We're hurtling headlong into Christmas week, and what could be more festive than a pizza with a full on roast dinner and Yorkshire pudding on top? That's the eye-popping offering over at pizza chain Franco Manca with its all-new festive menu.
Tempted by some mouth-watering images of the Christmas pizzas on social media, I headed along to the King Street Franco Manca in Manchester to give it a whirl.
It's one of the more recent openings for the rapidly-expanding restaurant group which now boasts three in Greater Manchester, alongside the original outpost on Piccadilly Gardens and also at the Trafford Centre.
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They are famed for their sourdough pizzas, but for this Christmas they've decided to go with a crazy mash-up with traditional roast dinner pizzas for their festive menu. And they've certainly been causing a stir on social media.
You can choose two courses, with a glass of prosecco, for £19.50 or have a full three courses on the Christmas menu for £23.50.
As for the festive pizzas, you can choose from a beef roast dinner option, or a porchetta with brussel sprouts and stilton version - both with Yorkshire puddings on top. And if the instagram photos and videos are to be believed (as perfectly pictured above), it would all come served looking very mouth-watering with lashings of gravy.
Heading along on a Sunday, I decided to give the roast beef dinner pizza a whirl. The description said it would feature a traditional pizza base with a "creamy potato base, roast topside of beef, tenderstem broccoli, mozerella and taleggio cheese" and the whole thing finished off with beef gravy.
On the Franco Manca website, it boasts of the festive menu: "Two things are certain. 1) You’ve never tasted pizza like this before. 2) They’re going to sleigh your tastebuds this festive season."
They were right on the first point because I've NEVER tasted pizza like this before. And on point two, I'm not sure about sleigh, but the version I had certainly slayed that Yorkshire pud.
I mean just look at it, it was presented to me so burnt it was near incinerated. As crimes against Yorkshire puddings go, this one was pretty hefty.
The beef was roasted to a leathery sort of consistency that proved near impossible to cut into smaller pieces. It was tough and, served on the fairly dry pizza base, was not an exactly pleasant combination.
The topping was tickled with the merest drizzle of gravy on top. A few fronds of broccoli were dotted around, with one yellowing floret dumped in the middle for, perhaps, decorative effect.
And then there was the glaring and distracting chargrilled (yes, burnt) finish to the poor little Yorkie nestled in the middle. In an impressive feat of kitchen wizardry, while they managed to roast the life out of that Yorkshire pudding on top, they were able to keep its pool of white innards completely cold.
I could not work out at all what was going on here. I had a taste of the white gloop and it was a sort of potatoey-cheesy mash substance, completely cold save for the slightly warm streak of gravy atop it and the wilting broccoli just sitting there.
When the restaurant manager finally came over to ask if everything was ok, looking at my half-finished plate, I asked what exactly the white stuff inside the pudding was supposed to be.
"It's potato sauce", he said.
Potato sauce? As in "mash", I pondered to myself.
"And is it supposed to be served cold?", I enquired. "Yes," he replied.
"Oh. Well I did not like it," I said. And I asked for my bill.
Maybe he reflected on the state of the Yorkie as he took my plate away. Because when he returned, he said that he had taken the pizza off my bill and was sorry I didn't like it.
On the upside, the starter I'd plumped for off the Christmas menu was a pleasant pool of blue cheese fonduta, which served itself well as as way to moisten the dry patches of pizza with. And the King Street restaurant itself is a bright and modern space with a buzzy atmosphere.
But sadly, this trip to Franco Manca was not the festive hit I'd been hoping for. And on this evidence, roast dinners and pizzas will not be a combination I'll be rushing to try again.
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