Miss Margherita - Sourdough Pizzeria — Restaurant in London

I went to this restaurant 3 times. I know I am slightly intolerant to some ingredients commonly used in pizzas, but after every time I ate here I felt very poorly. I am not sure which ingredient was the cause, specifically, but I won't try again. Apart from this, that is my problem and not theirs, I found the few pizza options to be very expensive and the ingredients combinations to be a bit weird and not always good. I am Italian and I am used to very down-to-earth ingredients combinations. I would label all pizzas they serve here as "gourmet" or "fusion" but they always failed to satisfy me. Also, for the price they charge, they should use a bit more of each ingredient to make their pizzas tastier. They have very few options when it comes to beer. No draught and all quite expensive. The equivalent of a pint will set you off about £9, that will add to £10 for the pizza and maybe £5 for a small appetizer. Apart from the expensive beer don't expect a coke or a pepsi here. Being quite hipsterish they only serve local (not always good) soft drinks. If you don't like lemonade or ginger beer then it will have to be water.

The atmosphere in the place is not bad. Can be crowded at dinner time and sometimes the wait can be quite long but not terrible. Service is decent. I only had one bad service experience when I asked to cook my pregnant wife's pizza a bit more (eggs were still runny) and I got a "I've made pizza for 15 years, I know what I am doing" as an answer.

Go here if you want a decent, yet expensive, pizza in a quirky place. Avoid if you have been to Italy at least once and you liked the...

£10 for an average take away pizza? Seriously? What a shame. I've yearned for an excellent local pizzeria for years (my quest for the perfect London pizza has spanned some 30+ years), so I've been watching Mamma Dough (previously Sodo)'s development since they opened in Honor Oak earlier with interest. I'll admit to being a well qualified and tremendously experienced pizza snob, and also to the fact that the 'sour dough' concept was the main reason it's taken me over 6 months to try this restaurant. Turns out I needn't have worried, my pizza base had a robust taste, but nowhere near what you might associate with 'acid' sour dough bread. Which leaves us with ingredients and the technicalities. Quality of the salame and prosciutto ingredients in my 'cured meat' pizza were good, but nowhere near what would justify the steep £10 for a decidedly small single portion pizza. My main gripes are that technically, (1) the crusts are way too evident for this size portion, (2) my pizza was overloaded with too much tomato sauce that was too highly seasoned, (3) chef was decidedly mean with the zero flavour mozzarella and (4) the tiny mouse-turd like capers I asked for specially were completely tasteless too (seemed like they'd been sitting in water all day). Which is all something of a disappointment - a potentially great local pizzeria less than 300m from my front door, needing potentially a big rethink, above all, price wise, considering the quality of what's on offer. Go to...

Disappointing walk-in experience. I popped in this evening and was unsure of where to sit/stand/ how to place an order because I normally phone ahead and just collect.

A member of staff engaged me and pointed me in the direction of the specials board. The staff member in question was holding two fresh pizzas and was evidently en route to a table. In order that I not be responsible for holding up someone else's meal I said "I'm okay, you can serve those people". It was my intention of relinquishing the staff member of any obligation to talk with me at that moment so as not to hinder his current task. It was a gesture offered in politeness.

The staff member took my comment as an affront to his professionalism and responded in a curt, abrupt and downright aggressive bark with the words, "Listen, I know when to serve the people okay guy?!"

This was not imagined or misunderstood. Other members of staff and customers gave each other glances of disbelief and acknowledgement to imply that they too recognised the utter rudeness of the staff member and his unnecessarily anger-fuelled response.

This sort of confrontational attitude is not in any way appropriate.

This review will be my first response. My second will be a formal letter demanding an apology.

I am bitterly disappointed with my experience. This exchange has tarnished every positive visit I've had here...