Pizza East (Shoreditch), E1

Pizza East Shoreditch is housed on the ground floor of the Tea Building, on the corner of Shoreditch High Street and Bethnal Green Road. The decor is pretty industrial, with concrete walls and exposed beams etc. It’s owned by Soho House, who have been expanding their restaurant offering at a pretty rapid pace recently.

This was our first visit to any Pizza East and all the early signs were good. No queue, no waiting and an impressive setting greeted Antonia and I. We took a couple of seats up at the large, industrial bar and ordered a couple of Moretti’s on draught (£4.50 each) and a portion of nice Marinated olives with Marcona almonds for £3. The space will hold up to 170 with a nice mix of long refectory tables and more intimate 4 seaters but the bar was a nice relaxed option.

I thought the menu was reasonably priced with pizzas from £8 and a good range of antipasti ranging from Garlic bread for £3 to Fritto misto for £8. There are a few salad choices and if you don’t fancy a pizza, there are 5 or 6 dishes cooked in the wood oven like Mac ‘n’ cheese (£8), Lamb shoulder with salsa verde (£14) and Salt baked salmon with aioli (£16).

We were definitely in a pizza mood, we had been ever since we got back from Italy so Antonia had the Buffalo mozzarella, tomato, basil pizza (£8) with some prosciutto cotto added (+£1.50) and I went for the Pork belly, tomato, fontina, mushroom pizza (£11). Both were tasty and surprisingly filling – we probably could have shared one with a couple of antipasti dishes, although I thought Antonia’s was a little stingy on the mozzarella front considering that was the main ingredient. My pork belly was delicious, maybe a touch dry but with nice crispy chunks of crackling mixed in.

We were pretty impressed with Pizza East Shoreditch. They use good quality ingredients, cook them simply and authentically and the impressive space certainly adds to the experience. I wasn’t blown away but I’m more than happy to go back and check out more of their antipasti and wood oven dishes. Pizza East Shoreditch is also open for brunch Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 til 17:00.

Posted in: 3 Star, Dinner, East London, Italian, London, Pizza, Restaurants, Review