Thursday 12 February 2009

Franco Manca

I've heard many, many things about Franco Manca. Many hail it as the best pizza in London, so off I went to sample it myself. There's a danger of the over-hype, and I was conscious of this - I was fully expecting to be completely blown away. Given that it's in Brixton and they only open from 12 - 5pm, it's not the easiest of places to visit, but I finally did.

After about 20 minutes of wandering around with Niamh and Kerri as none of us had printed maps or even noted down the address (oh, for an iPhone!), we settled down at a table outside, in the covered market area. It was cold - coats stayed on for the duration of the meal and my toes froze.The menu is small, and instantly I plumped for the anchovy, caper and olive pizza. It was disappointing that they didn't have the buffalo mozzarella that day but nevertheless, the pizza was indeed, delicious. It had a lovely crust, great flavour and was generous in the toppings. It was a decent size too, something I always look for in a pizza. A well dressed green salad accompanied it.
Home-made lemonade was delicious and tasted a bit like honey, but the white wine (at £7.50 a bottle) was pretty grim. I couldn't drink more than half a glass of it and not just because I was hungover - it was really acidic and tasted quite astringent.

Verdict? Really impressive pizzas, and extremely well priced considering it's all organic (the bill for 3 pizzas, 1 bottle of wine, 2 large bottles of lemonade and a side salad came to £31). I would definitely come again, but perhaps in the summer - I was seriously frozen by the time our meal was finished; get a table indoors if you can. The waiting staff could do with a prod too - we had to fetch our own glasses, fetch the waitress to get the bill, and then correct the waitress on said bill.

Check out Kerri's post here, and Josh over at Cooking the Books went the next day and also posted about it.

Franco Manca

4, Market Row

Electric Lane

Brixton

London, SW9 8LD



Franco Manca on Urbanspoon

7 comments:

Malar Gandhi said...

First time to your blog...how come I missed it for such a long time!? All the food pictures are looking great. Recipes sound interesting too...Great work!

Anonymous said...

Franco Manca, here I come. Thanks Lizzie.

Oliver Thring said...

Great post, Lizzie. I wonder why it's only open for lunch, and only from Monday to Saturday. They've been top of my list for ages now - your review's made me want to go even more!

Anonymous said...

I used to go to Francos almost twenty years ago when it was 5 tables. It was a real gathering place for Brixton artists and musicians and writers. The Fiorentina was my favourite and I used to eat it every day. Seeing your pictures has brought back many happy memories. I'm glad to see it is still there and going well. As an aside my client Hambleden Herbs is giving bloggers an extra 10% off their Antony Worrall Thompson range of herbs & spices (http://www.hambledenherbs.co.uk). Just enter BLOGGER05 in the checkout. Wouldn't normally do my real work via a comment but couldn't see an email address so hope you don't mind.

kerstin said...

Keep meaning to try this place myself. Thanks for the reminder.x

Hollow Legs said...

Really, Anonymous? because apparently they only opened last year.

Anonymous said...

We were very impressed.The pizzas were great and the service was just amazing. The waiters were very very friendly and also funny without being intrusive. I don't understand why some people have complained about the wine, which we found absolutely delicious - and cheap! The manager told us though, that they had just found a new way to cork it, as it apparantly is organic and without sulphits, which makes it fragile, so maybe people who tried it before were unlucky to get a vinegar glass. We can definetily recommend all of it.