| Ambiance: |  (4.5 / 5) |
| Service: | (3 / 5) |
| Value for money: | (4 / 5) |
| Toilets: | (3.5 / 5) |
Franco Manca had been recommended by a lot of people, mainly because of its main differentiator – the sourdough base. I also posted a status on facebook asking “what’s the best pizza in London” and Franco Manca featured highly. FM has multiple venues but I opted for the most central one, on Tottenham Court Road. We arrived and there were queues coming out of the door – always a positive sign, especially as this particular venue had only been open a week! We were told we’d have to wait about half an hour, or given the option of sitting outside. This was slightly frustrating because we had rung in advance to book but were told we wouldn’t need to. But, it was either brave the cold or missing our showing of the Hunger Games (2). I chose the former.
We ordered organic house wine (which was pretty awful) – there were also only 2 choices which made decision making easier! There were also only six choices of pizza, limited but I quite like the idea of not having too much to choose from. We chose 2 from the six options available – the number 4 and 6, BUT then I spotted the specials board! Why the waiter didn’t tell us about the specials I don’t know but they looked infinitely better – and were more expensive! So, we completely changed our order and went for the ‘meat special’ and ‘veg special’ instead with sides of gigantic green olives, baked aubergine and a side salad.
Everything was yummy – in fact, the veg special was probably the best! It came with potato (which is a craze I’m not fully understanding), pesto, sundried tomato and spinach. The meat special came with ham, rocket and aubergine. Both were absolutely covered in mozerella, which is something you don’t get very often in pizzerias or Italian restaurants these days, they seem to be very stingy with their ingredients. But… it was the dough that was the best seller. It was delicious – soft, thick, almost New York deep pan in its taste but with a nice chew. It was perfectly cooked too with a lovely light brown, almost honey like glaze. It was just too filling for me to eat any more than a quarter of though! For once my offer to share was flat out refused with my friend claiming he’d eat anything I couldn’t manage. To be fair, he did a great job – we left Franco Manca with only a fifth of pizza left on the plate.
Recommendation
As long as you’re feeling hungry, I’d absolutely recommend Franco Manca to anyone. But don’t go expecting much of the wine!
Extra Information
Address: 98 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 4TR
Website: http://www.francomanca.co.uk/
NTK: Check the special boards before ordering! Oh, and Franco Manca has other locations too – check out the website for more info.
