Franco Manca Belsize Park — Restaurant in London

I came on Thursday and today, both times has the same three women delivering a very poor service. They were extremely unattentive and exceptionally slow. I don't usually write reviews, but I've had two evening ruined because of this.

It took several asks for our drinks to eventually arrive (about 15 minutes after we ordered and our starter even came faster). Saying this, one of our company still did not get his, had to ask again and still got the drink wrong!

We found it amusing they didn't write our order down, and for the right reasons. The food that arrived also wasn't what we had ordered and it took a further 10 minutes to get the waiters (grumpy) attention to simply get some cutlery for us to use. When they came back (after more time) they simply threw the pot of cutlery on the table and grumbled something inexplicable before storming off.

The reason I gave this a two star was because the quality of ingredients used was very good! But the presentation of our pizzas not so good. All the toppings were piled into one portion of the pizza, something that could have been sorted had the chef spent an extra 30 seconds ensuring good distribution. This meant there were huge crusts (of great but bland sourdough).

Of course when the bill came it was all wrong and it took a long time for this to be sorted so we could leave.

Furthermore, when I did come on Thursday with my friend (who had a fractured ankle and had already come a long way to get to the restaurant but had to stand for longer), the staff could not guarantee the new gluten free pizza was 100% gluten free! As a celiac she was happy to simply ask for salad, but even this was supposedly contaminated and could not be guaranteed.. thus we had to leave after dealing with a very stressed and again grumpy waiter. As she can't walk far (and has dietary rquirements) we have to do a lot of planning in advance and this put us in an extremely difficult position.

I'm sure the chain is great! But the staff at this chain (on Thursday and Saturday's anyway) are clearly malfunctioning and need a training course in customer management and...

My rating of Franco Manca is 4.5/5 stars.

Menu: Franco Manca was recommended by an Italian friend of mine who lives in the area. I must say, it's one of the best places to grab pizza in London. The menu is nice and simple - offers small bites (starters to share or to be enjoyed by oneself), and there are 7 pizza options all cooked on sourdough baked in a wood oven (vegetarian friendly options available). I am a huge fan of the use of sourdough in place of traditional pizza dough from Italy - it adds great flavour and texture to the pizza especially when cooked in a high temperature wood oven. For me (having travelled around Italy eating at some of the best pizzerias in Napoli and in other cities/ countryside across the country) the qualities that make a good pizza is the dough and the quality (i.e. freshness) of the ingredients. Franco Manca has the pizza dough part down, however, in terms of the flavours, it is still incomparable to pizza one can get from Italy (which I am willing to cut some slack on considering the restaurant is in London). Bottom line, this place is definitely one of the best places to grab pizza in London! Moreover, the menu also offers options to get side salads or a salad main if pizza isn't your thing (why wouldn't it be?!). The only negative I have is the limited wine (and beer) options.

Ambiance: This place gets packed during popular hours - expect a short wait if you did not make reservations. The restaurant offers comfortable seating (there are no bar seating available).

Service: Friendly staff, just wished they were slightly more attentive.

Overall, I definitely recommend this place to get...

Sometimes there's a long wait, somedays the dough is better than others, from time to time you get less toppings, on occasion the burrata seems taster/larger than on other days.

But for Fast, Cheep and on most occasions, great pizza you can't go wrong.

The Dough at this branch has gotten much better recently, and miles ahead of the FM I had in another restaurant last week.

I live down the road and its our goto restaurant for a quick easy dinner. Esp in this weather with the outside seating. We are there at least once a week.

sometimes you have to fight for the attention of the staff. But hey, this place can get really busy.

This isn't fine dining, Its a cheap dinner and thats the type of restaurant it is.

If you think the entrance to this place is busy, I used to live near the one on Bermondsey street. That can get crazy at busy times esp when it rains any everyone crams in!

The first person that took me to a FM was my Italian friend from Napoli, And the biggest compliment I think FM has, is its full of Italians...!

Ive regularly been to a few of their restaurants around London. 95% of the meals have been excellent and 5% average. But I've never left the place disappointed, even when the survice/food hasn't been to the normal standard. As 95% of the time its spot on and the friendly, busy and hardworking staff make up for it.

Its a Loud, fast paced, well priced restaurant with great pizza. they're not pretending to be...