Franco Manca

This place gets packed with city workers during the week and it’s pretty cheap for a sit down meal coming at about £5−7 for a whole pizza. You might want to prepare to queue from about 12pm rush hour but if it’s a nice summers day you can choose to take away and eat outside. The goal of staffs there are to get as many people in so the turnaround is pretty hectic so not ideal if you’re coming for a relaxed business lunch. My favourite is the pepperoni with mozzarella one and you can add a bit of chilli oil to top up the spice!

Pizza is tasty and for a great price. Although there are better pizzas in London, this is passable and has good beer as well. I would recommend for a family or to anyone looking for low-​cost dining.

Love this place. Great organic wine for £3.50 a large glass, organic pizza with organic toppings for £7−8. Some of their shops are a bit tight with the toppings though. All Italian staff gives an authentic feel to dining here.

I have been recommended this place by many. But after just coming back from Italy I was a little bit skeptical. After coming back from Italy I thought no new inventions of pizza could fool me (seriously where did Pulled Pork on pizza become a thing!) but nope I have been proven wrong, this place is goooood!
This place is brilliant, simple menus but a long wait. The pizzas were chewy and when they say ‘little tomato sauce’ — it is pretty much a drop of sauce in the middle!
Make sure you book in advance! Oh and be aware of the garlic bread — there were plenty of garlic cloves.
All in all very good pizzas for a good price!

Life is beautiful, isn’t it?
As soon as you think you found the one thing that make you say «OK, there can’t be anything better than this» BUM here it comes a train of «YOU’RE WRONG» destination: your face.
Wow, I mean just wow.
Let’s start from the beginning.
This place is in a kind of a secret area, a small pedestrian roundabout behind Liverpool street station, and this is actually a very good news for you, as it means the place is slightly less crowded than the other Franco Manca (Bye bye 1 h queue on Tottenham Court Rd!).
At the beginning I was heavily suspicious. I generally avoid chains, and Franco Manca started to look as such after it opened its tenth restaurant in London (how many there are now, something like 12 I think). Instead.
Instead.
Oh bloody deliciousness white dough, man this pizza was incredible. It sincerely was over the top quality, much much better than Michele or Gorizia in Naples, it was extreme. I could have two, three, five of them as easily as asking. I mean that was incredible, just look at it, LOOK at it when you receive it. Do you see its fluffiness yet its delicious little tiny bit of crust on top, like a floury casket waiting to be smashed and let its deliciousness inside get out on the open.
It’s just incredible. I mean it really is. There are no words to understand how much I did appreciated this place, as long as its pizza maker stay at this place I’ll get here as many times as I can, it’s just unbelievable.

For the first time, I tried take away instead of eating in from Franco Manca, now 15 venues strong and has since been brought by a group called Fullham Shore (the same people behind The Real Greek). FM has really came a long way since back then when it only had 1 restaurant not so long ago (2008). The Gloucester old spot ham is my all time personal favourite, mozzarella, buffalo ricotta, wild mushrooms, the perfect combination; fine baked and the sour dough based stilled tasted lovely even after I reheated again in the oven. It cost almost 50% less than Pizza Hut or Domino take away so if you have a Franco Maca nearby and you are craving for pizza, you know what to do.

This one was a recommendation from one of my colleagues, and as her tips have always been spot-​on in the past I was really looking forward to this place where the pizza was said to be marvellous…
Got there in the evening and luckily got a table (they don’t do reservations).
Water will get served for free without having to ask for it. I went for a beer (‘no logo lager’) which was really good.
The pizzas on the menu all looked good but I could not find one that really triggered me so I decided to use number 1 (tomato, garlic, oregano) as a base and asked the waiter for his recommendation which was Bresaola, air-​dried salted beef. Never had that before but wanted to give it a try. Added wild mushrooms to it and prepared myself to wait twenty minutes or so.
It only took three for a steaming hot delicious pizza to find it’s way to my table. What a tremendous taste! Sour dough pizza is rarely to be found where I live (Hamburg) but I like it as it has a very unique taste of it’s own. Don’t expect a crispy pizza base, it’s soft…
Staff is cheerful and open for talks if they got a minute. Asked how long a pizza will stay in their unique wood-​burning oven — just 45 seconds!
They invited me to have a closer look and take a few photos…
Highly recommended, goes onto my ‘have to do’ list for my next stay here in London…

War hier mit meiner Schwester Abendessen.
Das Restaurant ist gemütlich eingerichtet und der große Pizzaofen im Raum verbreitet ein besonderes Flair.
Die Bedienung war freundlich und unsere Bestellung wurde schnell aufgenommen.
Auch das Essen war sehr schnell bei uns :)
Ich hatte die Pizza Nummer 4 mit Schinken und Pilzen und extra Tomatensoße — sehr zu empfehlen und meine Schwester hatte die Nummer 2 mit Tomate und Basilikum –ebenfalls zu empfehlen, wenn auch sehr einfach.
Kostenloses Leitungswasser wurde bereitgestellt und wir bestellten zusätzlich die «organic lemonade» die in süßen Glasflaschen serviert wird und sehr lecker ist!
Für so gutes Essen und Trinken war der Preis schwer in Ordnung — wir kommen wieder!

I’m a regular at their Stratford Westfield branch but this place has so much more to offer. With it being an actual restaurant rather than a communal food court it feels more personal and the staff were great when we visited. It also opened my eyes and I actually noticed they serve a lot more than just pizza. We shared three different lots of ‘bites’ which you could get as starters. Great meats and cheese but to top it all an amazing baked aubergine dish. It was so good I could’ve eaten that as a main if it was served in a larger portion. We then got to the pizzas. Huge, fresh, great toppings and so so cheap. Make sure to keep an eye out for the specials of the day. When your paying £8 or less for a stone oven baked pizza near Liverpool Street you feel that your stealing from them. If you still have room they also serve desserts. Nothing on the menu but a small selection of two dishes which they say changes regularly. Just be sure to wash it down with a shot of limoncello. (Visit — 12/​04/​2015 Lunch)

I haven’t been to Franco Manca for a while and I managed to forget how good that pizza is! The stiff Broadgate Circle is not my usual hang out, but I decided to give it a try. With ‘no booking’ policy on Friday evening, I was expecting to queue for an hour, but actually we got a table straight away.
Once inside you forget about the glass and steal surrounding and immediately feel like in an Italian casa. Be prepared to be seated at a table with strangers, but fear not, they are big enough to not to rub shoulders with them.
We had to wait a bit before we were served, but once the order was taken, we got our food
within 3 minutes, which was awesome!
I went for no 5 (tomato, garlic, anchovies, oregano and capers) & my partner chose no 4 (cured ham, mozzarella, little tomato, buffalo ricotta and wild mushrooms).
The pizzas were delicious as in other branches I’ve tried before! In the past I found it hard to appreciate the ‘classic combination’ of tomato sauce and anchovies, and it wasn’t until Franco Manca that I can say, ‘it really does work!’ The size is perfect and if you love garlic, you will love the sauce.
I like the fact you can trace down all the ingredients and that water is offered straight away without pushing you into buying mineral or any other drinks unless you ask for them.
What I didn’t like was the fact that the waiter asked my partner whether he’d like extra tomato sauce on his pizza as this particular one had only little. We didn’t notice any extra sauce on that pizza, but 0.75p was added to the bill without saying.
Anyway, I will still recommend it with all my stomach as their pizza is one of the best in town.

My co-​workers and I dined here for lunch. Thankfully, there wasn’t a queue at 1 pm on a Wednesday and we were seated promptly in an enclave (there were 7 of us).
The pizzas range from ~4 to 7 quid, which is quite a steal for the portion and quality. I ordered the #4 (gloucester ham, mozzarella, ricotta, and mushrooms). In my mind, I expected the gloucester ham to come out crisp and to contrast well with the cheeses and earthy mushrooms. I wanted full umami flavor! Unfortunately, the pizza was rather bland with one consistency. The gloucester ham just ham.
However, my company seemed to enjoy their pizzas (especially the #6 with chorizo). If I do return, I would try the #6.

On the hottest Wednesday of the year my bf and I rocked up at about 8 to Franco Mancas to share a pizza and thought we would have to wait an age to be seated as Broadgate Circle was rammed however they found us a table inside straight away and offered us a table outside for 5 minutes. We decided to wait and ordered drinks while we waited. Seated quickly and had decided on our starter to share — burrata on bruschetta. For main we wanted to share a pizza but I fancied a few different toppings. We asked to do half and half however the declined as they didn’t know how to put it through on the til. I asked if they couldn’t just put through the most expensive but the manager said no. I think this is a bit odd and not really very accommodating so that annoyed me quite a lot! Starter came quickly and was easily the best part of the meal — their burrata is amazing! A must try. Pizza was nice enough (chorizo) but not enough tomato sauce, dough was okkkk and only 7 bits of chorizo. At only £7 max per pizza they are good value but I’d prefer to go to pizza East or pizza pilgrims next time I have pizza craving. Would return but not top of my list!

Recently got invited by a friend to go check out the latest branch of the pizza place on Broadgate Circle in Liverpool St during it’s soft launch as of April 2015. I love the Brixton branch a lot because it is the original so am amazed how fast the brand has expanded. The service was a bit forgetful but it was the waitress’ first day (probably) and everyone was relaxed enough to not rush. The burata was the outstanding starter dish. I ordered a caper, anchovies and olive pizza which was good. The tomato on the (already awesome sourdour) base is something they excel at but the thing that stands this place apart is the soft crust outside. You don’t leave this on the plate! We also ordered some lemoncake with cream, which was very nice. Even for a non sweet tooth person like me!