Franco Manca’s is good, but we’ve found that it’s a bit too hyped and we haven’t found it to be one of the absolute best Neapolitan pizzerias in the city.
It’s a super popular place so expect queues if you’re going during peak times – sometimes up to an one hour wait.
The place is charming, open, and spacious. Nice rustic vibe and many workers are Italian, which is a great thing.
We got the marinara (#1 – tomato sauce, garlic, oregano and I added basil for 50p) and the margherita (#2 – tomato sauce, mozzarella, basil but we subbed ricotta for mozzarella. The mozzarella isn’t the best quality it seemed from looking around but the ricotta seemed rich and creamy. I appreciated no charge for swapping out the cheeses).
The marinara was good, but not very flavorful. When you get a pizza so plain, it’s very important that the dough and tomato sauce are top notch. These were not. They were each ok. Nothing bad in particular, but not great flavored. Tomato sauce was weak and a bit acidic. The dough was bland. The texture would have benefited by undercooking it by a few seconds.
The margherita with ricotta was better, but really because of the ricotta. The ricotta, which was buffalo, was great quality – rich and creamy with a delicate but powerful taste.
We’re not against going back: it’s still good, the atmosphere is nice, friendly service, very efficient (pizzas are made very fast even when crowded), and the portions are large for the price. I’d recommend trying it, but don’t expect amazing food. Definitely good overall though!
