Cafe Alfresco

Café Alfresco in Glengormley is one of a branch of two, the other being in the massive Abbeycentre shopping complex a mile or so down the road.
The one in the Abbeycentre always seems to flat out busy. This one, in Glengormley, is not. To me, I find it a wonder that it still lives, even though it’s been fairly likeable any time me or the clan has been in.
There is a current drive to regenerate Glengormley — much needed — and I can only hope that places like here live long enough to see it, because it really is quite good. There’s no extravagance, no overpriced dishes. It’s nice and bright inside, and the service is friendly. It’s not often I would order a steak when I’m out, and I would consider pepper sauce to be predictable and boring — but here, it’s hard to fault otherwise.
A couple of days ago, I was walking past and decided to peruse the menu (I make a point of this with any restaurant I walk past — I might pop out for a pint of milk, get distracted and be gone for two hours sometimes) — the menu wasn’t displayed, just an A-​board saying ‘Tonight — Serving Only Pizzas and Side Dishes.‘
Oh God, I thought — could this be the beginning of the end? Have they laid off everybody but the 17 year old KP? Or, are all the staff out celebrating the fact that they’ve destroyed their quarterly targets?
Hopefully the latter.

Café Alfresco (Glengormley branch) is currently closed for a complete refurbishment and make over. I’ll update when the work is completed. But for now, I’m totally gutted. I came here the other day just for some of their coleslaw. Man I coulda cried! Normally Alfresco are known for their out of this world pizzas and relatively inexpensive foods. There are two branches of this café in Newtownabbey; one in the Abbey Centre and one in Glengormley. Both branches are frequented by local employees /​staff from nearby shop on their lunch breaks who don’t want to eat junk food or fast food, instead preferring the healthier option. Because of this it can mean that it gets very busy around noon /​lunch time, but if you come later or earlier than this you’ll generally find a great service, lovely staff and some scrummy sandwiches. It’s a good option for the health conscious. Their dishes range from their gorgeous garlic sauté potatoes, substantial stews, mouth watering pizzas, plentiful pasta tubs (which come in a really good size) tempting toasties (my favourite!) lovely lasagne, I could go on but I’ll leave it to you to go try it out. You can choose the greasy option, but if you like they’ll make you up a superior salad bowl with stunning sauces or try one of the beautiful baked potatoes. Yum!

Café Alfresco does some fantastic pizzas. They are different in terms of the usual Belfast Pizzeria in that the pizza’s are deep pan. I’m not usually a fan of deep pan pizzas but this place is the exception. They cook their pizza’s to the highest standards and all toppings are top quality. Their vegetarian pizza can be a little on the watery side due to the size of the base, the vegetables can really get soak in and even then its fantastic. They pepperoni pizza is something you can’t go wrong with. At around £7 for the 12inch it’s great value. You have to wait a little while for the large amount of cheese to stop being thoroughly molten hot, but it’s worth that wait!

Café Alfresco and its takeaway Pizzarella has a ‘deep pan’ approach to pizza. Unlike the more traditional thin crust that you might be used to on pizza, they do things a bit differently. They also make sure you get a good helping of cheese on the pizza, which is great at the time of eating it, but maybe a little bit of a regret come bed time.
My favourite pizza from here has to be the meat feast. It is just covered with as many different types of meat that you could possibly think could go on a pizza. It actually has full rashers of bacon on it, which I have to admit is something special.
They cook their pizza in a traditional pizza oven, which adds another depth to the flavor of the pizza, and they do a fairly efficient delivery service too. Pizza prices range from £3 to £7.50 and feature two sizes, 9″ and 12″.