If you like waiting, you won’t like Pizza Union – unless cold pizza’s your thing.
The restaurant in Spitalfields prides itself on cooking up its thin-crusted creations in five minutes flat, a nod to the busy city types who frequent the venue for a brisk lunch during the week.
At its peak on a Friday evening the monstrous wood burning oven, which fits 16 12-inch pizzas at once, can churn out 500 crispy cheese and tomato circles in three hours to meet the demand of the early weekend onslaught.
As far as the food goes one size fits all is the motto here, small pots of olives and nuts with an array of tantalising dips are available to entertain your tastebuds, before your very own at table buzzer directs you to the counter to collect your main.
The pizzas are uniformly 12-inch but offer a good variety of toppings, with all the classics including five vegetarian options and a couple of lesser known creations.
The Manzo, for example a spicy combination of beef, garlic and green chilli, topped with a fresh clipping of rocket, is sweet and light with a suitable kick.
The Stagioni, which separates cotto ham, pepperoni, mushrooms, artichoke and black olives into four tasty quadrants, is perfect for the indecisive eater.
Dessert lovers are handed a pared-down choice of ice cream or dolce, a glutinous hybrid of dough, Nutella and mascarpone – which while tasty, seems like an afterthought on a menu which is all about the remarkably well priced, fresh, artisan pizza.
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