Franco Manca

Posted on 2010/04/05 12:32:45 (April 2010).

[Tuesday 30th March 2010]
I wanted to get out of the office for lunch, and decided to go and finally try out a pizza place in Brixton called Franco Manca which I keep hearing so much about.

As an aside I don't think I've been to Brixton once since I moved to London over three years ago - my forays South of the river in general are pretty few and far between - but I found Brixton market quite fascinating. Really bustling and lively, even on a weekday.

I was accompanied to Franco Manca by a couple of people from work, and the three of us sat at a table "outside" (in one of the covered walkways of the market). As for the actual pizza, it was very good - the sour dough base was really tasty, and the topping (wild mushrooms) was actually worthy of the term 'wild' which gets abused so much. It was difficult to identify all the individual types, but I think they included chanterelles / giroles and possibly pied de mouton.

It was a white pizza, meaning no tomato - the waitress gave us fair warning of this. I know this was probably a culinary decision made from a position of some authority (possibly better suits the delicate flavour of the mushrooms?) but my uneducated palate found itself missing the presence of tomato. My only other slight criticism was that it seemed to get cold quite quickly - not sure if this was just a symptom of eating sort-of-outside or if it suggests that I just wasn't eating it fast enough.

Overall though very good, and very reasonably priced (pizzas around £6). I think I should definitely go back and try a pizza with tomato next time to get the full picture.

However, I think for the time being at least Oliveto still retains its crown as the best pizzeria in London.

Post a comment