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| Pi Shop on Bristol's Bathurst Basin, nestled between the Michelin-starred Casamia and Paco Tapas |
Smørrebrød feels like the dish of the day as you walk along Copenhagen's colourful buildings, cobbled streets and waterways. But as the arches and brickwork of the redeveloped General Hospital unfold to unveil Peter Sanchez-Iglesias' holy trinity of restaurants: Casamia, Pi Shop and Paco Tapas, you remember you're on Bristol's Floating Harbour in the centre of the city.
Scandi-white walls and rose gold cutlery baskets make Pi Shop a tad more Tiger from Denmark than Trattoria from Italy. It's funny how fickle fashion can be, yet Pi Shop, which opened in 2016, has a distinctly 2016-feel about it. An A3 landscape brown paper menu complete with typewriter font may feel futuristic compared to the laminated encyclopedias of old, yet by today's menu standards of A4 portrait fresh white paper with an arial font, Pi Shop's menu seems old hat.
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| Glad we went for the tap rather than bottled water as I wasn't ready to take out a small loan |
The Danish theme of the evening continued with the beautiful clientele and the Copenhagen price tag - £6.50 for two thirds of a pint of a deliciously hoppy Kernel Pale Ale. Ouch.
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| Pi Shop's copper clay oven - spy the Bristol Good Food Awards Best Pizza 2016 Award on the wall |
The green olives were juicy, meaty and bright. The foccacia was squidgy with an oily yet crisp crust. The mortadella ham was light and peppery. All good so far - I could eat a lot more of that bread with an appropriate dip.
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| Billy bear ham makes the triumphant leap from lunchbox to the dining table at Pi Shop |
In an eye-watering move, I spent £16 on a nduja, burrata, roasted red pepper, rocket and pine nut pizza. Spicy, creamy, crunchy, moist, chewy, soggy in all the right places and downright delicious. It's just a shame about the crusts forming approximately a quarter of the overall pizza.
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| Gotta love that spicy nduja on a pizza, apparently you can buy the spreadable stuff in supermarkets now these days |
The Hawaiian was, well... a posh Hawaiian. Cheesy and sweet and oozing quality ingredients. The table's no tomato rebel went for the Carbonara - coppa, parmesan and egg yolk. As savoury and delicious as to be expected, if a bit repetitive.
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| Carbonara pasta without the pasta, on a pizza. Clever |
In a move which is becoming all too frequent, there were some tomato-free pizzas alongside the more classic offerings of margheritas and Hawaiians. The gigantic crusts could do with a downsizing - if it wasn't for the fresh herb dip, I would have swerved the crusts through boredom and the repetitive jaw strain. The chill oil transformed on the tongue over time, from a smoky sexy whisper to a full scream - at this very moment I remembered that Pi Shop is owned by a Michelin-starred chef.
So, after payday, or when a Nigerian prince emails you asking you to help them out with some of their tax avoidance in exchange for some cash - go with it - you too can get yourself to Pi Shop and taste their delicious chilli oil.
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| Yum yum yum, a simple yet effective dessert done exceedingly well |
The dessert options were lacking - the only option a Black Forest fruits ice cream with chocolate and almond caramel. Thankfully the wonderful waitress obliged in making us affogatos (espresso and ice cream), which were made with their soft serve ice cream - a nice finishing touch.
The bill came to £129 for four people, which included the olives, bread and ham, dips, a pizza each, one beer and a bottle of red wine. With a tip that's about £35 each. Appreciating that this is pizza by a Michelin-starred chef takes the edge off the price. But there are less expensive, and in my humble opinion, better pizzerias in Bristol.
8/10
Fenn
Other notable Bristol pizzas - I have photos of both on my instragram which is @greedyinbristol:
Bertha's in Wapping Wharf - hands down best pizza in Brizzle
Pizzarova on Gloucester Road - I recently won their #FreePizzaFriday competition on twitter, lucky meeee
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