Restaurants

  • Franco Manca

    Budget choice
  • WINNER - BEST CHEAP EATS

    Time Out Eating & Drinking awards 2008

  • Perfect pizzas in Brixton Market

  • By Charmaine Mok. Photography David Axelbank

  • We have a confession to make: after our excellent meal at Franco Manca, the staff (jokingly) made us swear to keep the place to ourselves. It has the feel of a secret rendezvous, the sort of place you'd walk past while ogling at the exotic Afro-Caribbean goodies on show in the surrounding stores (tropical fish, bootleg reggae tapes and stacks of yams line this part of the market). It has a nondescript exterior and, at the time of writing, doesn't even have a sign yet - you'd have to pace up and down the covered market (in one of the lanes between Electric Avenue and Coldharbour Lane) looking for happy diners sitting in the alleyway with half-demolished sourdough pizzas.

    Indeed, for someone not in the know, Franco Manca perhaps would have only warranted a cursory glance. But as the locals will recall nostalgically, this site already has a legacy of excellent pizzerias (Eco, known before that as Pizzeria Franco) that have come and gone. This latest incarnation has big shoes to fill and so goes back to the basics - well-sourced, quality ingredients (many organic), top-notch equipment and good, chummy service. Good bases are key and here the sourdough, made with organic Italian flour and naturally leavened with wild yeast, is left to rise for a minimum of 20 hours before being baked.

    A lot of work has gone into the refurb and reopening of this tiny, very modest restaurant. They flew in a cheesemaker from Sorrento to train their supplier (Alham Wood Cheeses in Somerset) in the art of mozzarella making. The formidable, almost monstrous-looking wood-burning brick oven looming from behind the counter is an authentic Forno Napoletano shipped here by the new owners from an artisan producer in Naples. As US-based food writer Jeffrey Steingarten found in his quest for the perfect pizza, it's the high temperatures of this type of Neapolitan brick oven (around 500C/930F in Franco Manca's) that create that perfectly cooked pizza base. The pizza is baked in under two minutes, the heat sealing in all the flavours of the toppings and locking in the moisture of the crust (the 'cornicione', which, to the puzzlement of the Neapolitans, is often discarded by pizza dilettantes) - lower temperature ovens dry out the dough before it gets a chance to crisp, and also don't allow the toppings to cook through properly.

    The attention to these details is important because the menu lists only six simple sourdough pizza options. We chose No 3, a wild mushroom, garlic and anchovy version, and No 5, cured organic chorizo (from Brindisa), with mozzarella and buffalo ricotta. The properly thin yet elastic bases came with generous amounts of topping, very fresh-tasting tomato sauce and puffed-up, soft and slightly charred golden cornicione, which we gobbled up as well.

    A slight heavy-handedness with the anchovies had us guzzling our drinks after the first few bites. Not to worry, as filtered tap water flows freely in this place. If we hadn't been so stuffed, a smooth espresso (a roast from Monmouth Coffee Company) would have gone down a treat, as it did for the family sitting next to us.

    Staff puttered around the tiny space with unrelenting energy, never forgetting to make sure that their customers were well-catered for. They cheerfully spun pizza dough, joked with customers and are clearly proud of the fruits of their labour. Brixton Market has got a real gem of a pizzeria in its midst. Again.

  • Time Out Issue 1965: April 17-23

Time Out reviews restaurants anonymously and pays for meals. Of course, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or independence of user reviews.
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  1. Posted by Superandy on 26 Sep 2009 17:33

    Great pizza as usual, but a little tip for the owner. Ditch your crap and unhelpful staff, its going to cost you in the long run. I've had pizza in some of the best pizzerias in New York and to be honest Franco Manco is right up there with the best, if not the best I've had, but customer service goes a long way and the owner should remember that!!
    5 out 5 for the food but 0 for service.

  2. Posted by Paris Uthman on 12 May 2009 11:35

    Exquisite pizza. If you've been to your pizza express's and zizzi's and thought they were good, wait till you hit Franco Manca!! Magnifico!

  3. Posted by local on 15 Apr 2009 17:08

    A victim of it's own success. Nice food, rude, pushy, rushed staff.

  4. Posted by Seb on 19 Feb 2009 12:16

    Great value.
    3 stars for food 0 for service.
    Fingers crossed to catch the staff in a good mood... If I wasn't a regular I wouldn't leave any tip.

  5. Posted by Nafisa on 07 Feb 2009 18:08

    Pizza was great, organic lemonade was unusual but lovely.
    Service was awful - the waiter taking our order was so hasty & rude that I was too scared to ask a question and just ordered something I wasn't sure about. None of the staff smiled once the whole time we were there so we didn't even leave a tip!

  6. Posted by Caroline Menzies on 05 Feb 2009 10:53

    As a Brixton resident, I've been to this place a few times. The pizzas are heavenly but only if you can put up with the rude, arrogant staff. One woman turned us away the other day at 1.30 (even though they're meant to be open until 5pm). She didn't give us a reason, just waggled her finger in our faces and told us they're shutting. Their attitude stinks but thanks to a steady stream of customers, they don't have to be nice or polite. People seem to like their brazen rudeness. Oh, and they only like groups of 2 or 4, god forbid you come as a group of 3... sheesh, expect to wait 40 minutes just for inconveniencing them.

  7. Posted by Edmond on 03 Feb 2009 15:30

    Really authentic pizzas, probably not to everyone's taste. However, if you've ever had a pizza in Napoli this is certainly the closest thing you can get over here. Try coming after lunchtime to avoid the queues, but remember that once the dough runs out that's your lot for the day.

  8. Posted by Sven Ellis on 07 Jan 2009 09:35

    Very good pizza, with chewable yet soft dough and excellent but minimal toppings. I prefer a tad more heft to my base, so personally I didn't think it was as good as the Yellow House in Surrey Quays, but I'm nitpicking. Very cheap and pleasantly staffed, but NB that its location in an arcade means that temperature-wise, it's effectively outdoors.

  9. Posted by clia on 14 Dec 2008 13:13

    amazing. the queues move fast and it's always worth the wait. best pizzas i've ever had, and such reasonable prices

  10. Posted by grazia on 29 Nov 2008 21:15

    Just 4 words: avoid like the plague!!
    The service is abismal, they made us wait 30 minutes and the table next to ours were all served before us, despite having arrived a lot later.
    We walked out in despair, after having told the waiter several times (in vain) that we were there before...

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  • Details

  • 4 Market Row, Electric Lane, Brixton, SW9 8LD
  • Area: Brixton
  • Tel: 020 7738 3021
  • www.francomanca.co.uk
  • Category: Pizza & Pasta
  • Travel: Brixton tube/rail
  • Times: Open Mon-Tue 12noon-4pm; Thur-Sat 12noon-4pm
  • Map

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