Franco Manca, Brixton, London

Great little pizza gem tucked away in Brixton market. The pizzas really are special here - I love the fact there is actually quite a small selection, but done really well. Everything on the menu, seems to have been well thought through and excellently sourced. The only problem I have with it are the queues (it is quite little!) and the fact that it isn’t an evening venue..

Quite simply the best pizzas in London. It just goes to show that keeping it simple is the key to good food.

Ottima pizza italiana

I went to FM on a sunny Saturday afternoon, after band practice.

It was very much one of those how-the-hell-have-I-or-anyone-else-I-know-for-that-matter-not-been-here-yet moments.

Franco Manca is split in half across the market thoroughfare. It’s cramped next to a fish stall, spilling out all over the pavement. If you need space, peace and time on your side, then it’s not for you.

However, it serves the best pizza I’ve had this side of the channel, anywhere. It’s embarrassingly good. You see the whole production process infront of you (since you’re right next to the chef), and out they pop from the wood ovens, straight infront of you. Fresh, hot, doughy joy.

There’s only 5 or 6 pizzas on the menu, they’re all about a fiver each and ten inches across. You can have a salad, an organic beer and an espresso for a pound. It’s perfect. Utterly perfect.

The queue moves fast. The manager is hilarious. It’s the anti-Pizza Express, and I wish it was in central London so I could go more often.

Totally essential.

I really enjoyed it! Don’t get afraid of the long queue, if you’re only a few people they will squeeze you in quickly.

All the rumors you hear about this place is entirely true - franco manca really does serve up some of the best dough in the city, and you really need to go try it out if you havent already.

I’ve heard many, many things about Franco Manca. Many hail it as the best pizza in London, so off I went to sample it myself. There’s a danger of the over-hype, and I was conscious of this - I was fully expecting to be completely blown away. Given that it’s in Brixton and they only open from 12 - 5pm, it’s not the easiest of places to visit, but I finally did.

We settled down at a table outside, in the covered market area. It was cold - coats stayed on for the duration of the meal and my toes froze.

The menu is small, and instantly I plumped for the anchovy, caper and olive pizza. It was disappointing that they didn’t have the buffalo mozzarella that day but nevertheless, the pizza was indeed, delicious. It had a lovely crust, great flavour and was generous in the toppings. It was a decent size too, something I always look for in a pizza. A well dressed green salad accompanied it.
Home-made lemonade was delicious and tasted a bit like honey, but the white wine (at £7.50 a bottle) was pretty grim. I couldn’t drink more than half a glass of it and not just because I was hungover - it was really acidic and tasted quite astringent.

Verdict? Really impressive pizzas, and extremely well priced considering it’s all organic (the bill for 3 pizzas, 1 bottle of wine, 2 large bottles of lemonade and a side salad came to £31). I would definitely come again, but perhaps in the summer - I was seriously frozen by the time our meal was finished; get a table indoors if you can. The waiting staff could do with a prod too - we had to fetch our own glasses, fetch the waitress to get the bill, and then correct the waitress on said bill.

If you live in the Brixton area then you will realise why this place is so packed at the weekends, it is the only good pizza around. Also, as the market is closed at night and on Sundays, most people descend on Franco Manca’s on a Saturday.

As a connoisseur or sour dough, I find the pizza base astoundingly good. You can tell that it has been left to rise for at least day as the dough is so soft and light. I also appreciate the sheer simplicity of the menu - the simple pizzas are made from great ingredients, which you can taste. I am glad they have started to use pitted olives now as I nearly broke a tooth a few months back.

If you like gingery lemonade you should try theirs. It is made with strong honey and is quite out of this world. I have never had the house red of white wine, but it looks drinkable.

To me Franco Manca is like sitting in Naples.

A contender for the best pizza place in London, and certainly the best pizza I’ve eaten. The service is quick and idiosyncratic (ie. the manger is a bit of a nutter), the drinks are fantastic (amazing lemonade) and its so CHEAP.

If you’ve read other reviews moaning about the queues, here a clue: get there before 12pm. They will seat you before they start serving and you can laugh at the hundreds of people waiting for a table fiftenn minutes later, while you eat your lovely pizza.

Best pizza I have had outside Italy (and I’m Italian). Traditional but in a post-modern way, if that makes sense. Really great and cheap experience - try the organic lemonade.

We went there on Saturday 29 November after having read brilliant reviews about this place in a newspaper and on the net. When we arrived there was a lengthy queue. We waited for about 30 minutes. I heard the pizzas were good and I was not disappointed. I must say that the pizza was the best I have ever eaten, better than the ones I had in Italy, in the piazza in Sorrento. I would certainly recommond this place to anyone. We travelled from North Hertfordshire and it was certainly worth it.

Avoid at all costs!!!!
The service is abismal. They forget they have taken your order and let you wait for 30-45 minutes ignoring you when you try to catch their attention!
Very disorganised, the waiter was rude and couldn’t care less… give it a miss!!

Great place

The recent praise heaped on this place by Time Out, although completely founded in truth, has made this place ridiculously busy. Strange opening hours - closed by 5pm on a Saturday and not open Sunday make Saturdays on place barley bearable, but then… well despite the often hour plus wait the food is GOOD. How good? Real good. Simple pizzas, great flavours - this place truly proves that less really is more. And cheap to boot.

Great place for some authentic pizza, nothing fancy, no frills just scrumtious food. If you head down on the weekend be prepared to wait in a long line but its well worth it, they will shuffle you in as soon as they can. The menu is short and simple, I had the chorizo and mozzarella pizza with extra olives, my only complaint was that I got 2 olives, I called the waiter and he quickly remedied the problem so no harm done. The pizza is delicious, has fresh ingrediants and cooked just right and best of all its cheap! I had an organic Weissbier to drink which was good too but apparently the lemonade is the one to go for! Situated in the bustling market it was a lovely lunch experience in a lively part of town.

You can not go wrong with a visit to Franco Manca. The pizzas are SO tasty and authentic and are really reasonable at around £4-£6. The organic lemonade is also good and a steal at £1 but the biggest bargain of all is the organic wines which are £1.20 a glass….Can you believe it!! It does get busy on Saturdays as it is only open until four but I have never had to wait more than 15 minutes as the service is so efficient and on a Satuday they have the two Italian guys waitering who are fantastic and will keep you entertained whilst you wait. It is in Brixton Market Row so you can people watch whilst you enjoy your pizza. It is much quieter and calmer if you visit during the week and the staff are very nice but I lovely the Saturday buzz this place has. I have been many times and have always left with a big smile.

The pizza is very good, as is the price, but from experience, it’s just not worth the wait for the ludicrous queues that this place has on weekends. The staff have great personalities which keeps the place interesting, and the organic beer tastes good and is cheap. The menu is very limited, which is probably a good thing as they’re focusing on doing a few dishes well, but doesn’t make it particularly interesting for repeated visits.

If it was quieter, I’d give this place a much higher score, but for food as simple as pizza, I just don’t think the wait is worth it.

“AMAZING” Is the word that describes the pizza’s that i tasted in “Franco Manca” I have never experianced such a good taste from the pizza’s that were made here!! The base of the pizza was so soft and the you could taste how fresh the tomateo spread was. Everything that you could have on your pizza was all very orgainc and refreshing! The apperance of the resturant wouldnt draw your attention if i was walking past i wouldnt think to go in there BUT…. if you are near by or in town i will strongly recommend you to go in and try there pizza’s and strongly think you will go back for seconds!! Enjoy!!

There are plently of reviews posted here where everyone gushes about how good this place is. And it IS good. One day when I finally get to Italy this is what I imagine the pizza will taste like.

Thin crispy bases, topped with a fresh tomato base, flavoursome mozzarella and rich chorizo, all for a fiver. What a bargain.

There isn’t much choice. A handful of pizzas to choose from, limited extra toppings and a few standard, unbranded drinks. But that’s kinda nice actually.

I ordered extra olives at a cost of 90p. Imagine my shock when I got just 2 olives. Normally I would have written it off to bad luck (or an ungenerous chef) but my friend had the same problem. The waiter was clearly ashamed and ran off to tell a manager who quickly brought us a bowl of olves. Well done!

The queues - all those gushing reviews mean that when Franco Manca is open you can expect to queue. And queue.

They aren’t open for dinner in the week so it’s lunch only for now.

All in a all, a great concept and delicious food make this place a winner. There are a few issues, but I have a feeling those will all be resolved soon.

I think there is one word which somes up the pizzas sold @ 'Franco Manca’ which is 'AMAZING’. Thats all i could say whilst I ate the chorizo and mozzarella pizza I ordered. A really great pizza for a very reasonable prize - £5.60. What makes this pizza so different is that the base is made out of sour dough (dont know much about sour dough but it tastes good thats all that matters) and you can taste the freshness of the tamotoe sauce base which differs to your pizza express or pizza hut.

The decor of the restaurant is very basic, infact it is extrememly basic but the pizza is that good that you would not care as much. Everything sold here is homemade or organic. The drinks list was very simple as well, all they had was beer,homemade lemonade,wine and water -literally.

However, I travelled from leicester square to Brixton on my lunch break to try out the pizza sold at Franco Manca and yes it was worth it.

So if you are round the area or even if your not Franco Manco is a must.

Truly fantastic pizza. Believe the Hype, this is the best Pizza in London and it’s only going to cost you £5. If you’re thinking of hitting up pizza express today or you thought you might wander down to Zizzi’s on the high street for a spot of lunch….. DON’T! Get on a tube Brixton and eat some real pizza.

Review in one line: Potentially my last meal on earth.

You know when you’ve found a place you covet when you’re sitting there awaiting your bill and wondering just how you are going to get everyone you know to try the place - especially with the sparse opening hours of 12-5 during the week.

The pizzas were absolutely fantastic. Truly bloody scrumptious. The sour dough base holds as much flavour and texture as the toppings as it is thrown in a scorching oven for just 40 seconds which makes it crispy on the outside, but soft and squiggy on the inside. For me the tomato layer was the best part as it is unbelievably fresh and flavoursome.

Apart from everything else, it shows that less is more - the basic tables and chairs (unfortunately plonked alongside a fish market which was the only slight downside), the menu with only a few items on each pizzas and a drinks list of:
- One type of Beer
- One type of lemonade
- One type of wine
- Water.
And best of all, it’s all great value for your money. Hurry before they realise!

Wow… this is good pizza…really really good pizza.

I read about this place in the paper over the weekend, about how they use 500c ovens and cook the pizzas for just 40 seconds, about how the dough is made from a starter culture from around 1730, about how all the ingredients are carefully sourced, and about how they only offer six pizzas, all of them under £6 (most of them under £4).

How could we not a make a trip for the Qype Friday lunch trip… even if it did mean a trip on the Tube?

We got there about 1:30 and had to queue for around 10-15 minutes while a table came free that could fit six of us. Once we sat down we were all starving and salivating over the pizzas everyone was tucking into.

I ordered the chorizo and mozzarella pizza (the priciest option: £5.60) with the sausage sourced from the ace Brindisa in Borough Market. and it was extraordinarily good. You might think that one pizza is pretty much like another but this was something else.

Some adjectives: doughy, tasty, chewy, meaty, tasty, filling, bloody gorgeous.

The 'sourdough pizza’ isn’t deep pan and it’s not thin and crispy, it’s like the nicest bread you’ve ever tasted with awesome pizza on top if it.

The beer they serve is Hepworth Blonde Organic, and while it’s nothing amazing it’s pretty tasting. I samples some of my workmate’s homemade lemonade and that was really nice, very refreshing and ultra-tasty.

If you’re anywhere near Brixton (between 12 and 5pm) and you’re peckish then this is the place to head for.

Probably the best place in London for cheap, delicious pizza. Try the Somerset’s Finest Pizza - a Calzone with cheddar, buffalo ricotta, organic pork and loads of other delicous bits and pieced. Mmmmm mmm mmm.

The perfect pizza place.