Tonight was a trip to Shoreditch to go to the up and coming Pizza East near Liverpool Street Station. After my friend Fliss's cousin saw Gordon Ramsey eating here (and no fear kiddos he wasn't filming a Kitchen Nightmare!) we thought it was good enough for us to try it if somebody as sophisticated as he could eat there.
It's incredibly busy so book and get there early. You miss out on a bit of the atmosphere perhaps but when it gets to 8pm you can barely talk to your co-diner in the booth type area. The restaurant is ridiculously huge though, covering a warehouse-type area. There's a big square bar in the centre of the room as well as a pizza bar just behind reception. It's decked out in wooden chairs, rustic tables and it's very urban-chic with lots of wood, brick walls, concrete and a general state of uber fashionable decay. Very modern, very poser-ish and very, very dark! I tried to take photos of the food but I could barely see my pizza, let alone get a picture of it with my iPhone.
The food was good with a small menu so the staff can conserve their energy. The menu is very simple, on a single sheet and ranges from hot and cold antipasti to pizzas to meat dishes.
- Tomato bruschetta
- Speck, tomato, mozzarella, rocket (pizza)
- Spinach, tomato, goats cheese, pine nuts (pizza)
(the best picture I could get of the bruschetta!)
The bruschetta was chunkier than I like normally but warm and the tomatoes were oozing with goodness. They had been cooked till they were soft and it was the best tomatoes on toast I've ever had! It was a small starter for the two of us but the warmth of it and the chunky tomatoes made it a nice taster of what was (hopefully!) to come.
Like I said, it was dark. And honestly? It was hard to see the pizzas. However the cooks had helpfully pre-quartered our pizzas so at least we could cut it quite easily. My speck pizza was fantastic and somebody had - brilliantly - drizzled olive oil on it which made it much tastier and much easier to eat. Fliss's goats cheese was to die for but without the olive oil, it was quite dry.
This is my criticism: it is dry. The dough is over-cooked to the point of crunchy roughness which was hard to eat. I bit my cheek, Fliss scratched the inside of her cheek and we both felt a bit woebegone by the end of the meal! The pizza toppings were original and looked lovely but we felt they were a bit difficult to eat with the texture which was a shame because they were so tasty topping-wise.
I'd go back but I'd ask to sit in a better-lit part of the restaurant. I'd also make sure to book because Pizza East is not the type of place to go into on a whim. It was only mid-week but hugely busy.
Damage: £15/person with wine for one of us
Vitals
Pizza East
Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High Street, London, E1 6JJ
Tel: 0207 729 1888
Website: http://www.pizzaeast.com/
Nearest tube: Old Street / Liverpool Street
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