Restaurants / Reviews
Pizza Workshop – restaurant review
A common mistake for new restaurants to make is to do everything. But doing everything all too often means doing nothing of note.
Pizza Workshop have the opposite approach. Written on their door for all to see are the words: ‘One thing. Made well.’
That one thing at North Street’s newest opening is of course pizza.
is needed now More than ever
There are six options here to eat in or take away, ranging in price from £6 for the One, made with tomato, mozzarella, basil and olive oil; to £11 for the Six with tomato and olive oil, and a cold topping of buffalo mozzarella, Parma ham and rocket leaves.
We went for the Two as part of the lunchtime special of a pizza and soft drink. The crust was crispy, light and bouncy; with a winning combination of anchovies, capers and oregano.
The pizzas here immediately appear in the Premier League of Bristol pizza, vying for first place with Flour & Ash on the Gloucester Road and The Stable next to the Watershed.
They are also on a par with Bertha’s Pizza, who make their own creations in an oven in the back of a Land Rover and are currently on the hunt for permanent premises.
Pizza Workshop’s own premises feature an open kitchen at the far end, long shared tables and a small decking area at the front with a surprisingly bucolic view over North Street and onto the rolling fields beyond.
The sleek aesthetic even extends to the tiniest details, with the restaurant’s pizza box-style logo inside every orange coffee cup – the same shade of orange as on some of the walls and the only colour on the menu other than black and white.
The design is by Moon, a Clifton architecture and design firm that earlier this year published a children’s book.
Pizza Workshop’s mantra of doing one thing well doesn’t quite ring true, with sharing boards of meat and vegetables, extras including homemade bread, and ice cream from Chew Moo.
There is also ‘bocca’ available between midday and 6pm.
Its full name is a saltimbocca di pizza alla Napoletana and it’s a sandwich made with pizza dough, stuffed with ingredients and topped with Italian cheese. And very good it is too, like a cross between a panini and a calzone.
Ours came fit to bursting with fresh tomato, mozzarella, rocket and pesto; with other options including such delights as Italian wild broccoli and smoked mozzarella.
So more than one thing made well then. Made very well indeed.
Pizza Workshop, 232 North Street, Southville, Bristol, BS3 1JD
0117 966 9890