Pizza Express Wandsworth Common
198 Trinity Road
London SW17 7HR
Pizza Express
Nice cold Peroni beer and sparkling water
Located next to Wandsworth Common and next to the excellent French restaurant Bellevue Rendez-vous this Pizza Express is our closest pizzeria. It is nicely designed with plenty of space between tables and two open areas in front and in the rear.
We ordered two “Classic Pizza” but on a Romana base for an additional £1.20. As explained by Pizza Express “the differences between a Romana and a Classic are size, thickness and taste. The Romana and Classic pizza are made from the same dough but the Romana is stretched further, to 14 inches and cooked on a wire mesh. This gives the Romana an extraordinarily thin, crispy base and consequently, stronger flavours than the Classic.” Not sure about the stronger flavours but I certainly prefer thin base than the deep pan bread-like base…
The pizzas chosen were the Giardiniera (Asparagus, artichokes, mushrooms, fresh red peppers, santos tomatoes, olives and garlic – on a tomato and pesto sauce – £8.15 + £1.20) and the Fiorentina (Spinach, grana padano and a free range egg with garlic and olives – £7.55 + £1.20). As drink we had a Peroni Gran Riserva (£3.75) and a 500ml San Pellegrino mineral water (£2.20).
The two pizzas
The not so spicy chilli oil
Pizza Giardiniera on a Romana base
The pizza Giardiniera was good. I am not exactly a vegetarian but a change is nice from time to time. The base was fine and the vegetables were decent. The taste of garlic was quite present which was nice. The only downside was some salty patches coming from the pesto sauce, but that was still a minor complaint.
Pizza Fiorentina
The pizza Fiorentina was excellent (but still not matching the Fiorentina at Pizzeria Rustica in Richmond – let’s not dream!) with a perfectly cooked egg that was still lightly runny when broken. It had a nice mix of toppings, including spinach that actually still had some flavour. That makes an enormous difference for this sort of pizza.
Cost and conclusion: it was £24 in all. The pizzas were good and the surrounding is pleasant. As for the service this time, whilst they were friendly, they were incredibly slow despite not being at all busy (there were only a handful of customers that evening). It is not acceptable to have to wait 40 minutes for the bill to arrive, and then to wait even longer for someone to return so we could pay it! We could not wait anymore, so left our table and paid at the desk on the way out to speed things up. Still, if you are in the area and are looking for a pizza, this is a very decent place. Thirty metres away you have Bellevue Rendez-vous which is one of our favourite French restaurants.
