Less than halfway through our pizzas, my boyfriend and I began a discussion about whether the best…read morepizza in London is here at Story Deli or at Valentina in Notting Hill - it is that exceptional.
We've had Franco Manca, Rossopomodoro, Princi's square pizza slices (from the cafe, not the restaurant), Pizza Pilgrims, Pizza East, Homeslice, Fundi Pizza, Fratelli di Bufala, and the aforementioned Valentina, but the pizza here is entirely different because of its toppings and yeast-free base. Story Deli's pizza exemplifies the Italian and Californian principles of making simple dishes prepared expertly using the best ingredients. What is just flour, water, and salt becomes an addictively crisp flatbread-pizza hybrid after a few minutes in their scorching oven. Even without toppings, the pizza crust is flavourful, and we ate every last crumb we could find on our wooden serving boards/plates.
But oh, the toppings. Here is where their focus on just using the best ingredients turns their pizza into something spectacular. We shared two pizzas:
CHORIZO, PUMPKIN & GOAT'S CHEESE chorizo, sage roasted pumpkin & red pepper, goat's cheese, fresh red onion, mascarpone, olives & roasted rosemary oil (£17)
SIMONE tomato passata, garlic roasted courgettes, mascarpone, smashed tomatoes, olives, buffalo mozzarella, oregano & basil pesto (with ham) (£17)
Both were the best pizzas I have eaten since my last visit to Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles (another restaurant that prioritises ingredient quality). Each ingredient is flavourful in its own right (particularly the sage roasted pumpkin), but the combinations are inventive and harmonious. The pizzas each arrive on a large wooden cutting board, and there are forks, knives, and pizza cutters available for your use on the table. (My boyfriend enjoyed using the pizza cutter as his knife the entire time.) Yes, it is difficult to eat these pizzas with your hands, but who really cares? All that matters is that you can truly taste the quality of the ingredients and the care with which they were prepared.
One pizza per person is plenty of food, so come hungry. We paired our pizzas with an excellent organic British lager by Freedom and a refreshing Italian Pinot Grigio by Le Carline Di Piccinin Daniele. Be aware that they only offer one type of beer, two white wines, and one red wine. We also took one of their fudgy brownies to eat later, which was okay but nothing special.
Finding the restaurant might be a challenge, as it is only marked by a tree branch above the door. It is really just north of Bethnal Green Road on Brick Lane. (Look for the sign proclaiming "pizza this way" in the window of the shop at the corner of Brick Lane and Bethnal Green.) Inside, the restaurant is sparsely decorated with just a few white candles and rustic mirrors piled together on either side of the room. It is not a place to bring a rowdy group.
To anyone who complains about the price of the pizzas, I'd like to point out two things:
1) Their uncompromising stance on just using the best ingredients results in higher costs to them but translates into exceptional pizzas for you. The goat cheese on the chorizo and pumpkin pizza, for example, could not be substituted for a cheaper alternative, because the resulting pizza would not taste as good. This is an obvious thing to point out, but I think this place receives unjustifiable vitriol over its prices because people claim it is "just pizza."
2) Each pizza could be considered as a pizza and a side salad (especially the Fico that I saw at another table, which is covered by an avalanche of greens), which makes eating here comparable in price to eating at other pizzerias. Consider the cost of an equivalent meal at Rossopomodoro:
Verduretta Pizza (similar to Simone) -- £10.95
Afragolese Pizza (the most vaguely similar to the Chorizo pizza) -- £14.95
Rucoletta Insalata (to count for the arugula on a Story Deli pizza) -- £5.25 x 2 = £10.50
Total: £36.40 (compared to £34 at Story Deli)
Even with just one side salad, the bill at Rossopomodoro is £31.15. There is no doubt that the quality of Story Deli's pizza is worth an additional £2.85. Not to harp on Rossopomodoro (though I do consider it overrated), but I chose it because it does not receive the same accusations of being overpriced. Sure, you might leave Rossopomodoro with an extra slice or two to take home (or throw away) because their pizzas are slightly larger, but Story Deli is about quality over quantity. And I'll choose that any day of the week.
(Visited October 2013)
