There are a plethora of pizza options on the market, does London have room for a new addition? Judging from our recent visit to PizzaStorm at Wandsworth, the answer is most definitely yes
It isn’t a hard venue to find being right at the front of Wandsworth Southside Centre with their eye-catching giant red logo and plenty of signs advertising their competitive pricing. What strikes you first is how spacious the venue is, being split over two floors with floor to ceiling glass frontage.
Their concept is highlighted in large writing on their walls. For £8.45, you can have 11” stone-baked pizza with unlimited toppings. I actually stood in front of their staff with mouth agape and then had to question her is this really true? It actually says on their wall, you can take a few of their 50+ toppings or take them all. Yes, I repeat take them all. What is particularly great is the staff are accommodating and non-judgemental whether you take 1 topping or 50 toppings.
The procedure is very simple: you choose the sauce, the cheese, then the vegetables and meat/seafood and finished off with seasoning and sauces. All the ingredients look captivatingly fresh and it does help when they have a high turnover so ingredients are replenished constantly rather than being left around to sit all day.
I went for a classic tomato base along with hand torn mozzarella and mozzarella shavings. Understanding that with Italian food, often less is more, I went for 2-3 options maximum for each section. I had chargrilled courgettes and mushrooms and then a smattering of pepperoni along with a free range egg. The pizza only took about 3 minutes to cook and came out piping hot and fresh thanks to their specially built oven which fires the pizza up to 900 degrees heat.
The great value offerings continue with their drinks and desserts. Free refill soda was only £2.75 whilst unlimited ice cream with a variety of toppings was only £2.95. Sitting next to the ice cream machine, it was near impossible even by my well-behaved standards to avoid a top-up of the lusciously soft vanilla ice cream.
You do wonder if they will be able to maintain these prices in the long run. If it opened up an outlet in the West End, it would put other pizza restaurants to shame.
baldwin@townfish.com