King’s Cross is fast becoming a mecca for foodies to congregate around, from fine dining restaurants to casual eateries, the area has it all. I was tasked to investigate the second restaurant opening of Pizza Union; the Spitafields branch has been incredibly successful with students and office workers readily queuing around the blocks for a slice of Pizza Union action.
I am not a massive fan of industrial style designs, canteen bench seating and food that can be served so quickly, it will have been ready by the time you’ve finished reading this review. However, I was ready to be convinced otherwise. They do have a very efficient system, you queue up, order from some friendly, hip and young looking staff, they give you a buzzer, you go and grab a seat and presto within 3-4 minutes your buzzer vibrates and your food is ready for collection.
The slight kink in their well organised system is indecisive customers like myself standing in front of the cashier and wondering what to order. The problem is the prices, I thought I was in one of those specsavers ads, do my eyes deceive me? A 12” margherita for £3.95 and the most expensive pizza is £6.50? Let’s not forget, we live in expensive London town, where a margherita at Pizza Express costs £8.90. I had to pause and inhale deeply although I actually wanted to shout out “Yes, yes, yes! Pizza Union where have you been all my life?”
I went for the Stagioni, which had a great mixture of ingredients: tomato sauce, mozzarella, cotto ham, pepperoni, mushrooms, artichoke and black olives. The base was thin, crispy and had a slight smoky edge to it having just come out of their traditional fire baked stone pizza ovens. The ingredients were cleverly spread out into different sectors of the pizza, so I could really appreciate the premium quality of the ingredients.
The pizza on it’s own would easily fill you up, but feeling the need to be healthy I had their vendura salad as a starter as well. At only £3.50, this healthy concoction of vegetables would easily be a main course at other restaurants, yes it comes in a massive bowl. For those with a sweet tooth, they have gelato from Oddono’s. Although personally I would have gone for their more sinful warm dough rings: the caramello with salted caramel, peanuts, chocolate and mascarpone looked particularly irresistible.
The beverage options are standard but once again they are very reasonably priced with a bottle of prosecco at £15.00. Interesting though to see San Pellegrino flavoured water is really overtaking the London restaurant scene at the moment. Their blood orange version went particularly well with the Pizza.
With the constant flow of people, the restaurant always has a happening vibe and the fast-paced delivery of the food is ideal for office workers short on time, although you never actually feel rushed to move on from your table. I suspect we will be seeing a lot more of Pizza Union all over London town and beyond very soon.