Restaurants / Reviews
Pi Shop – restaurant review
It’s two down, one to go for the family team behind Casamia, whose Pi Shop pizza restaurant has now opened in The General next door to Casamia’s home since the beginning of this year.
Before the summer is out, it will also be next door to Paco’s, a tapas and sherry bar the beginnings of which can be glimpsed through a glass wall.
Think of your favourite experience eating pizza and turn it up to 11 when you arrive at Pi Shop.
is needed now More than ever
It’s exactly what you would expect from pizzas made by a group of chefs who have earned their spurs helping Casamia gain and subsequently retain its Michelin star, and have spent months ensuring that the pizzas here are as good as they can possibly be.
Most of the lunchtime crowd on Friday afternoon were sat outside on the sun-trap terrace with views over Bathurst Basin as the chefs inside created their masterpieces in the stunning copper oven.
Before the pizzas arrived, I was enjoying a USPA by Bristol’s own Left Handed Giant on tap as my young daughter’s thirst was quenched by an orange juice from her ludicrously good value £5 children’s menu of a margherita plus one topping, juice, and a deliciously creamy vanilla ice cream with rehydrated strawberries and hint of tarragon.
Among the main event here is no pepperoni but artisan cured meats on their own meat feast (£14).
The Hawaiian (£12) has pineapple and Rustego ham, while the JR (£10.50) – named after Jonray Sanchez-Iglesias, the Casamia co-owner and head chef who sadly died of cancer last year – contains black olives, anchovies and basil, with £1 from each pizza donated to the Skcin charity.
Then there are the specials with ingredients such as pugliese onions, nduja sausages, violet aubergines and hens eggs laid on Cackleberry Farm in the heart of the Cotswolds.
But this is nothing compared to the £30 pizza that arrived on my table containing shavings of Australian truffle and 36-month aged Parmesan cheese, with a chewy crust and lightly blistered base.
At that price it had better have been good and it exceeded expectations; the flavours not smacking you between the eyes like a punch from a heavyweight boxer but instead introducing themselves like the characters in a particularly good book.
It was rich and decadent, but most probably a one-off for me.
So it’s two out of three for the Sanchez-Iglesias family’s ambitious triumvirate of restaurants and bars at The General and full marks to Pi Shop, redefining just how good pizzas can taste.
Pi Shop, The General, Lower Guinea Street, Redcliffe, Bristol, BS1 6SY
0117 925 6872
Read more: Casamia, The General – restaurant review