Pizza Metro Pizza – Battersea Rise – Clapham – 7/10

It has been awfully warm this week, and South London seemed like another country. Gentle breezes, people dining and drinking al fresco, horrid sweaty commuter trains. Ah, the British Summer.

Anyhoo, it feels like a holiday, even if we all have to work as well. So the other night, the Bear and I, and a few chums, went out for a catch up at Pizza Metro Pizza near Clapham Junction. Not by design, but by happy chance, we ended up at this delightful little Italian. How very July.

The restaurant is on the hill leading up to Clapham Common. It looks fairly inconsequential from the outside, if not a little dated. And on the inside the theme continues. Wooden chairs, tiled floor, framed vistas of Italy. Your usual basically.

What makes this local Italian stand out from the ever-growing throng of local Italians is the way they serve their pizzas. All the pizzas are served dramatically on metre long stainless steel pans, set on stainless steel shelves along the length of the table. All the different ingredients for each pizza are set into the same metre-long stretch of dough and divided up pre-serving.

The service was a little on the slow side. We ordered drinks. Pause. We received drinks. BIG pause. We ordered food. Pause. We ask for pepper. Pause. You get the drift. Also, on a hot night like this a jug or two or ice water was required. We were given this initially, but then it was taken away inexplicably and never returned. We asked for extra cutlery that didn’t make it to the table. Small things, but important. The restaurant was busy, but throughout the meal the waiting staff could have been a bit more attentive.

Three of us went for the pizza, and three for the pasta. The pizza was excellent. It had a lovely crisp, floury base, with well-seasoned basil and tomato sauce. The fresh basil on top was a nice touch. I went for the Napoli (my favourite pizza of all time – I eat it everywhere), which has anchovies, capers, and olives. It was very good and generous on the toppings.

The chilli oil was good too. It’s one of my pet hates in such establishments, when the chilli oil is just pink gloop, and you have to lob an artery-busting volume of it on your pizza to get any warmth at all. Luckily this wasn’t the case here. In fact I may have underestimated the power of it.

The pasta side of the table were well pleased too. The pasta was freshly made and al dente. The sauces were rich and deep. The Spaghetti Vongole had a mountain of clams in it. All in all, the food was superb.

An hour or so later we’d eaten our fill, and boy was I glad I just had a main course! The food is copious and filling, but not greasy or cloying.

In total for six main courses plus two bottles of wine and service the bill came to £112. Not bad eh?? Minus points for the service, but the food and the atmosphere were tiptop.