Bianco 43

After ages I have finally found it!! The best pizza in London!!! No doubt!! The wooden fired oven is amazing!! It’s like Naples in London!!! All the staff was Italian and very friendly. Everyone was smiling and enjoying the Italian vibe!! Besides, there are options for those not interested in pizza, which are equally very satisfying. I have the best spaghetti all scoglio!! Portions are very big!! Very good value for money You must try the home made tiramisu’ to finish!!

We have been there short after the opening night and we found the pizza chewy and and rather tasteless. Tonight we decided to give it another go. We were greeted by a grumpy waitress who rudely asked a second one in Italian to " get those two a seat somewhere upstairs ". Once seated we were surrounded by very noisy Italians ( owners’ friends, we later got to understand) who took over the tiny room. Pizzas were soggy and chewy, staff was extremely rude and unhelpful. Please do not waste your time and your money at Bianco 43.

Now that Greenwich is walking distance from where I live, I’ve been on the prowl for more eateries to investigate. And Bianco 43 is one I’ll definitely be returning to. I was here a few weeks ago before hitting the nearby Greenwich Picturehouse cinema, and I loved how small and sweet it is. With all the bleached wood, you feel like you’re hidden away in small place by a beach. I cased a few people heading upstairs, so it may well be bigger than I realise, but on the ground floor there’s only a handful of tables, making it ideal for an intimate, cosy catch-up.

The food is cheap, cheerful and delicious, especially considering the lack of other nearby options and Greenwich’s trend of overpricing everything. The portion sizes are huge, my baked gnocchi was heaven on a plate, and the courgette fries were delicious too. The booze could have been cheaper; a house red would have gone down well and probably kept us in there a lot longer. The profiteroles were on the disappointing side but that probably says more about the raptures I was in over my main course than anything else. Next time I reckon I’ll opt for the cannolo siciliano instead. And there will be a next time. You can count on it.

We have no good pizza and Italian restaurants in Greenwich.

And despite what you might think at first glance, given that it's a town FULL of eateries, we don't actually have many good restaurants in Greenwich.

Bianco 43 is one of the good ones. I'll be honest, my five star rating isn't just based on the food. It's based on the friendly staff (who are all Italian), the sexy waiter who made me blush, the owner who is SO EXCITED about people in his restaurant enjoying themselves. It's also largely based on the fact that we don't have a decent pizza place in Greenwich, and I'm thrilled that this place is here. You'll think it's full up when you look through the window, and we nearly didn't go on, but do! They've got an upstairs dining room too.

A main highlight is that they do courgette fries. Byron Hamburgers started me on these, and now they're a bit like a mild form of crack. You get a craving for something, but you don't entirely know what. And then you remember and you don't stop thinking about them all day. That is the power of a deep fried courgette. And you can get them here. Strangely with a calamari starter, but the calamari wasn't fried for nearly long enough.

Pizzas were awesome, my 4 seasons was a bit hit and miss with the toppings (mushrooms instead of olives, only three bits of artichoke, but then loads of ham) but the base was so damn perfect that I didn't care. This is really good pizza. Carbs die happy here.

Pizzas peak at around a tenner, and the fries are £3. Wine isn't cheap - their house is £17 a bottle, and that's a downside for me. It nudges a good value meal into one that's a bit of a treat. But then I argued that if you're splitting the bill, you're paying a pound or so more than normal. (This is why I never have any money.)

The owner proudly told us that they're going to start doing opera music soon (I'll be sure to avoid those nights), and he's promised they'll start doing delivery. I can't wait.

In reality, it's a four star restaurant. But in an area that was crying out for something awesome, run by friendly people who love working here. And for that it gets full marks.

We stumbled upon Bianco 43 last Sunday while mooching about Greenwich trying to decide where have lunch before taking in a movie at the Picture House. The paint looked fresh, it's only been open a couple of weeks, they had pizza a plenty on the menu and there was room for two so it was a no brainer really.

The white walls and pictures dotted about make this a nice clean welcoming space, they are making the best out of quite a narrow building, and there is a wood burning pizza oven at the back of the ground floor room which makes for a very attractive centrepiece. There is also another room upstairs which seemed to be pretty full on this busy Sunday lunchtime.

The guys running this place originally hail from Naples and this is reflected in the style of pizza. They come with a nice char on the crust and have a flavoursome but quite doughy base. There is an extensive selection of Pizze Bianche which comes without the tomato sauce but we plumped for the tried and tested on this occasion. B had a lovely looking Bianco 43 with cherry tomato, ricotta and mozzarella while I went for the meaty Capricciosa. Both were very tasty and, when washed down with a glass of the very reasonably priced house white, made for a great pre movie lunch.

We skipped starters but the selection the two young ladies sitting next to us had looked very good and the short dessert menu also looked very appealing.

We both finished off our meal with a decent Illy macchiato which was not on the coffee menu but seemed to be no bother to make.

The staff were very friendly without being overbearing. The other punters were very Greenwich, but in a good way, with a mix of same and mixed sex couples and also a few families with youngish children. Just for the record I would say this is not a place best suited to babies and buggies.

While not setting the world alight, Franco Manca it is not, this is a nice place to eat although it's not somewhere I would want to spend a whole evening in (we were in no way rushed through our meal I did notice that people did seem to come and go around us pretty quickly - I guess it's just that kind of place). However, I have no doubt we will be back again in the not too distant future.