Chiswick High Road has load of restaurants along it, to the point where you’re actually spoiled for choice when selecting where to dine. Of course, it has its share of the high road regulars – Pizza Express, Nandos, Giraffe, etc. – but there’s also loads of others, which to the best of my knowledge aren’t chains.
Franco Manca
We were happy when Eco pizza opened up just before we left the shores of Chiswick for Putney. As it turns out, we must have been some of the only ones who were happy about it, because it didn’t last very long! The space it occupied has now been taken over by a sourdough pizza restaurant called Franco Manco – or perhaps Eco have just changed their name. Who knows!
Anyway, we’ve eaten there twice now, most recently just yesterday, and once again I’m happy to say that the food is excellent! They only have a short (pizza) menu, with around six different combinations of toppings to choose from, as well as a couple of daily specials. Their drawcard however, is that they use a sourdough recipe for the pizza base, which comes out of the oven quite thin, but very soft.
Sadly for Kristy, all of the cheeses they use are unpasturised, and unpasturised cheese is high on the “foods that may kill you and cause serious harm to those around you, if you’re pregnant” list, so she had to steer clear of all the best toppings. Worse yet, she reports that “no cheese == no flavour”, so it wasn’t quite the same experience for her. But my pizza with pepperoni, chorizo, and mozzarella was fantastic!
A word of warning on their service though – we dined around 8pm last night, and the restaurant was teeming with patrons. The staff had real difficulty coping with the numbers, and we waited a long time to be served. Trying to get the bill was even worse, and after 20 mintes of waiting, I walked up to the till and paid on the spot (after waiting a few more minutes for the staff to notice). And instead of an apology, the owner simply said, “Everyone came at the same time!”. As Kristy put it so well – who’d have thought people would want to eat around dinner time?! Madness!
Rice
If there’s one thing I regret about moving back to Chiswick, it is that we didn’t eat at Rice immediately after arriving. We went there for the first time last Friday night, as a farewell meal for the Cookes. Philip had noticed it – as well as another Persian restaurant directly across the road from each other – and suggested that we try one of them.
Truth be told, we originally had tried to get into the other one first, but upon arriving, we found it was full. When we turned around and looked at Rice, one of the street-side diners beckoned us over, giving us a huge thumbs up as encouragement. So over we trotted, and the friendly young lad, with a huge grin on his face, told us that the food was “amazing”. I was convinced that he must have been the owner’s son – but then the owner came out and I asked her, and she replied with – “I’ve never seen this man before in my life!”
Ok, so maybe it was all an act, but it worked for us, so we tried out luck. Our new friend even went so far as to recommend some meals for us – the sharing platter to start, and the mixed grill for mains – so that’s exactly what we had. And he was spot on – the food was delicious!
It was an absolute delight for meat lovers!
The other big winner for the night was our wallet! We were so impressed with the place that we were back again only two days later with Julian and Shelley, and to our delight, the owner recognized us! I suspect Julian and Shelley were equally impressed, though after dining they suffered somewhat from “I ate too much meat” syndrome. Ah yes, we’ve all been there!
1 comment
I was soooo annoyed by the service at Franco Manca. I was going to find somewhere online to write a scathing review, so now G has provided the perfect opportunity.
The waitress didn’t know if the cheese was un/pasteurised and wanted me to order without knowing the answer. She eventually fetched the manager/owner who told me it was written right there on the menu (it wasn’t) and moved his pointer finger around vaguely but defiantly, unwilling to concede defeat.
The food is great and quickly prepared. Kudos to the kitchen staff. The waitresses just don’t seem to remember where to take it. Two different waitresses tried to serve the same (rapidly cooling) meat pizza to the vegetarian sitting next to me. He politely declined and reminded them what he ordered. Seconds later the owner comes rushing over and puts a pizza in front of the guy: this must be the apology for the mix up. No. He thrusts down the same meat pizza, turns to start walking away, and says “don’t you like it when the girls serve your food”?
Diners were sat and not offered menus. Diners were offered menus, but not drinks or an opportunity to order. Prospective diners queued outside the door, while several like us waved frantically at waitresses who seemed determined not to want payment.
One thing’s for sure… I’m not going back there!