Heist Bank, 28th June

I’m not entirely sure who the audience for Heist Bank will be but whoever it is I think will very much enjoy the place. It’s in a bit of a no man’s land next to the Paddington basin, and is the newest bar from the people behind Coin Laundry, who, it turns out, have several other places in London including Ask for Janice and Graphic bar, both of which I like very much.

The place isn’t aiming for haute cuisine – the mainstay of its menu is pizza. There were four different kinds available to try at the launch I was invited to and I tucked into three out of four – I couldn’t bring myself to try the one loaded with mushroom (mushroom – bleugh). And loaded it really was. Same with the crushed pea, goat cheese and radish. These ones were more like having a load of topping with a little bit of pizza, rather than having a pizza with some toppings. For me, it was too much. Much too much. I had to break down the huge block of goat’s cheese and there was so much crushed pea it was falling off everywhere. Luckily, the meat lovers fare better and have a more balanced slice. The Italian sausage was a juicy number, and the lamb, feta and rocket was not a bad appropriation of a lahmacun.

There were plenty of tasters on the menu to try. Others being passed around included an olive and cheese curd pastry which was utter gooey, chewy deliciousness and some spicy nduja croquettes which were pleasant but I wished they’d had a bit of the actual meat inside rather than it being all creamy.

They had two special cocktails to try – a floral take on a French 75 using their own house-infused gin, and an ‘Off the Wagon’ which was a very summery way to enjoy whisky – blending it with orange.

I felt it was my duty to try out some of the other cocktails on the list too. I can confirm the peach bellini, scofflaw and bramble are all great. I also tried the Delicious Sour which was too sweetly peachy for me. It was even more peachy than the peach bellini!

Wines by the glass are all the same price – a policy I commend, and which means you can get a viognier or a malbec for the same price as the pinot or merlot you normally drink cos it’s cheap!

And they have plenty of different beers on offer.

It seems like a great after-work set up, with plenty of space so a whole team could go down for a few together. There’s even a karaoke space perfect for when you’ve all had one too many…

Joe and Za, 29th January

You can’t get pizza wrong really and Joe and Za did not. I had the spicy pepperoni which had lovely chunks of nduja on it and warmed my tongue in a pleasing manner. It’s so nice when something billed as spicy actually lives up to its description!

Carolyn ordered the Caribbean one which had perfectly encapsulated jerk seasoning on a pizza. Which seems weird and I thought that wasn’t really the essence I wanted captured on a pizza, but in fact it worked very well. It’s nice to see a vegetarian pizza which isn’t just margarita or mushroom.

I think the pizzas suffered somewhat from being delivered rather than eaten on the premises. We had to warm them up and I think that they lost a bit of crunch to the base, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and would be happy to eat there again. 

NY Fold, 6th December

This was actually my second visit to NY Fold but I left it so long to write up before I couldn't remember what I thought of it!

So I went and got another slice, to take away and cement my opinion. The range of types they have is pretty impressive, it was hard to make a decision. In the end I had the Hot Italian, with cumberland sausage, peppers, caramelised onions. They really load all the toppings on, which is great, and the toppings themselves are very tasty. But the pizza is too cheesy. Can you have a pizza that is too cheesy? In a way, no. The real problem here is that the tomato base doesn't have much of a presence, And while I love cheese, a richly flavoured tomato sauce is definitely what I expect to find on my pizza. Decent, but I won't be rushing back there.

Olive, 12th October

This place is more local caff than Meditteranean café. Cheap and cheerful is the name of the game here – with basic tables and chairs and a few paintings on the wall to avoid it becoming too drab. They've managing to be bother a permanent place and a street food van. Their famous known value-for-money pizzas are cooked in a dedicated van parked up outside the café. 

This is what brought me to the place. I can’t claim that the pizzas here are exactly authentic, but they’re more than a cut above your average pizza takeway joint. They have a thin base, nicely crisped but where they differ from a more Italian pizza is that they’re not shy of loading the thing with toppings, rather than a few artfully arranged ingredients. I had the Mexicana – jalapenos, peppers and chilli flakes, which also, surprisingly, came with a great deal of rocket. It was a tasty pizza, cooked well, if not as spicy as I would have liked. The cheese was nicely stringy and there was plenty of it, a little more tomato on the base wouldn’t have gone amiss. My 12-incher (which at first I thought I wouldn’t finish – how naïve of me) was only £5!

The café seems to be a friendly place, with clearly quite a few local regulars. One young lad came in to say hello, explaining he hadn’t been in for a while because he’d had a falling out with his friend. His friend had nicked something from him - friendship over! The guy behind the counter counselled him to forgive and forget but the lad was having none of it. You don’t steal PS3 controllers from your mates!

It was pretty empty when I went in but a steady trickle of people ordering pizzas to take away arose, and a group of local hipsters came in for a catch up and a pizza each (making me feel a lot better about my greedy guts having a whole one to myself). They also have sandwiches and a surprisingly varied amount of coffees to order. 

Is this pizza that you would walk through fire in order to have just one bite? No. There’s nothing ‘artisan’ about it, no bleating on about locally sourced ingredients. But it’s tasty and no-nonsense and I’d happily pop in here again to satisfy my pizza cravings. 

Far Rockaway, 2nd May

Far Rockaway is a riot of colour and art. Every surface is covered in it, even the support structures and pillars and bathroom walls! It’s loud and it’s fun and I liked it straight away.

I had been invited to come down and review a meal. I’d seen a few comments and knew they did big, American-style pizzas and wanted to compare them to the other scant offerings in London. I didn’t have very high hopes, expecting another quantity over quality affair a la Earlham Street Clubhouse.

As for the other food, I strongly suspected that, for the type of American diner stuff they were offering, you could get it better elsewhere (thinking Red Dog, Orange Buffalo etc). But I am always willing to be convinced otherwise.

I got there at about 7:30, and while waiting for Stephen to arrive ordered us a couple of wine cocktails on tap. Being as I didn’t actually see the cocktails poured, the novelty was rather lost, but they were a pleasant enough, summery drink, nothing particularly special about them.

I already had an idea of what I wanted to try – I haven't seen a mac n cheese spring roll on anywhere else's menu so we had to get one of those. And Stephen wanted some wings to start. And then, we just had to share one of the 18-inch pizzas, choosing the 'Garbage Pie'. A very unattractive name belies a rather grown-up sounding pizza - pancetta, USA sausage and artichoke.

The table looked like it was (and indeed turned out to be) only just big enough to hold said pizza, so we got our wings and spring roll to come out beforehand.

The wings were ok - a little spicy, kinda on the small side, not much meat to them, a touch of sweetness. I ate them quite happily but knew they weren't a patch on others I'd had elsewhere. The mac n cheese spring roll however, was rather delish. It was more like a big mozzarella stick - the cheese inside all stringy and gooey rather than runny. I dread to think how bad that was for you.

Both plates came with some side crudites and a dip, but we didn't even get a chance to pretend we were going to eat them – as soon as we'd finished the main event, our plates were whisked away. Probably no one does bother with the veggies, in which case it seems a shame to waste them as mere decoration on the plate.

Soon after that came our pizza. Set up high, with room for chilli oil, parmesan and chilli flakes underneath, this certainly looked the real deal. 

And honestly, it tasted as close to it as I reckon you're ever going to get over here. A crispy, thin base, lots of cheese, and toppings that each had a really good flavour of their own made a bit of a masterpiece altogether. I was so surprised! The sausage was garlicky, the artichoke was beautiful – possibly marinated in lemon. And, crucially, after the equivalent of two US slices of the pizza, I was pretty stuffed. However, we were going for a few drinks after and I couldn't bear this pie going to waste, so I forced in a fourth, feeling proud of myself for conquering half the pie, sipping red wine as I digested. They give thanks to two guys from NY on their menu, and these guys deserve thanks and praise indeed. 

As we ate, we surveyed the other customers' food and saw quite a lot of burgers. I had no food envy – they didn't look particularly appealing. No, the pizza is where it's at here. I would be hard pressed to choose between Voodoo Ray's and this joint. So I won't. Voodoo Ray's has more adventurous toppings but I reckon Far Rockaway might just pip them in authenticity. Hats off to you!

I was way too full to contemplate dessert, or even one of their dessert cocktails, so I didn't get to judge the Mississippi Mud Pie I'd have gone for. But it won't be the last time I grab some pizza from here, I'm sure. 

21 Covent Garden, 24th March

There has been quite the furore about 'bloggers vs blaggers' and whether you can trust a blog's review if they've been treated to the meal/event/whatever.

To be honest, the number of places I get invited to are minimal, what I write about almost always comes out of my pocket and I've never really had to worry about how much I've been influenced by the 'free' aspect as I've always objectively liked the thing anyway. Plus I do always say when it's been comped and will freely admit that something free always is a bit better than something you've paid for...

To throw my two cents in, I think there is a big difference between bloggers who are invited to something and those who solicit the invitations and try to wangle, literally, a free lunch. I definitely don't do the latter, but I will take up an invitation now and again. This was one of those times.

I don't think I'm doing 21 Covent Garden a disservice when I say it's an 'everyday' restaurant. It's not the kind of place you'd go for a special occasion, although its setting and decor are perfect for a romantic rendezvous. Every table feels like it is its own private enclave and we were really impressed by what they had done with the place (apparently the cellar was previously disused and it was a pretty terrible touristy bar upstairs). The food is all Italian with the pasta all made in-house.

It's the kind of place that is good for Covent Garden - somewhere that a Londoner can go and know they'll have a decent meal, not some swill being served because the place is full of tourists, and they won't get ripped off.

Aperitifs

I was particularly impressed by the cheese/meat board. Special mention has to go to the chutney. I don't know exactly what was in it but it definitely had apples – it was like eating the inside of a spot-on apple pie and I could have scoffed this on its own. It was a delightful accompaniment to the cheeses. Please, can all restaurants serve apple chutney from now on?

There was one cheese on there I hadn't had before and swiftly became a favourite (a creamy yet firm, pale cheese – the one at the back), and we were particularly taken by the peppery finnochiona sausage. We ordered a bread basket to go with our platter – some lovely thin crispbreads, a couple of slices of baguette and some well made focaccia.

I must admit, I'd been out for lunch and after sharing this was already teetering towards being full. I had ordered a fish pasta dish to keep it light, not expecting the ridiculously generous portion that I was served. I enjoyed this dish - I thought the pasta was of good quality and found the buttery sauce unhealthily delicious. I actually just loved the pasta and veggies and sauce on their own – it didn't even need the fish, which wasn't quite as flaky as I would have liked.

Stephen had the lamb ragu which came with some focaccia on the side and also some new potatoes. Given that there were potatoes in the ragu this seemed carb overload and we barely touched the side dish. Stephen wasn't as happy with his dish as I was with mine. The lamb varied quite a lot in size so it wasn't all cooked to the same consistency – some of it was still a bit tough. The taste wasn't as light and tomatoey as we expected, reminding him of a thick tomato-based curry! More of a winter dish this one.

We didn't have any pizza but must admit the stuff we saw coming out looked good – the bases looked pretty thin and crispy anyway!

I really was utterly stuffed after my pasta but our waiter suggested we take a moment and then see if we couldn't fit something else in. Stephen and I decided to share some gelato. We had a scoop each of pineapple, orange and raspberry. These were a good, refreshing choice to end our meal with but not the best gelato I've ever had. The taste to all three was strong – no complaints there – but the texture varied; the raspberry was wonderfully smooth, the orange was the least light, with a consistency that made you feel you were cutting it, and the pineapple was somewhere in between. 

All in all I liked the place. The staff were very friendly and even though we might have had special treatment it seemed like the other customers were also getting a lot of attention. If you find yourself in Covent Garden and hungry, don't despair. 21 Covent Garden with its Italian comfort/home cooking is here for you, with a lovely, cosy and warm setting. 





Find the menu & restaurant information on Zomato

Earlham Street Clubhouse, 30th December

The final way I took advantage of an empty London before Christmas was to go down to Earlham Street Clubhouse with a few friends and not even bother to make a reservation. 

I knew the place had a sort of retro 90s feel (how I am groaning that the 90s are now considered retro enough to be a theme) that did pizza and cocktails, which seemed like the perfect combination over which a group of girls could have a gossip.

It actually wasn't as retro as I was picturing - it was in fact, quite stylish, with white plus booths in cosily lit smallish nooks. Only the odd touch provided the 90s reference points and a bit of quirk - the hanging cocktail menus for example (practical as well as fun) and the burger phones at every booth. I'm sure I remember reading that you could call up other booths to have a flirt or whatever, but when we tried calling our own booth from the phone next door, nothing happened. Disappointing.

It was all a tad disappointing actually. We had two cocktails apiece and we weren't blown away by them all. My Axel Foley with Don Julio blanco tequila and ting was refreshing but a little bland with not much fizz to it, and my friend who had the Heather's Revenge also said it was a little watery. The Prom Queen I ordered for another friend was more successful - the strawberry puree and cream made it a touch more indulgent, and so was my second drink, the Power Ranger which had more of an alcohol kick with its bourbon base, and apricot jam and red wine providing the interesting flavour. They were all very reasonably priced though, at £7.50. We all cringed at and delighted in the awfully corny names they had for everything, which, being 90s babes, all meant something to us in some way. 

The only food they serve at the moment is pizza, each of which comes with another silly, 90s-reference name. You can get a few of them by the slice, or in 12" or 18" mode. For the true American feel, you should really get the 18-incher. My friends' eyes practically popped out of their heads when the massive pie was set down in front of us, but they haven't had the real deal before. This wasn't it, of course, but size-wise it came close. You could almost fold these slices in half. However, I was in the States recently and two slices of pizza there filled me up. Here, I easily managed to eat half the pizza and still not feel completely sated. Admittedly, they don't claim to be serving NY-style pizza, but given the American theme, you sort of assume that's what they're aiming for. 

So me and my friend Claire shared a Screech - salami picante, chillies and oregano, and my other friends had a 12" each - one The Fresh Prince with mushrooms, fennel sausage and scamorza and one the Marty McFly with mushrooms and ricotta.

I thought my pizza was okay, but it didn't excite me the way Voodoo Ray's did when I first went there, or Homeslice. Perhaps my ingredients were too ordinary, though I love even the 'boring' margherita at Homeslice. The Screech was a spicy one but the heat was inconsistent - only appearing every couple of bites. Having said that, the chillies did pack a punch when you got one. The base was nice and crispy but I think it could have done with larger pieces of salami. Or less crust. Or more tomato. Or something, just something to make it a little more memorable. The others seemed to like theirs, but there were no squeals of delight. I get the impression they all just thought it was pretty standard pizza.

It served its purpose of being somewhere casual to hang out with a group of friends, and cocktails at £7.50 are nothing to be sniffed at, especially in central London so it's good to have this 'in your back pocket' if you find yourself in town, and want somewhere that's not going to decimate your wallet. But given the plethora of new bars in London, this isn't one I'm aching to return to.

Find the menu & restaurant information on Zomato

Voodoo Ray's, 11th May

I didn't mean for the night to end like that. But, looking back as the evening unfurled, it slowly but surely lead to this inevitable conclusion. And oh....my.God was it good.

The evening had started out with a trip to New Cross for a pop-up crab night. Very tasty but for the prices the food was really rather on the light side. £9.00 got you one crabcake. ONE. And some salad stuff. While I wasn't hungry when I left, I knew it wouldn't take much to reawaken my appetite later in the night. Then we headed up to Haggerston and met my friend Sophie at the Fox. Several drinks were consumed (which could only lead to booze munchies later) and then we went to the Alibi where more drinks were consumed and worse still, calories were burned by dancing. And that's when it happened. Sophie suggested we go to Voodoo Ray's. After all, we were hungry and it's only next door.

I now view Voodoo Ray's as both a blessing and a curse. Now, I know that probably nowhere in the U.K. is going to make pizza exactly the way they do in the States. But nowhere that I know of has come as close to it as this. This pizza makes the stuff at Mulberry Street looks as authentically NY as a Pizza Hut Deep Pan can be said to resemble a Napoli pizza.

I don't know what I love so much about a pizza that is so big the tip ever so slightly droops off the plate. I thought I'd found what I was looking for with Homeslice (and they are great, still have much love for them) but THIS is the real [almost] deal. You go in and there's a counter where the absolutely massive pizzas are sitting, waiting for huge slices to be handed over to you. You pick your flavour and then you can adorn with chilli oil, or take your slice to a table and garnish with parmesan or chilli flakes out of salt shakers. Check, check and check. It's the details that matter.

And the pizza is soo good! I had the special 'Full Moon slice' which is only served after midnight ,because everyone knows the best people come out after midnight. At least, I think I did. I just found the one I liked the look of most and pointed to it. I know it had meat on it in some form, and white stuff and it's described as having 'fresh tomato, mozzarella, bacon dust and mayonnaise' so that fits the bill. Stephen had the Thunderballs - meatballs, red onion, fontina and bone marrow glaze while Sophie had what she always has - Porky's. That's got cumberland sausage, stiltion, red onion and parsley on it. Admittedly not your average greasy pizzeria flavours so in that way they really aren't authentically American pizza at all. But they can be forgiven that because these toppings are awesome. We then lost any self control and ordered a second slice. Well, I'm happy to say Stephen and I were 'healthy' and split ours - the Hot Mix 5. Which was not kidding when it came to heat - pepperoni, jalapenos and red chillies definitely made my nose run. 

So now what am I to do? I'm so pleased I've got a place like this to go to, but how am I going to stop myself from going there every weekend? I'm already trying to work out when I can shoehorn it into another night. So so good. And so so bad for my diet. And wallet. While everything else is pretty much right on when it comes to emulating a pizza joint in the States, of course the prices are pretty much double what you'd pay out there, with each slice almost 4 quid. 

I actually took some pictures of my pizza but they are of such embarrassingly poor quality that I'm not going to put them up here. Alcohol does nothing for my photography skills. 

Princi, 29th March

Third time's the charm as they so, and so it was with my day of indulgence on Thursday when I ate at Princi.

I've walked by Princi on many occasions, my eyes wide at the baked goods on show, though I had not yet been inside. This time, I was meeting a friend there and so entered to see the full array of Italian confections on show. I can imagine my eyes growing round as saucers as I looked at the array before me. 

I was a little early though, so I grabbed a couple of seats towards the back. It had been a very hot day, and Princi was quite warm, no doubt because of the number of people creating body heat, and the wood fire they have at the back, presumably for baking their bread and pizzas. At the back, there was a sort of water feature, which I thought might keep us a little cool.

Princi was lively when I arrived and positively bustled the whole time we were in there. It is, in all honesty, a little bit confusing. Waiters zip around all over the place and when I sat down, one of them came to take my order. I just ordered a diet coke while I was waiting, thinking I'd eat when my friend got there. So you would think that, should you wish, you could order food from your waiter. Especially when they keep the tab open for you to add to it later. But this is not how Princi works - the waiters deal with drinks only. If you want food it's counter service and you have to go up to order and take your food. 

Princi does savoury food as well, but as you might have guessed, I wasn't very interested in that today. After having eaten a whole pizza and some ice cream, I didn't think I should eat a full meal as well, or another pizza. Princi offers pizza and focaccias with things on them, as well as some pasta dishes and soups if that's what you fancy. But the real star of the show has to be the sweet treats that you can enjoy in there, or take away. 

Lots of people take advantage of this takeaway option. Unfortunately for me, everyone in the queue ahead of me seemed to be ordering copious numbers of cakes to take back to their Italian families (or maybe themselves). Yes, quite a lot of Italians were in there, and it's an Italian place, so that can't be a bad thing. Eventually I forced myself to make a decision and opted for the deliciosa al mascarpone, but I also got a couple of cannoncini to take away. 

The deliciosa did exactly what it said - it was delicious. Basically a cream cake made with mascarpone, so verging on cheesecake, heavier than a normal cream cake, with some candied orange, which hinted at the flavours of panetonne, but without raisins and sultanas, which I don't like, and instead a layer of chocolate on the top. Yum. This was a main event and a little bit pricey at about £4.50.

The cannoncini, which I shared with Stephen when I got home were only £1.10 a pop and also delicious. These are sweet flaky pastry horns, filled with custard cream, with sugary crunch sprinkled on them. They're very good and there will definitely be more of them in my future.

What I also liked about Princi, though, was the fact that even though it was pretty busy, we were able to linger in there for the whole evening. I'd ordered only a diet coke and one cake, my friend had ordered a coffee (and a canonncini) and yet it was three hours before they asked if we would like another drink (a polite way I think of saying we ought to get something, or get out). 

I'd like to say I'll come back to try out the pizza/pasta on offer, but with cakes like pistachio and peach; toffee, lemon and chocolate; and ricotta cheesecake, I think I will find it very difficult to walk past the desserts to the kitchen at the back.

Pizza Pilgrims, 29th March

I was very excited to try Pizza Pilgrims after all the buzz about it I'd seen on Twitter etc. It was even half the reason I took yesterday off work as I knew I couldn't get down there from King's cross on my lunch hour, which is the only time they're serving.

I had only recently heard that there was a street food scene on Berwick Street but found it soon enough by following the trail of pizza eaters. This is where I had my first disappointment. In my heart, what I'm probably always seeking is pizza to rival an American slice (though perhaps less dangerous for your arteries) and I could see that these were individual pizzas. There's a very commendable reason for this though - they make all the pizzas in front of you as you wait. It's a great set up - these three guys who apparently have toured Italy to learn and perfect the secrets of creating authentic Italian pizza. They have a counter where they make the pie, and then an oven in a van where they cook it. I watched them take the dough, knead it out and hand spin it in the air to create the base. And then they topped it, while in the background played some toe-tapping inducing folksy banjo-type music.

So far so good. They had three kinds on offer - a margarita at £5, salami at £6 and courgette and garlic also at £6. My second disappointment - nduja, which they seemed to have for their first week and which sounded amazing, wasn't on the menu. I ordered the salami. I could have added chilli and/or rocket to the pizza, both of which I like, and I would have been tempted to do so, but at an extra 50p each, it seemed a bit too much. £6 for a pizza seems more than enough without having to pay extra for ingredients like salad leaves. Disappointing.

About 5 minutes later my pizza was ready and I took it to eat in the sun. This was my fourth and final disappointment. I was about halfway through my first quarter when I realised I hadn't been concentrating on how my pizza tasted. This says something in itself. I think, that when food tastes great, it seizes your attention, without you having to focus on it consciously. This didn't. I chided myself for being distracted by the streets of Soho and turned my mind to the pizza. The base was crispy, and the dough was chewy. I thought it actually a bit too chewy and by the time I was down to the last quarter my jaw was aching. (Though, according to my boyfriend I chew too much, so perhaps this is something that will rarely afflict others.)

Looks good but looks are deceiving

But I can handle knackering in my jaw to get through something I consider too delicious not to finish. Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed by the rest of the pizza. The tomato base didn't have much flavour to it. The salami was perfectly nice and a little crispy which was a nice touch, but it didn't save it, especially as there was only a little of it. The best moments were when I bit into a part that had a lovely fresh basil leaf on it. Then my mouth had a burst of freshness and flavour. But again, these bites were few and far between. On a Homeslice pizza it doesn't matter because the 'canvas' by itself is so good. In this case, the rest of the pizza was just, meh. So, as far as I'm concerned, Homeslice is the unchallenged titleholder  of best pizza in London. It's a shame it wasn't on my List when I ate there because that means I didn't review it. But it's amazing - great big slices, two for a fiver. I've had plain margarita and some with toppings and they're all equally fabulous. 

Now, I think I may sound like either a bit of a snob here, or not enough of one, but I've noticed over the years that 'authentic' isn't all it's cracked up to be and perhaps Pizza Pilgrims is suffering from this phenomenon. Something being authentic sounds great, but then when you taste it, you realise that what you eat on a regular basis may not be authentic, but it has been improved to the point where it's tasty. And taste is what counts for me. Turkish kebabs for example - love them over here. Went to Turkey and found the kebabs there were pretty rank and bulked out with french fries. Mexican food also - my favourite food and I can't get enough of Wahaca. My friends however, recently went to Mexico and said the worst thing about it was the food. And now finally, pizza. Maybe real authentic Italian pizza just doesn't equate to best?

I have a feeling I'm probably a lone voice on this one, so don't crucify me, but I sadly won't be going back to Pizza Pilgrims. The guys themselves seemed lovely though!

Mulberry Street, 7th October

We were supposed to eat at Mulberry Street the night before, a pizza place I’d heard of from Yelp because it was close to the pub we were going to. But we skipped food in favour of more drink. However, we ended up there the next day. Alison’s hotel was in Lancaster Gate and when we were finally able to get up and get out (we’d ‘retired’ to bed at about 7 am) we were in the mood for brunch. And we knew just the place that was close by – Harlem. We’ve been there several times before when Alison lived in that area and we absolutely loved it. Much to our dismay, we got to the end of the street it was on and realised it wasn’t there. It seems to be Tiny Robot now, which I think also does brunches but it was shut when we got there. As we’d searched for Harlem, we passed Mulberry Street and we decided to try it instead. Why not stick with the New York theme?

This place boasts about serving NY style pizza. They even go so far as to match the water they use for the dough to NY samples. And I love American pizza. So thin, so big, it’s hard to describe what’s so good about it and I don’t know why it tastes different to English ‘pies’. Maybe it’s just because they use the word ‘pie’ and we don’t. They had a lunch deal on – 2 courses and a soft drink for £10 which seemed silly not to do. You get a choice of two things in each course – bruschetta or salad to start, then a veggie Mediterranean pizza or a pepperoni pizza. The choice of pizzas on the a la carte was fairly standard, but you could also customise them. Anyway, we didn’t have those, we had the deal. The starters were average. Stephen got the salad and that was impressively large. Alison and I got the bruschetta which was definitely nice and fresh but the bread wasn’t at all toasted. It was much better once we’d poured the chilli oil provided all over it. Alison had the Mediterranean pizza, I ordered the pepperoni pizza and Stephen also had the pepperoni pizza even though he’d ordered the vegetarian one. (I don’t know why he did this, he loves meat). The waiter had not written our order down and had inevitably messed it up.

I don’t think I can say that these pizzas were genuine NY pizzas. I think the whole problem is the size. A real NY pizza is so big, you only eat two slices of it, and you’d buy one for everyone to share (which you would probably be able to get half of one kind, half of another). As soon as you scale it down to something one person can eat (or at least make a good stab at), you lose something. The bendiness, the foldability. Taste wise, it was good, and it was the right thickness (meaning it was very thin). And being able to add your own chilli flakes and parmesan also helped. I’d definitely go back there, but I can’t say it was the real deal. Just a damn good pizza.

Find the menu & restaurant information on Zomato