Franca Manca - Sourdough Revolution

If you're ever looking for a way into my good books and stumped on how to achieve this, then offering me pizza is probably the best way to my heart. Southampton is a city where there are a lot of different Pizza restaurants and the majority of them all offer the same bog standard Pizza idea that you've probably see on a regular. This is where Franca Manca comes in as it's in a pizzeria of it's own.

  

  

You see this is because the pizza's at Franca Manca are made from slow rising sourdough in a wood burning oven that get as high as 500 degrees. This way of cooking the pizza's allow for all the flavour possible to be locked into the pizza as it rises and due to the fact that Sourdough is a more healthier and organic option of making a pizza, it tides in with their idea of using more natural ingredients. 

While we waited for our order we started with Olives and organic Lemonade which is home made. I'm not sure what it was about the Olives that tasted off but they just didn't taste right, the Lemonade on the other hand was really nice and refreshing and had the softest taste cinnamon (which I love). Then out came our Garlic Pizza Bread and it was as amazing as it looks above. The Garlic, Tomato and Oregano topping mixed with the Sourdough bread was an absolute dream combination and is the best Garlic Pizza Bread I've ever had.

We weren't waiting too long for our main pizza course as the service that was provided was really sharp and efficient. I'll be honest here as the Pizza you receive is the same size as any take away Pizza you may order and it's at about half the price which I love. Alice and I both ordered our own which both had your standard Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil base. I however went with added Chorizo which again blended so well together. I easily could have finished the entire Pizza there and then but wanted to ensure that there was room for desert, Franco Manca do have a take away option so if you aren't able to finish everything in one sitting you can take it home with you.

The desert menu at Franco Manca is small and honestly it's a lot smaller than I expected it to be, this does mean however, that the four deserts are done on a day in day out basis and have been mastered by the chef's. We chose the Chocolate Hazelnut cake and the Lemon and Almond cake, there was a vast difference in the taste between the two.

The Chocolate Hazelnut cake was a bit disappointing, this is due to it coming out cold whilst being served with vanilla ice cream. I expected this to melt in my mouth when I tried it but it didn't leave me with any form of wow factor, this wasn't the case with the Lemon and Almond cake in the slightest. The Lemon was just perfect in the fact it wasn't too much it screwed your face up and wasn't too little to wonder where it was, the Almond gave it a nice nutty twist and the combination of the two and the Greek Yogurt on the side worked really well. The Lemon and Almond cake was in fact so good Alice ended up getting a second piece to take home with her. 

In all I really enjoyed our meal at Franco Manca, the Pizza is easily one of the best I've ever had and would now be my first choice for any Pizzeria in Southampton. I do wish there was more variety than the 7 options available but hopefully that will come. I also hope the service stays the same as we were made to feel very welcome and no question or query was a problem for the staff. Have you been to Franco Manca before and what are your thoughts?

*Complimentary meal for the purpose of this review.