By cramming a mountain of cheese, sauce, vegetables and assorted meats into slice after slice of belt-loosening euphoria, pizza rarely fails to spectacularly sate our appetite.
So, after filling our bellies in the hunt for the UK's best burger, we turned out attentions to the UK's burgeoning pizza scene, quaffing slice after slice in the name of journalism, three times a week for 12 months.
Quite frankly, we've never eaten so much pizza and we probably need to sit down for a while - but it's been entirely worth it because now we have the entire list for you in full:
April 1st
Alfie Birds, Birmingham
Address: The Custard Factory, Digbeth, B9 4AA
Pizza of choice: Peter Piper's Pulled Pork Pickle
Toppings: Pulled pork, pickles, cheese, bbq sauce
Price: £11
Thoughts: Proportions. Get them right and prepare to look stone baked nirvana square in the face. Get them wrong and your soggy-bottomed greed will be punished. At Alfie Birds - Digbeth's laid back, Eastside dah-ling - the good news is that the dough to topping ratio is bob on, resulting in a crisp base of modest depth, shifting the pressure on to the clincher: the flavour combinations. Toppings-wise, an accomplished handful of pulled pork is kept honest by a tangy BBQ sauce and moreish tickle of pickle, which accentuates the sweetness of the meat without dominating it. And we're not usually down with pickles. All-in-all, a satiating yet refreshingly light slice. And one that is at its happiest alongside a chilled can of Beavertown's Gamma Ray.
Star rating: ★★★★✰
March 30th
The Birkbeck Tavern, London
Address: 45 Langthorne Road, E11 4HL
Pizza of choice: The Devil
Toppings: tomato, mozzarella, salami, chilli, garlic
Price: £5.50
Thoughts: Considering that the local football team, Leyton Orient, was taken over by an Italian billionaire last summer, we're surprised that it's taken this long for the taste of Italy to also reach the area. But the time has come at last, in the form of the new Italian food range at the Birkbeck Tavern, located 5 minutes from Leyton station and a sprightly 10 minute walk to the ground itself. The Birkbeck is a treasure - a proper, East End boozer complete with boxing memorabilia including flyers for fights involving a certain pair of twins known as Ronnie and Reggie, but has more traditionally associated itself with drinks, rather than the food side of things. However, with a new Italian chef in, we investigated and found a pleasingly hearty - and cheap - dish in the form of the no-nonsense 'Devil' pizza. If you're looking for subtlety and haute cuisine then you'll be disappointed, but it's sloppy, big and big of flavour in the best tradition of pub grub. For a fill up before the big game, you can't really go wrong. With East London becoming increasingly gentrified, get down here for the feel and taste of a real pub.
Star rating: ★★★✰✰
The Birkbeck on Twitter
March 27th
Ply, Manchester
Address: 26 lever Street, M1 1DW
Pizza of choice: Artichoke and pig’s cheek
Toppings: artichoke, tomato, mozzarella, smoked pigs cheek, chilli
Price: £12.00
Thoughts: When you think of disco balls you probably think of a nightclub that hasn't caught up with the times yet. You certainly don’t think of disco ball tiling around a clay-fired oven which fires pizzas for the great and the good of Manchester. Well that’s what we found at the newly launched (the doors officially swing open this weekend) Ply, another sure-fire Northern Quarter crowd puller from the folk behind Kosmonaut. Impressively decked out Scandi-style space, it’s got a good menu to match. We sampled a variety of their pizza creations but were taken by the artichoke and pigs' cheek. At first for its intriguing name alone; then for the flavour. The base was everything you'd expect from a clay fired oven pizza, crunchy crust with a pillowy soft centre and the ingredients worked well together. The sweet tomato sauce, the salty smokiness of the small chunks of pig’s cheek and the subtle heat of the chilli to finish. The only downside was that the flavour of the artichoke didn't really come through. In an area dominated by bars that also serve food it brings a refreshing spin to things and we'd certainly encourage you to give it a whirl.
Star rating: ★★★★✰
Plymcr.co.uk
March 25th
Brutti Ma Buoni, Glasgow
Pizza of choice: Antipasti
Toppings: Salami Milano, Proscuitto, Olives
Price: £10.95
Thoughts: Situated in the basement of the trendy, boutique Brunswick Hotel, Brutti Ma Buoni (“ugly but good”) is a quirkily decorated cafe-bar with a Mediterranean flavour. Prominent on the menu is its Brutti Bread, misshapen, thin and crispy pizza which encourages gripping around the irregular sides and scoffing with your hands. It might be larger but the antipasti is generously festooned with salami and Proscuitto ham, obscuring satisfying tangy tomato sauce and subtle cheese. Crucial to its appeal are a fantastic smattering of olives, firm, rich and slightly bitter, demanding to be plucked and singularly wolfed rather than consumed on the pie. Solid if not quite special.
Star rating: ★★★✰✰
March 23rd
Aces and Eights, London
Address: 156-158 Fortess Road, NW5 2HP
Pizza of choice: Il Bacio
Toppings: Parma ham, asparagus, rocket and parmigiano.
Price: £9.00
Thoughts: Aces and Eights, just next to Tufnell Park tube station, combines a live music venue with pizza because, as everyone knows, adding pizza to anything makes it better. After being told to sit “under Jimi Hendrix” (there are pictures of musicians all over the walls) by very friendly staff we ordered the Il Bacio pizza, which comes with Parma ham, asparagus, rocket and parmigiano. As soon as it arrived we had our reservations: the cheese was the colour of someone in the late stages of jaundice and had the cheapish tang you might expect from Dr. Oetker, not a place specialising in pizzas. The Parma ham was fine but the asparagus was almost entirely flavourless and came chopped up into tiny little chunks that looked like they’d been dropped on by accident. Aces and Eights is a great place to go for a drink - seriously, if there's a better saloon bar in the whole of the UK we'd like to hear about it - but not a place for great pizza.
Star rating: ★★✰✰✰
March 20th
The Olive, Liverpool
Address:March 18th
Italiano Coffee Co., London
Address:March 16th
Pizza Peddlers, Manchester/Liverpool
Address: Various street food events across the North West
Pizza of choice: Pancetta
Toppings: Fire roasted red peppers, goats cheese, Gloucester old spot pancetta (crumbled and strips), mozzarella – optional extras: Rocket, garlic oil and black pepper.
Price: £6.50
Thoughts: According to Joni Mitchell they paved paradise to put up a parking lot. But little did she know that on a cold Manchester night, one car park in town was actually going to provide us with a slice of paradise in the shape of a pizza. Based out of a vintage catering van the chaps at Pizza Peddlers are travelling around serving up some of the finest pizza that money can buy - this time it was at the recently launched Manchester Urban Food Fest. Based on their recommendation we went with the Pancetta and, boy, we were not left wanting. Everything about this wood fired pizza was superb, from the dough with its soft centre and crunchy crust, through to the sweetness of the fire roasted red peppers, to even the spiciness of the rocket and the depth of the goat's cheese. The star of the show, however, was the pancetta, sourced from an award winning local butchers, so you could taste the quality and the crispy meaty salty goodness that kept you coming back for more. Yep, it was so good we ordered up another straight away. We urge you to do likewise.
Star rating: ★★★★★
March 13th
Luna Rossa, London
Address:Madeinitalygroup.co.uk
March 11th
Box Pizza, Leeds
Address: Unit 3, The Triangle, 2 Burley Road, LS3 1JB
Pizza of choice: Yorkshire Pizza
Toppings: Yorkshire Chorizo, Black Pudding, Garlic Chili and Pepper jam
Price: £8.95
Thoughts: We've all heard the cries ‘Yorkshire! Yorkshire!’ on the terraces at Headingley or during an encore at a Kaiser Chiefs gig but now the Tykes really do have something to shout about as the good folk at Box have created their very own Yorkshire pizza. Unfortunately, after a journey in cardboard delivery box, this pizza is about as attractive to look at as the back end of Elland Road. Even our mega pixel camera couldn't tart it up how we'd like. But taste-wise, by eck, that Yorkshire Chorizo and chilli jam is right good, a proper treat on the taste buds and what could be better to top things off than a slice of black pudding from God’s county? Given the appearance, it’s difficult to assess against some of the UK’s top restaurant pizzas we've sampled in this quest so far. But we'd have no qualms in hailing it as one of the best takeaway pizzas.
Star rating: ★★★✰✰
March 9th
Franco Manca, London
Address:Pizza of choice:
March 6th
O Sole Mio, Glasgow
Address:Osolemio-glasgow.com
March 4th
Arancina, London
Address:Star rating: ★★★★✰
March 2nd
Craft & Dough, Sheffield
Pizza of choice:February 27th
GB Pizza Co, London
Address: 50 Exmouth Market, London, EC1R 4QE
Pizza of choice: Lamb special
Toppings: Lamb salami, mint and basil pesto, tomato and mozzarella
Price: £11.00
Thoughts: Don’t worry - Mel and Sue don’t make an appearance halfway through your meal to bother you about the quality of the pesto (which is superb). The Great British Pizza Company (GB Pizza Co) of Exmouth Market has been serving up delicious creations to this slice of central London for just over a year. With their regular offerings a much-discussed local triumph, we went for their weekly special - a lamb salami on a bed of mint and basil pesto. The base is on the crispy side of traditional Italian - more akin to a flatbread on the outter edge, the brittle texture fading into a foldable fare in the centre. While the lamb and mint do work wonderfully together, it's a flavour pairing you may find slightly disconcerting on a cheesy pizza base. It's great to see a pizza specialist experimenting with something a bit "different" - best give their weekly experiments a visit if you're tired of the average pepperoni offering.
Star rating: ★★★✰✰
Suede Bar, Nottingham
Address:February 23rd
Vineyard, London
Address:February 20th
Atomic Pizza, Oxford
Address:February 18th
The Florist Arms, London
Address: 255 Globe Road, E2 0JD
Pizza of choice: Wild Boar
Toppings: Tomato, mozzarella, chilli, wild boar chorizo
Price: £11
Thoughts: We can't be the only ones for whom pizza is a drug. No matter how hard you try, you just can't keep away from it (so we suppose this Pizza Search is like an addicts' dream). And this tremendous effort from a hidden away pub in Bethnal Green was like the crack of pizza. Despite being, superficially, quite a straightforward affair, we just couldn't stop eating. A nice, thin base, with a perfect balance of tomato and mozzarella on top, finished with small, chewy drops of wild boar chorizo (and we specifically requested wild, not tame), together with a nice kick from just the right amount of chilli. As we say, nothing groundbreaking going on here, but expertly done, and just so moreish. The pub itself had a lovely ambience, warm and welcoming, so we'd thoroughly recommend it - just don't let Super Hans go near this one, or there'll be some serious trouble.
Star rating: ★★★★✰
February 16th
Spectacular Goat, Birmingham
Address: Street food vendor, tracked down at Digbeth Dining Club, Lower Trinity Street, B9 4AG
Pizza of choice:February 13th
Railway Tavern, London
Address:February 11th
Peter, Loughborough
Address:February 9th
Sweet Thursday, London
Address:February 6th
Jalopy Pizza, Dorset
Address: Bridport, DT6 and back at various street food events across the region from April
Pizza of choice: Margherita
Toppings: Tomato, parmesan, basil, mozzarella,
Price: £8.50
Thoughts:February 4th
Pizza East, London
Address:February 2nd
Planet Pizza, Bristol
Address:January 30th
Oregano, London
Address: 15 Tulse Hill, Brixton, SW2 2TH
Pizza of choice: BBQ
Toppings: BBQ sauce, mozzarella, chicken, bacon, spring onions, fresh tomatoes
Price: £11.50 (13”)
Thoughts: Since we began our quest to find the UK’s finest slice last year, you've emailed us in your hundreds, suggesting the best places for us to try far and wide, in turn sending us off to discover swanky new restaurants and tucked away hipster alcoves throughout these fair isles. One place we kept hearing about is Oregano, a rudimentary looking post-beers pizzeria parked a 10 minute walk from Brixton station. We'll be honest, it didn't exactly scream excellence. Then we heard the takeaway spot used a wood-fired oven... we ordered the BBQ. Though the decidedly thin crust wasn't quite as fluffy or yielding as we’d hoped, the taste was exemplarily, comprising a real sweet before you even reach the honeyed tang of the BBQ sauce. Shame then, that while the dough was clearly up to scratch, the ingredients were not: the chicken tasted rubbery and the spring onions didn't so much spring as bury themselves deep down in an over-helping of gooey mozzarella alongside the equally helpless bits of bacon. A cut above the normal high street takeaway, perhaps, but this is miles away from gourmet status.
Stars: ★★✰✰✰
January 28th
Buca di Pizza, Leeds
Address:
Ice and Slice, London
Address:January 23rd
Gino’s Pear Tree, Loughborough
Address: 8 Church Hill, Woodhouse Eaves, LE1 28RT
Pizza of choice: Nduja
Toppings: Tomato, mozzarella, hot nduja, onions and peppers.
Price: £10.95
Thoughts: Tucked within a scenic pocket of the Loughborough outbacks, Gino’s Pear Tree is a family-run Italian restaurant that houses modern class inside an 18th Century Inn. Don’t let the innocent British village surroundings fool you though - our nation’s typically limp capacity for spice was soon given a cheeky poke by the waiter – spurring our hearts onto their devilish recommendation, the Nduja: a spreadable pork sausage that crackles with chilli-spice and suitably originates from the tip of Italy’s boot. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the meat-triggering heady mercy, but the light, mushy tomatoes and mozzarella circle pits which combined for a firework of hugs and punches. While the finely sliced onions ride the nduja’s sting, the sweet red peppers ensure tastebuds are always nursed for the next Italian bang. From what began as a lofty challenge to our masculinity, we were left unashamedly floored by its softer side. Well worth a trip to the country.
Stars: ★★★★★
January 21st
Goppa, London
Address:January 19th
Honest Crust, North West
Address:January 16th
The London Fields
Address:The Italian Club, Liverpool
January 12th
The Bird in the Hand, London
Pizza of choice:January 9th
The Herb Garden, Newcastle
Pizza of choice:January 7th, 2015
Luppolo, London
Address:January 5th, 2015
Kilderkin, Edinburgh
Address:
Voodoo Ray's Christmas Special, London
Address:December 19th
JAMIE’S ITALIAN PIZZERIA, OXFORD
Address: 24-26 George Street, Oxford, OX1 2AE
Pizza of choice: Funghi
Toppings: Roasted mushrooms, smoked provola mozzarella and tarragon (with sausage meat)
Price: £10.00
Thoughts: Despite being located in the basement of Jamie’s Italian, you'll find no awkward spaghetti twirling here. An entirely separate establishment, the menu is fairly simple – only five pizza options ranging in price from a reasonable £8 to a tenner, with a short but tasty list of sides and extra toppings available according to taste. Our waiter recommended the Funghi with extra Italian sausage, a meat which worked terrifically alongside the mushroom and cheese we found layered atop the thin and ultra crispy base. Famished punters should appreciate not only speedy service but some seriously huge pizzas, best washed down with a neat glass of white from Jamie’s own vineyard. Decanted by Jamie himself. Well, if he's around.
Stars:★★★★✰
December 17th
Frankie’s Sports Bar & Grill, London
Address: Stamford Bridge, Fulham Road, SW6 1HS
Pizza of choice: The American
Toppings: Pepperoni, fresh chilli
Price: £9.50
Thoughts: Unlike Jose Mourinho, whose Chelsea team talks must resemble a United Nations summit, Marco Pierre White had only two nationalities to work with when curating the menus for Frankie’s - an American-style restaurant owned by Italian race jockey Frankie Dettori. And no sooner had we finished tear-inducing hot wings, arriving in a neat, commendably greasy and generously portioned basket, that we knew they clearly had the American side of things right at this Stamford Bridge establishment. So what about the pizza? Well, as you’d expect with a stone-baked base, it was rigid; really rigid, relying on big thick bites on the outside to make up a lack of subtly and softness in the centre; this overly firm texture also helped by the rich grainy flour coated along the crust, joyfully pouring into the edges of the mouth like dust into the tyre tracks of a Mars Rover. And while the thick chilli goop on top fell some way short of the spiciness we’d found in the wings earlier, it did possess a real sweetness, offsetting the sharp after taste of the pepperoni for a nice finish. Overall, a good pizza in a pretty good venue - despite the match day hubbub, there’s a neighbourhood charm and diner-like authenticity which most UK sports bars lack. Pop in on NFL Sundays for proof of that.
Star rating: ★★★✰✰
December 15th
Streatza, Manchester
AddressDecember 12th
Bocconcino, London
Address:December 10th
Crazy Pedro’s, Manchester
Address:December 8th
The Oak, London
Address:December 5th
The Quarter, Liverpool
Address:December 3rd
Fields Bars & Kitchen, London
Address:December 1st
Flour & Ash, Bristol
Address:November 28th
Holborn Whippet, London
Address:November 26th
La Favorita, Edinburgh
Address:November 24th
Princi, London
Address:November 21st
Piccolino, Bristol
Address:November 19th
Rustico, London
Address: 271 Clapham Road, SW9 9BQ
Pizza of choice: Quattro Stagioni
Toppings: Tomato, mozerella, ham, salami, artichokes, olives
Price: £7.50
Thoughts: While nearby Brixton and Clapham brag a bevy of independent eating establishments, Stockwell all but remains a dining abyss, barren of even a decent pub within the one mile radius from the tube station. This certainly goes some way to explaining why Rustico appeared to us like a mirage, its cosy glow at odds with the darkened shops wedged next door, drawing in nomadic foodies like a middle class tractor beam. And if these sizable mid-week crowds were anything to go by - not to mention our terrific calamari starter - it’s a top-notch place to grab a Mediterranean bite. That goes for the pizza, too, arriving so gooey and hot we weren't sure if the tomato sauce had been mixed up with lava, and when we plucked up the courage to dig in, that rich and bubbly sauce erupted with flavour, particularly when oozing onto a slobber-some meat selection. We can’t say we were too convinced by the olives, mind, rolling straight off our slice with every bite to make our plate something of a battleground for space; or indeed the crust, which was perhaps a tad overcooked. Though on pure flavour alone, we might be visiting Stockwell more often.
Star rating: ★★★✰✰
November 17th
Zerodegrees, Bristol
Address: 53 Colston Street, Bristol, BS1 5BA
Pizza of choice: Smoky Mexican
Toppings: Spicy Mexican sausage, roasted mixed peppers, red onions, sweetcorn, jalapeño, smoked cheese, coriander, chilli oil and tomato sauce
Price: £10.75
Thoughts: Perched at the top of Christmas Steps, Zerodegrees is a cool microbrewery with a great rep for pizzas. We ordered a Smoky Mexican, electing for their honey-wheat base. After mutilating the pizza with the pitiful knife provided, we found the Smoky Mexican’s base was perfectly crispy but there was no honey coming through – any sweetness was courtesy of the yummy roasted peppers. And despite the abundance of sausage, it just didn’t bring any flavour to the party. This, combined with some disappointingly bland cheese offering none of the promised smokiness, meant that the pizza was only rescued from being unmemorable by the addition of fragrant coriander. The pizza wasn't bad per se – we simply felt that Tesco's Finest range would’ve offered something just as good. The beer, however, is outstanding.
Star rating: ★★✰✰✰
November 14th
Obicà, London
Address:
November 12th
Black Dog Ballroom, Manchester
Address:November 10th
Crate, London
Address:NOVEMBER 7TH
PICTURE HOUSE SOCIAL, SHEFFIELD
Address:Star rating: ★★★★✰
NOVEMBER 5TH
OLIVELLI, LONDON
Address:NOVEMBER 3RD
FUMO, BIRMINGHAM
Address:October 31st
York & Albany, London
Address:OCTOBER 29TH
ARTISAN, MANCHESTER
Address:OCTOBER 27TH
Grand Union, London
Address:
OCTOBER 24TH
Tapped, Leeds
Address: 51 Boar Ln, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS1 5EL
Pizza of Choice: 12” Bit of Blue
Toppings: Gorgonzola, Walnut, Rocket, Cherry Tomatoes
Price: £9.00
Thoughts: Amidst the homebrew equipment of the beer Mecca that is Tapped lurks the unsung hero that is the pizza kitchen. With only pizza on the menu and quite a limited selection at that, the chefs are able to concentrate on getting the food just right and the Bit of Blue does not disappoint. Beneath the verdant layer of rocket the relatively simple palette of creamy Gorgonzola, crunchy walnut and sweet cherry tomatoes is perfectly balanced on a fine base - made with the house wheat beer to deliver a soft centre and a crisp outer. There’s no need to invent brand new combinations when you get these classic just right.
Star rating: ★★★★✰
OCTOBER 22ND
Pizza East, London
Address: 5 Kingly St, W1B 5PF
Pizza of Choice: Veal meatballs
Toppings: Veal meatballs, proscuitto, lemon, cream
Price: £12.00
Thoughts: While Pizza East might have started in, yes you guessed it, East London, it’s now become available in Finsbury Park, Notting Hill and, ermmm, Chicago. As much as we’d have enjoyed a trip to the Windy City, we felt it was more “authentic” to go back to where it all started. We opted for one of the old classics of the menu because it sounded like a mixture of ingredients that we’d never put together on a pizza. Veal meatballs, prosciutto and cream. Mmhmm. But these guys know what they’re doing. The absence of a tomato base AND CHEESE was made up for rather wonderfully by a creamy sauce and an indulgent amount of high quality meat. Strangely satisfying.
Star rating: ★★★★✰
OCTOBER 20TH
The Peacock, Liverpool
Address:October 17th
La Porchetta, London
Address:October 15
Cornerhouse, Manchester
October 13th
Exeter Street Bakery, London
Address: 1 Argyll Rd, W8 7DB
Pizza of choice: Tomato & salami
Price: £3.60 (per double slice)
Toppings: Sa
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