Franco Manca - Chiswick

Underwhelmed. This place is overrated

Easy to book online

This buzzy, loud, vibrant pizzeria is the absolute best place to eat pizza in our opinion. The delicious sourdough base is complemented by thoughtfully sourced ingredients and care is taken over quality and heritage of all the vitals - the mozzarella, tomatoes and any meat used (just read their website to see how much they care about this stuff). And you will taste the difference. It has a short menu - easy to select - loads of extras if you want and always a couple of amazing Specials on the board. One of my favourites is the simple No 1, just tomatoes, garlic and oregano - no cheese or any other ingredient and you really know the quality of ingredients used when something is this simple. Great professional staff always very friendly and always accommodating. Last night we took two Italians who gave it 9/10 which is really high praise!

Upon arriving at the restaurant we did not feel welcome at all. Not a single smile or welcome and it seemed very inconvenient for them, that we arrived. First my reservation was doubted and then they tried to squeeze 11 people on a table for 8. When we asked for an extra table that was very inconvenient too. Water was put on the table quickly but we were never asked for a drinks order and had to order the pizza straight away when they came to our table half an hour after we arrived. The pizza arrived in batches and 1 person only had her pizza when several people were finished already. I understand that the oven does not hold 11 pizza's but it would be nice to warn us for this fact and an apology would be nice too. The ordered salads arrived when most of us were almost finished with our pizzas. When the pizza's arrived we had to ask and wait for cutlery. Everybody that was serving just looked extremely stressed and unhappy and the restaurant was not even full. The guy that was serving our table did his best but clearly needed help from others which he did not get. There was no communication between the people serving or towards the guests. Especially the female waitresses were unfriendly. There was also a table of 19 with schoolgirls who were very noisy but that's ok when the acoustics of the restaurant are made for that but they aren't. We couldn't even have a conversation. Shame, the food is great but the service is non-existent.

The waitresses were lovely, very accommodating as we slightly altered the toppings for our children's pizzas. We didn't have to wait long for our meal, and the pizzas were superb.

Great dinner

Soggy bottom chewy not very sour. Took half hour to arrive after ordering

Great pizza and great prices

They need to supply proper knives. It's a pizza restaurant for pizza's sake! Might as well supply chopsticks and a spoon instead of those blunt utensils.

Had No6 Pizza with chorizo, very nice. Unique flavour to the dough. Should have gone with extra toppings though, they were a bit thin and not really extended to the edges of the pizza. My son had your No5 and enjoyed it. The service was very pleasant despite the fact that you were packed out, and the overall cost was surprisingly low. A very good dining experience. Think you should do chips and other side dishes though...