Pi Pizza Battersea – Review
The Best Pizza In London?
So how do you actually rate a good pizza restaurant? There’s the professional moaners on tripadvisor, there’s blog reviews with more fashion forward photos than pictures of the food and then there’s recommendations from a friend. All can be somewhat dubious! So I’ve focussed on food chat and food pictures only for this review, so you really see what the food is like.
Now, I know a thing or two about pizza. And Neopolitan pizza is my favourite food of all time, hands down, nom nom nom. It’s usually quite hard to get good quality naples-style pizza in London so once I was told about Pi’s artisinal restaurant with summery decor, Vegan Tuesdays and Bottomless Brunch offers I couldn’t wait to hit up my weekend lunch bud Liz and give them a visit.
The decor at Pi Pizza Battersea is bright and airy with a floral ceiling installation in the main restaurant and an open area where we sat at the back which was rustic but cool and even had a tree! It felt like a restaurant you’d see near the beach at a holiday destination and not at all like we were in London. It’s the perfect instagrammable location.
To start we took a look at the drinks menus, there was a lot of choice including Italian beers, Cornish cider alongside a wine list with organic and vegan options. However, sticking to our usual lunch and cocktails plan we decided to try out some of Pi’s offerings and went for a Pi Star Martini (delish) and Electric Blue to start.
Whilst we both enjoyed these our second cocktail round of the Pearl Drop Fizz and Pi Espresso Martini was even better. If anyone has a recipe for this pearl drop fizz let me know as it’s the only gin cocktail I have tried that doesn’t taste of gin very much and it’s amazing.
Obviously you come for the pizza but definitely try the starters. The stuffed fried nocellara olives and the buratta with caramelised black fig are to die for.
Also not on the starter menu but the salad menu is a bowl of Isle of White plum tomatoes with basil oil. Get them, even if you don’t think you’re the biggest tomato fan. I’m not and they were the best vegetables I have eaten in my life with the most flavour.
Onto the main event. Pi Pizza’s menu focuses on quality produce and creative flavour combinations. You have the option to try something new alongside your trusted favourites and, to ensure we gave the best review we could, we went for a 20” pizzas divided into thirds. Our choices were the lovely three below, ranked in order of my faves!
- Serrano ham, Isle of White plum tomatoes, white truffle oil, mizuna
- Garlic, chilli, balsamic roasted aubergines, aged parmesan
- Artichoke hearts, ham hock, red onion, brown cap mushrooms, garlic, pecorino shavings
To finish off our long and lazy lunch we shared a slice of salted caramel custard tart, which is a good choice if your food baby has reached twin proportions as it isn’t too sickly sweet or rich, it’s the perfect amount of light and sweet to finish off a great meal.
Should you find yourself in the Battersea Rise area then do not even think about walking past Pi Pizza and not going in. You definitely won’t regret it. Perfect for lunch with friends, a date, a birthday meal.
And to answer my original question? Yes I do think this is the best pizza I have had so far in London. I love Homeslice and Franco Manca etc. but this has the most authentic and the most similar base to my favourite pizzeria in the world – Pizzeria de Michele in Naples.
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