Franco Manca

Seriously good pizza

Although it is quite near where I work, I never had the chance to check out this rather popular pizza joint. After getting a bit bored of my usual Wasabi lunch, I decided it is time for something new so off I went to Franco Manca in Chiswick (1 of the 4 Franco Manca in London) for a Friday lunch. I rarely order pizza when I eat out as I always consider pizza is rather easy to make at home and never really had any Pizza that wow me away but Franco Manca proved to be an exception!

The place was pretty busy on our arrive but we managed to get a table but soon the place was soon jam packed and I was please we arrived early. They do take booking here but I really don't have the effort to book for a casual meal on my lunch break! But I soon understand why this place is so popular as I can smell the lovely pizza aroma from their brick oven in the open kitchen. The food took a while to arrive and the manager explained because they had a large group to handle and he given us some fresh olive to apologize for the wait. The olive was really fresh and nicely seasoned without being too salty, with the neutral and earthy flavours really shined out.

olive

Our starter arrived but turned out to be the wrong dish and after speaking to the manager, he given us the wrong dish for free and asked if we would like the kitchen to redo our starter but due to the timing we just went for wrong starter which was a baked garlic flat bread and it was very enjoyable, it was very thin but yet maintained the softness of the bread without turning into "crisp". I wished it had more garlic and herbs on top but with a dash of olive oil on top made it a very quality starter indeed.

 garlic flat bread

Next came our pizzas: Wild broccoli, mozzarella, Gloucester old spot hand sliced sausage pizza & Gloucester old spot ham, mozzarella, buffalo ricotta, wild mushrooms pizza. Oh my! It was really top class, the dough was so soft and moist, the edge wasn't dry at all with a lightly crispy texture. The ham, mushrooms and mozzarella were also really nicely baked and very flavoursome  I was really impress but the real star was the buffalo ricotta, it wasn't fully melted and the richness spreading slowly across the pizza added a real depth of incredible rich dairy flavour to the lightly salted cured ham. Absolutely class.

Gloucester old spot ham, mozzarella, buffalo ricotta,
wild mushrooms pizza

Wild broccoli, mozzarella,
Gloucester old spot hand sliced sausage pizza

Not only the pizza here was seriously good, the value and service were equally great. Portion was big and at around £7.50 per pizza you are getting really good value out of it. And I was surprise the service we had as at the end of the day this was just a causal pizza joint but the manager really took the time to address the issues we had, I am sure I won't get similar treatment if I had the same problem at Pizza Express, oh and it will cost more too... Franco Manca was a really good discovery, I will definitely return for more!


Food 5
Service 7.5
Ambience 6
Value 9

£7.50 per head

144 Chiswick High Rd, London W4 1PU

www.francomanca.co.uk