Franco Manca

I had high expectations for Franco Manca since I’d been hearing about it since I first lived in London in 2012. They had the one location in Brixton back then, and I was pleased to find they’d expanded to Broadway Market. The menu is pretty limited — I think there’s 10 options or so — but look at the specials board before deciding. We only saw it after ordering and were so annoyed! The specials looked delicious.
The dough is sourdough and is chewy rather than crispy, toppings are fresh and it’s dirt cheap. Pretty good for London. I’d return for sure.

Fantastic little spot. Great, cheap, quick pizza (as it should be!!) made with sour dough to save you the post pizza bloat/​guilt.
Make sure you check out the specials too, we didn’t until we were nearly finished!

Having visited the Tottenham Court Road and Chiswick branch — I’m a great fan of this chain.
We initially thought it was unlikely we’d have a table as the restaurant looked very busy, however they have an extension out the back with lots of tables that they seated us in. So I’d suggest that you ask rather than assume!
I quite liked the back room, it was less crowded, more intimate with diffused lighting and felt far less hectic, bridging on the rustic.
I ordered the Meat special, with mozzarella, Gorgonzola, Fennel seeds and sausage.
As usual it was delicious, I love the base, and whilst the toppings don’t reach the edge, they have infused oil with chilli or garlic on the table for dipping.
The red wine was okay, not the best, but definitely quaffable.
I left feeling very full and whilst the pizza was £8 (being a special), the meal came in at around £12.
Service was good, although they did take a while to ask if we wanted anything additional to our meal, which could have been frustrating, but I was enjoying the conversation.

Amazing sourdough pizza! Great prices, great variety, specials are always interesting, and you can always get something custom. Sometimes can get a bit crowded/​chaotic, but totally worth it.

Just an update: my Italian friend told me this is THE place for sourdough pizza in east London. Both for quality and price. Mangia!

I wouldn’t eat Pizza anywhere else and that pretty much sums up my review!
Broadway Market is one of my favourite hang outs anyway but to finish of in Franco tops it of nicely for me!
I try to avoid Carbs/​Gluten when I can so the sough dough base makes it very appealing to me. Good price, friendly staff and lots of Yumminess!

sour. dough. pizza. and. a. glass. of. organic. wine. for. under. a. tenner.
on. broadway. market.
hateraters need to beat it. franco manca reigns supreme.
*praying hands emoji x 100 000 000*

One of the best and cheapest pizza in London.
I recommend it to all my friends all the time and they are never disappointed, and then they recommend it to their friends :)

Lovely friendly waiters. The Pizza and the burrata were delicious IMHO. Very good value.

Great pizzas to eat in or take away. Lovely friendly staff. Good value. Gets very crowded though.

I have been here twice. The pizza is very good but not any better than Neapolitan style pizza I’ve had at other places. Prices are quite reasonable. Service the first time I went was fast, but a bit curt. The second time it took 20 minutes before anyone even came to our table and then the server acted like we were a couple of flies in his ointment. I don’t need to have my arse kissed, but come on, dude. The couple next to us also waited 20 minutes at least before their orders were taken, and their pizzas took forever. It was not that busy (a Monday night). I would come back here if I was in a pinch since it is good pizza at a reasonable price, but just know that curt service and long waits may be part of the deal.

I’ve heard amazing things about the pizzas from Franco Manca so was pretty excited to try it!
There was a queue, which I was expecting so didn’t concern me too much! We probably waited for about 30 minutes but it was a Friday night so think pretty reasonable. You can order a drink and nibbles in the queue and the staff give you regular updates on when you will get seated.
The price is great and the ingredients are clearly of a high quality. But once seated we then had to wait an hour for our food to arrive. If you don’t have the capacity to serve food, don’t make the place that big! The pizza wasn’t too impressive either. I felt the dough was a quite bland and was quite charred which meant the whole thing had an after taste of burnt. Considering the toppings are tasty it’s a shame they weren’t cooked properly!
Didn’t live up to the hype, and I probably wouldn’t choose myself to go here again.

Ate here late lunch on Good Friday. We had heard good things since it had opened and every time we had passed the queue was out of the door. We thought we would chance it late lunch and managed to get one of the few remaining tables.
We were sat and given a menu quickly but service was hectic and you could tell that the staff were under pressure. It took a while to catch a waitress’s eye to place our order and there was little attention or friendliness given towards us. We ordered two no logo lagers and a mushroom and ham pizza and a margarita with three chilli and lamb which was one that we chose our own toppings for. Even though the lunchtime rush had slowed down our pizzas took a good while to come– at least half an hour and other tables that ordered after us were served before us. very annoying.
The pizzas were pretty good. Light crispy bases but toppings were a little sparse. The wild mushrooms were lovely but a bit too cheesy for my taste and could have done with being more tomatoey. But we still enjoyed them. They were also really good value, £6.50 — £7.
It took a while to request the bill and there was no «did you enjoy?» etc. We were just another table. Now I wasn’t expecting anything over the top but standard etiquette would have been nice.
I will go back but next time will be prepared for the purely transactional service that it was.

We wanted a quick lunch around ‘Broadway Market’ and this place was perfect for it. Good prices: you can have a proper meal plus a glass of wine for £10. But nothing fancy or special. Just 5 – 6 kind of pizzas and a couple of side salads.
So, we ordered two pizzas and a salad to have something green in the middle of the table. The pizzas were OK. Not too good but as I said, they are good enough if you are really hungry and want something to eat without waiting a lot of time. Pizza base was thin and tasty but I noticed a lot of dough surrounding the pizza. Not too much toppings on both of them, that was quite annoying. But I have to say the ingredients they use are really good!
I like the decoration. Modern and simple. It is always cool when you can see the chefs cooking in front of you. The staff was OK, most of the girls where really nice (specially one of them who was taking care of every single costumer!)

We went on a Friday night, it was really busy but we got a table straight away (on Saturday the queue was out the door). We placed our order quickly and drinks were forthcoming, like the free bottle of table water supplied too.
The food was amazing, a small menu, but the pizzas were awesome, one ofthe best I have ever had. They are also really really cheap, most coming in at under £7 — am not sure how they afford to do it! Would definitely come here again, the reason for 3 stars instead of more is because it was really hot in there, despite having an a/​c unit and also there was a bit of a wait for the bill.
A bit of an aside, there was a child in the kitchen making a pizza, in his normal clothes, which was fine as we assumed it was his own pizza, we thought this cool — but then we saw him come out, sit down and eat and then go back into the kitchen (open plan so we could see) and then help the staff beat the dough etc. Not overly hygienic, but to be fair, wouldn’t put us off going again.

Great prices, but the pizzas were meh and I’ve had better in London so even though they were cheap, wouldn’t go again. The toppings was sparse so it was a lot of dough and airy crust. Not only were toppings were sparse, I didn’t get lots of flavors from it. It was Meh.