September 26

LONDON EATERIES – 5 Star pizza at Pizza Pilgrims

Posted by Editor on September 26, 2016 in 5 Star Rating | Leave a comment

A man with his guitar in the middle of the pavement is singing the classic Beatles song ‘Here Comes The Sun’, people are waving their hands left and right, singing along too, imitating the actions of people at concerts. Garrick Street, a bright green shop catches my eye, as it stands out against all the other food competition that doesn’t command any attention at all. Being 3 minutes away from Leicester Square station, I enter pizza pilgrim. I feel relaxed. I feel like I am in Italy. Red. White. Green. The colours of the Italian flag are plastered all around this restaurant. Upstairs is spacious. There is a numerous amount of people eating, chatting and just swaying their heads to the Italian music playing in the background. A man dressed casually greets us and takes us downstairs to our table. On the way downstairs, you are greeted by famous American figures cardboard cut ups. Elvis is eating a pizza along with a Darth Vader, the statue of Liberty and two other actors.

When you go to the downstairs space, there are candles on the table, which give us a light fragrance which is nice; the candles can be a great setting for a couple.

The place is quite modern, retro. The colour red is all over the floor; even the inside of a lamp has got splatters of red in blobs, resembling the red tomato sauce on a freshly cooked pizza. The colour red stops halfway on the wall and the white wall enhanced the artistic images on the wall and even film posters of Italian films.I see a collage on the wall. A community of people sharing their love of pizza through images. There are images of different people in different countries smiling and showing off their pizzas.

Our waiter Luis, greets us with a welcoming smile, gets his pen and paper out, adjusts his glasses before taking our order. For the time being, I just wanted a grapefruit drink and my friend a coke. We also have olives for starters.

Luis hands us the menus and I see another colour of the Italian flag serves as a border for the menus. Green. I decided to pick Marinara which had tomato, oregano, fresh garlic, basil & olive oil. However, this had no cheese. I decided to pick this pizza as I don’t think I have eaten a pizza without any cheese on it. There’s a first time for everything right?

My friend picked the smoked Napoli which had Margherita with smoked anchovies, black olives, capers & Oregano.

The dough on both of the pizzas was soft and so was the crust. The Mariana pizza was delicious. The taste of the tomato combined perfectly with the fresh garlic; bring out the taste of the basil. Although there was no cheese, this pizza still tasted amazing. The smoked Napoli was great too.

The margaritas with the smoked anchovies was a great combination, intertwining those flavours together which are then greeted well by the black olives, capers and oregano.

We decided to try the Nutella & salted ricotta pizza ring. It was nicely presented. The bread ring was covered in flour and when you bite into the Nutella ring, you can smell the presence of the Nutella. Nutella was a great chocolate filling choice for this dish as I don’t think it would have worked if there was another chocolate filling. The Nutella was warm too and just dances its way into your mouth along with the bread. The flour sprinkled on top of the bread ring amplified the taste of the bread and Nutella.

For desert, it only seemed right to have vanilla ice cream that was dressed in chocolate sauce and accompanied by gateau stick. It was a perfect way to end the meal.

As I leave this place, I look at the faces of those entering the restaurant, trying to see the reactions to the place; which is the usual ‘this looks cool’ or ‘we could try here’ or ‘I’m in the mood for pizza’. As I exit Garrick street and enter Leicester Square station, the same man with the guitar singing the Beatles song ‘here comes the sun’ is now singing the song ‘how to save a life’ by The Fray.

Pizza Pilgrims, 23 Garrick St London, WC2E 9BN

TEL: 0207 240 4145