Proven Pizzeria — Restaurant in Stafford

From an Italian family... bruschette were amazing, the shared antipasti rich and the pizza superb!

A little update. We came here for a celebration day. Proven is still the warm place to go when we're homesick or we have a special day to celebrate. I'm sorry that the picture is not in its best light, but the pizza won't stay in the plate too long for a photoshoot. I can't recommend Proven more. The staff is superb, they often ask you if you are fine with the food and they are really interested in your opinion.

I strongly disagree with the previous review that talks about "average" pizza, with the stars on the service and on the place. Way too low. The place is warm and clean. The vibe is very sofisticated without being pompous. You can have a special, elegant dinner here even if your dress code is not cocktail dress or black suit.

As I said, as italian, this is a very good pizza, light, very easy to digest and tasty. There are quite few original recipes and some that are from the creativity of the chef, like the "Mother Earth" (the one in the picture) that is absolutely fantastic. I wish this is "average" because I don't have to drive 14 miles to get here all the time, but I am very happy that this place exist to offer you not just good food (because it is good) and good service, but a real...

Normally have a great experience here and can't fault the food but we were really disappointed following our latest visit. Booked a table for 6 of us for our Daughters birthday. Booked at 4:45 and arrived at 4:40 and were seated straight away, all good so far. Had drinks orders taken which arrived soon after and food order taken with 15 mins, again all good. However we then waited for 1hour 20 mins until any food arrived, food eventually got to us way past 6pm, not great when we had a 4 and 8 year old with us who were starving by the time the food came. We also had to go to the bar ourselves to make orders for drinks and desserts. Overheard a lot of people on the tables below asking how much longer the food was going to be. Not sure if it was a case of them being short staffed, or bad planning but not a great experience this time around. The bill was also incorrect (overcharging / included drinks we didn't have etc.) and we had to have it adjusted a couple of times. Despite this, food was brilliant, just such a shame the experience itself wasn't great, especially when paying over £100 for the evening, you'd...

The overall quality of the food was poor, the starters were ok at best but nothing special or enjoyable. Two of the pizzas were same as starters edible but not enjoyable however one of the pizzas was so soggy that when sliced there was so much liquid it was basically a pizza soup, when we complained they said would do a new one but said it was because of the buffalo mozzarella (they clearly don’t know how to strain it) so we asked for it without the buffalo mozzarella. New one arrived admittedly not as soggy as the first but still too soggy to be able to pick up or to hold a topping and parts of the base were burnt with others parts still raw. They deducted that pizza from the bill and offered an apology of sorts but to be honest didn’t seem that concerned at the complaint or the poor standard of food they served. Shame as the place itself was nice, however even without the disastrous pizza soup the overall poor quality of food will mean we will not...