, and a tomato sauce or a house-made alfredo sauce – it’s your choice. Different sizes, thin-crust options, and build your own are options as well.

This is an old-school pizza spot, so we ordered an old-school pie, the Peter’s Special: a thin crust topped with Italian sausage, salami, onion, and green pepper.

For the second pizza, we were a little more adventurous. We had to order the lasagna pizza, a super cheesy dish served with meat sauce and lasagna noodles. It was exciting to bite into and the taste did not disappoint. 

It made us want more creative pasta-pizza mash-ups.

Tops is a family-run business, started by George Tsoulamanis (whose son Peter and his wife Rylie now run the palace) moved to Calgary from Greece and didn’t speak a word of English. He worked his way up in the F&B industry until he could purchase his own restaurant. 

That was 50+ years ago! George still stops by all the time.

Today, Tops Pizza South is one of Calgary’s oldest restaurants and a well-kept secret.  

At Tops Pizza, there are people who have been going here since they were little kids who now have children of their own. Regulars are known by name and servers become your friends.

Tops Pizza

Address: 9919 Fairmount Drive SE

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