Review: Pizza Express, Colaba

Myself, Benaaz Pherozshaw, here start my very first food blog and will review Pizza Express, Colaba.

                      I was invited by Pizza Express, Colaba for this event called ''Pizza Expressers Meet Up" on December 27, 2013 via Twitter. Since Pizza Express completed one year, they have been hosting various events like the Chefs Table and Fans Meet Up. I was never invited in any such event and also I had never been to Pizza Express earlier and had no clue how it would be like. I checked out some pictures of the Meetups and asked them about the scenario. With a positive answer from their end, I figured out how it would be. I was very nervous as well as excited to meet people who I don't know and make some good friends. My brother accompanied me for the Meetup as I thought it would be very apt if I took him along as he is a soon-to be chef.

                      Pizza Express is a UK brand based restaurant founded by Peter Boizot in 1965, after experiencing an amazing pizza during his trip to Italy and Pizza Express has opened its first outlet in December 2012 at Colaba and recently, opened new outlets at Thane and Andheri West quickly. The motto of Pizza Express is one. "SERVE IN STYLE"

                       My brother and I were the first ones to reach Pizza Express and Ms. Nicole greeted us with a warm smile and a compassionate heart. As I walked through the restaurant, I saw one of the pizzaiolo ,(they are the ones who make the pizzas at Pizza Express, wearing a black and white striped t-shirt and they go through 12 weeks of rigorous training in making pizzas to earn the stripped t-shirt and they take a lot of pride and enthusiasm in wearing them)  
flipping the pizza dough in the air in style. High ceiling, open kitchen and gold dividers containing words of Ruyard Kipling between the seats are the main attributes of their decor. Every Pizza Express outlet has a different decor. For example, one will see a decor with lot of pipes at the Andheri outlet while the Thane outlet will have the train theme.

Interiors are inspired by Ruyard Kipling's quotes

                        Not everyone had made it to the restaurant yet, my brother and I were among the first to be served an Italian wine called Ti Amo. The wine was noble and sound. Along with that were served the  very lovely, warm, amazingly delicious, mouth-melting and not to be missed Doppio Doughballs served with 3 dips,  garlic butter, pesto and n'duja. The favourite dip being the garlic butter.

Doppio Doughballs served with 3 dips

Ti Amo Wine, all the way from Italy

                       As everyone started coming along, we were introduced to our head Pizzaiolo Shri, who took us through a lovely journey about how they make their pizzas in style and why and what makes Pizza Express unique among the other pizza brands. Shri mentioned about how they prepare their dough and what makes Pizza Express unique is that the source of most of  their ingredients specially their sauce, is from Italy and made emphasis on the quality of the ingredients and dish in which Pizza Express takes a lot of pride. So, it can easily be said and they did mention saying "Pizza Express is not completely an Italian food chain, but they are "Inspired" by the Italian food."

Head Pizzaiolo Shri flipping the dough in style.

                        Another starter which was served to us was the Romiro Al Forno. This dish was basically Sweet red pepper stuffed with goat's cheese, mozzarella, button mushrooms, garlic, breadcrumbs and parsley. A delicious dish with perfect mixture. The one little minus to the dish was that I could not taste the mushroom. Nonetheless, it was still a very different and lip-smacking dish that Pizza Express has come up with.

Romiro Al Forno

Da Morire Pizza

                          Since Pizza Express has just recently come up with the new menu, Pizzaiolo Shri showed the demonstration of making of  "Da Morire Pizza" , which is the new non-vegetarian pizza included in the menu and as mentioned by him, frequently ordered by the customers too. The main ingredients of this pizza are Gorgonzola D.O.P, Crispy Pancetta, Leeks, Artichoke,Mozzarella, Tomato, Rosemary and Chilli Oil. All of these names were honestly Greek-Latin-Italian to me. :P I was more interested in tasting their cheese and the taste of the pizza overall. When the pizza was served, the flavours were absolutely in sync. With every bite, the pizza got more comforting, spicy, zingy and lovely to eat. 

  Shri then demonstrated making a vegetarian pizza, since we had a vegetarian friend on the table. This pizza would be called  "Veneziana Romana", which is Pizza Express's favourite and has been on the menu since 1965 and the name derived from Venice as it was made there. The main ingredients of this pizza were pine kernels, red onions, capers, olives, sultanas, mozzarella and tomato. When I heard 'pine kernels', which are like raisins, I went "errrr, no!", because I don't like raisins and could not fathom the idea of having raisins in pizzas. That said, you would not actually get to see them. When the pizza was served, I realised I could not get to taste the raisins-like-pine kernels. I loved the red onions mixed with mozzarella and tomatoes and it tasted lip-smackingly delicious, quite heavy on flavours. Being a hardcore non-vegetarian, I would recommend all my veggie friends to order this pizza at Pizza Express. 

I don't have a picture, but there is a slice of the Veneziana Pizza

Dolcetti with Espresso

                           While we were all chit chatting and getting to know each other, not realizing when we completed eating the pizzas, Shri gets us the desserts from the new menu. The New Dolcetti was the best dessert out of the new menu. It is basically a small chocolate pudding accompanied by coffee. Honestly, I liked the little Gems like chocolate on the pudding. Looked very cute and appealing. The cappuccino was also amazing. The blend of flavours in the coffee was perfect, something which I would want at work after lot of document reading. We were also served the Caffe Reale, which is figs in cinnamon spiced syrup with mascarpone, which is a soft, mild Italian cheese cream. I don't like figs so much so it was quite okay. Maybe its just me and not the dish. 

Caffe Reale

The Best Cheese Cake Ever

                               When the dessert was served, I was wondering where the Cheese Cake was. I had heard so much about it that I made it a point not to leave Pizza Express without eating their cheesecake. I shamelessly asked if we could get the cheese cake and Shri was more than happy to serve us. Perfectly baked, perfectly moist and amazingly, wonderfully yummy, with vanilla ice cream! I am falling short of adjectives to describe. It was the best cheese cake I ever had in my life. No wonder it was attacked and finished by us in less than a minute. :P You can make out from the picture how tempting it was and now you can imagine what it tasted like. 

                                  Pizza Express has certainly drawn my attention towards them. It was just the first visit and so I would probably not be able to say something which I didn't like as I honestly didn't feel that way. It was a memorable experience and would certainly like to thank the team of Pizza Express once again for inviting me over as a guest, pampering me and all the other guests with some lovely food and most importantly, for making me meet some wonderful set of people. A table of people who were banker, trader, students, doctors, digital marketing people, chef and a lawyer. I hope you would enjoy reading this review as well. 

                                   
                 Definitely going back again. Can't wait to try their Calabrese Pizza, banoffee pie and without fail, their Cheese Cake. :D

                 Will end this review by saying a quote about Pizza, "I'm very particular about the pizza I eat. God father is still a premium quality product and I cannot always find that. Its got to be as good as God father, else I shall not eat."- Herman Cain.