Pizza East: This is not an Italian restaurant
By Patito, published on 13 November 2009
We arrived at 7.30pm and the place was packed. The clientele was mixed: some large groups (seated on very uncomfortable looking stools), some families, a couple of dates and groups of work colleagues. The venue has a definite New York feel to it. It’s not quite like anything you’ve ever seen or anywhere you’ve ever been, but feels familiar all the same.
Our Converse-clad waiter came over to take our drinks order. If it’s a pizza night, there seemed to be only one choice to go for. Two beers please. But a glance at the menu was a little confusing. This was not a pizza restaurant. Well, it did sell pizza but the menu also included cold, baked or fried antipasti, salad and “wood oven” (a strange combination of meat and fish dishes, as well as lasagna). We needed some help from the waiter.
“How does this menu work, it’s an unusual mix.”
“This is not an Italian restaurant”.
Oh. Right, ok. So, is it acceptable for two Italophiles to order a pizza with sprouting broccoli, spicy sausage, garlic and mozzarella (£11)? That’s exactly what we did. (Please no-one tell Desiree.) And we’ll have the mixed beetroot salad, pantaleo cheese and horseradish (£6), chicken livers with soft polenta (not The Guide’s choice – £5) and calamari with caper aioli (£6) first please.
The starters were hit and miss. The calamari were good, but not as good as Bedford & Strand’s. The beetroot salad was refreshing. The chicken livers were no good. Now for the pizzas. It was always going to be a risk. The Guide likes margherita. Keep it simple. How can you get away with broccoli on a pizza? We put this question to our waiter.
“This is NOT an Italian restaurant. The only thing maybe Italian is the ingredients. Maybe the cheese.”
Hmmmm. Not only was it the strangest pizza we’d ever seen outside Domino’s, it also wasn’t cooked through. Never mind. Let’s get some Vin Santo and coffees.
10 minutes later, the maitre d’ appeared. “Your pizza wasn’t cooked properly. We’re so sorry. We’re having some teething problems. They won’t be counted on your bill”. How very nice. We hadn’t bothered to mention it as they were clearly struggling with the number of people in that night. But how odd they had time to inspect the crusts left over on our plates! They were a charming bunch at Pizza East. Good luck to them.
Pizza East, Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High Street, London E1 6JJ, tel: +44 20 7729 1888.
Pizza East: This is not an Italian restaurant
Pizza East opened in East London’s Shoreditch on Friday 17 October 2009. Six days old and we – along with several hundred others – were already there. That’s quick, even by The Guide’s standards. We arrived at 7.30pm and the place was packed. The clientele was mixed: some large groups (seated on very uncomfortable looking [...]
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[...] the road to Pizza East. We last visited this restaurant in October when it had just opened. Our experience was mixed. On our second trip, however, things would turn out rather differently. And yes, we have to [...]
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