Franco Manca

If you asked me if I liked pizzas a few years ago I would almost certainly have said that I could take them or leave them. Then I went to Sicily and after a pizza covered in speck and crushed pistachio nuts I was won over.
I have of course always thought that Pizza Express is a reliable option when travelling, but of late Brighton has seen an influx of great pizza joints and the newest, hot from its London mother ship, is no exception.
I left it a few weeks before going along to Franco Manca and then went twice in a week. Something about it just worked, not least the great space, seemingly plucked from nowhere in the centre of the city, it has that cool, slightly industrial look that works so well. It also has extremely friendly and helpful staff for whom nothing seemed too much trouble.

The menu is simple, a very short list of options and then a blackboard with one meat and one vegetarian special.
On my first visit I was joined by Ms C, a trencher-woman after my own heart and an ideal guest always. We started by sharing a platter of amazingly good fennel salami and a whole mozzarella of the very highest quality. I loved both, she preferred the sausage which was okay except that I felt guilty eating any more as I was scoffing that whole cheese, ah well, what are friends for.

For her main she chose the ham pizza and added extra caramelised onions, a great choice and she also opted to have some of their homemade tomato sauce as quite a few of the pizzas are white, as in having no tomato sauce. I chose the special, which was white too, and topped with extremely good sweet pork loin. The oven is of course wood fired and the resulting crust is crisp and quite delicious, not to be trimmed away and left for sure. I had a glass of good hearty red and Ms C drank fizzy water – such restraint!

A few days later I was back with column regular Mr L. We skipped a starter and went straight for a pizza. This time we both chose from the blackboard, Mr L the one that I had tried before whilst I went for the vegetarian option topped with stilton, parmesan and goat curd to which I added capers. It was amazingly good, packed with punchy flavours and deeply satisfying. We drank a good bottle of red too, and a sensibly priced one. Price of course is always important so let me say that these pizzas are very inexpensive, both under £8 which has to be seen as excellent value. Mr L also had chocolate cake, which is a favourite of his and loved that too. I went for a double espresso, piping hot and ever so tasty. I cannot recommend this enough, the menu is simple but packed with details of the ingredients’ provenance, and the price… well go find out for yourselves!

Franco Manca, 1-2 Regent Street Brighton
BN1 1UL, 01273 977128