Franco Manca Islington — Restaurant in London

I simply cannot understand the hype about this place. Dinner here was literally the blandest meal I have ever had out, anywhere, ever. I've had boiled white rice with more personality. The bread of the dough is well baked and has a nice texture but the toppings are mean, underseasoned and utterly miserable. The one good thing on the two pizzas we had was some really delicious spicy lamb sausage. The rest was utterly featureless.

In an attempt to salvage the situation I ordered some pesto to dip the crust into. It tasted like olive oil and sadness. Pesto from Sainsbury's is honestly better. Tried the blue cheese dip instead. This tasted like yogurt that had gone stale after being left next to a piece of gone off blue cheese, and was inedible.

In one last gasp effort I thought at least I could enjoy some bread (the pizza with nothing interesting on it) with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. They don't have any balsamic vinegar.

Pizza union is just up the road, and is just fantastic - go there instead. You're on Upper Street, there are loads of places to go that aren't here. Treat yourself. This pizza feels like someone has a very particular idea of how a pizza should be, and has made it their mission to aggressively educate the rest of the world about it. Their world view clearly believes strongly that tasty sauces are somehow inauthentic and a pizza should be white and taste white. I'd honestly have preferred a Domino's. Or a McDonald's. Or a...

We just left the restaurant due to a rude Italian waiter. We have been coming here for years and once again wanted to treat kids to pizza. I have no clue what caused his terrible attitude. From the moment we walked in he was terribly arrogant and unwelcoming, which is odd as he was lovely to other customers (it wasn’t very busy a few tables). Having asked for kids pencils he told me there was none left, I could clearly see there were pencils on the wall, I went to take them and asked if that was ok. He looked very displeased and said he wanted to give them to someone else (there was only one other family with kids, who already had pencils on their table). We asked to take our order numerous times his response was always very abrupt that he’ll come in a minute. He gave us attitude the entire time we were there and I have no clue what caused this. We had no choice but to pick up our two kids (who were by this point so upset we had to leave that the began to cry) and leave the restaurant. One thing the waiter did very well is hold the door open for us! We are now across the road in pizza express where staff couldn’t have been kinder and more welcoming to us...

We visited Franco Manca (Angel) yesterday night and had a lovely experience from the beginning to the end.

Service was quick and staff friendly and smiling - I always appreciate that!

We order the Burrata with bread and Nocellara olives for starters. The ingredients were tasty and fresh: absolutely recommended! We then proceeded with ordering our pizzas: number 5 (with garlic, anchovies and black olives) and number 6 (with slices of cured chorizo). Both were amazing! The dough was crunchy and thin, it was well cooked and not too oily or watery! A touch of chilly oil on top of both made them an absolute dream! We completed our order with two lovely desserts: the almond & lemon cake, served with fresh yogurt and the hazelnut and chocolate cake, served with a ball of vanilla ice-cream and cocoa powder on top! Not to forget...we brought us memory of our trips to Italy by concluding our meal with two shots of limoncello! 😛

Overall, an excellent experience. Great service, tasty and high quality food, very fair prices & relaxed setting! I recommend 100% and cannot wait to be back...