Shoreditch, Pizza Restaurant Guide

2021 Review: “Neapolitan influences are evident in the choice of ingredients, and the wood-burning oven makes for good, chewy, charred crusts, unlike most high-street pizzas” – so say fans of this global chain, whose HQ is indeed in Naples. Not everyone is impressed, though, and ratings are dragged down by those who feel it’s merely an “everyday” choice: “OK for a bog-standard group, but not great”.

“Still delivering on what it set out to do” – Alan and Mark Wogan’s (yes, the late Terry’s sons) hip pizza chain is the best-rated of the mid-sized groups, thanks to its “huge and amazing pizzas with delicious and unusual toppings” (“now the choice is even easier with the 50/50 option!”). Top Menu Tip – “awesome vegan nduja pizza” is amongst a growing number of plant-based options (and, from June 2022, they now have a fully meat-free site, in their 135-cover Shoreditch branch).

“Much better than the long-established, tired pizza chains!” – the Elliot brothers’ growing group is the most-mentioned of London’s more artisanal pizza multiples in our annual diners’ poll, inspiring joy with their “authentic Neapolitan preparation, with quality ingredients” and featuring “yummy crusts and interesting flavour combinations”. And you get “consistent quality irrespective of the branch visited” too, even if conditions can be “a little cramped and chaotic”.

This “fun” Portobello pizzeria is “made by the excellent location” and has a less-commented-on twin in the equally funky post-industrial setting of Shoreditch’s ‘Tea Building’. Fans reckon it’s “still the one to beat” for “great pizzas”, nibbles and a small menu of dishes baked in the wood-fired oven, along with “one of the best Bloody Marys in town”; critics say the “food has lost a little sparkle from a couple of years ago”.