The news of the opening of the new Pizza Express outlet in Ambience Mall, Gurgaon was met with glee at home. Fans of their excellent pizzas since the days of Ansal Plaza we couldn’t wait to try them out and did so recently.
The décor at their Ambience mall outlet was stark, airy and light with their iconic white and black stripes everywhere, brightened by Murano? glass lampshades and copper shaded lights, bringing the world famous floating city Venice to mind even though the flat bread dough boasts of provenance from another Roman city. Cutlery and table service is designed by Robert Welch of UK inspired, perhaps, by the origins of the founder Peter Boizot (the chain is now Chinese owned).
The pizzas were authentic Italian with even their tomato sauce sourced from San Marzano tomatoes and seasoned by Greci especially for Pizza Express and sent to outlets spanning the globe. The big open kitchen, the highly trained Pizzailos, whose handmade and hand-tossed pizzas, the special sauce and fresh ingredients all go to make it more than a mere trattoria.
Their light as air Dough Balls are famous but their Pesto was a revelation – fresh and light with the perfect blend of seasonings, cheese, crushed leaves, nuts and oil. Try it and you would want to take some home. With three sauces – butter garlic, pesto and sundried tomato – it was in no time that the dough balls were polished off. The butter garlic sauce disappeared without a trace, effortlessly.
While they have an exhaustive pizza, decent pasta, sufficient salad and choosy dessert menu, it was going to be pizzas all the way for us that day. Da Morire, as the name suggests, was to die for. Crispy pancetta, festoons of mildly pungent leeks and nutty artichokes seasoned with chilli oil and rosemary were a fanfare of flavours. My only regret was that I should have tried it on a classic crust – would have been heaven bound with joy.
T
he Margherita pizza was simple soul food – tomato and cheese in perfect harmony with each other. Four Seasons pizza on a classic crust was fabulous – it was spongy and juicy and the briny capers and anchovies were fighting for favour with the mild heat of piquant salami and mushrooms.
Why restaurants in India are mingy with mozzarella is beyond me and Pizza Express is no exception. We had asked for extra cheese on all our pizzas. The Margherita and Da Morire just about passed muster but the Four Seasons (thin crust) was disappointingly un-cheesy with red blotches of tomato here and there. Extra cheese means a white landscape! To their credit, our protest was duly addressed by Pizzailo Manish and a new one, this time on a classic crust, was served and much appreciated. Chocolate fudge Cupcake was above reproach though.
Forty eight hours later, I found myself once again at the restaurant. This time I repeated the Da Morire on a classic crust and sure was heaven bound. Even though the personalized Margherita pizza was not up to our expectations with very little Gorgonzola cheese topping, the pizza as such was not bad. Incidentally, it is not just pizzas that are well tossed at Pizza Express. The Smoked Chicken Salad was perfect – fresh, crunchy leaves, generous helping of chicken, sweet pomegranate, crunchy walnuts spiked with hot chilli oil and lime juice – different.
Charges of Rs.125/++ for extra cheese seemed a bit steep considering the prices of pizzas (Rs. 395-650). For the Margherita pizza, there was a separate charge for extra cheese and another for Gorgonzola. My view is that, for a Margherita pizza, extra cheese should be the de rigueur topping added free. When one asks for a cheese only pizza, it should be remembered that there is no other topping there, so the cheese should be double of what is normally used. After all, what is a pizza but bread, sauce and cheese ? Toppings are only an afterthought!
All in all, it was great to be able to taste some lovely pizzas in a smart, casual ambience. Even if the canals and the gondolas were absent, the staff, décor and the all important Pizza shall transport you to San Marco’s square in no time.
Ratings (Out of 5)
Category: Pizzeria, casual dining
Food: 4.0* Service: 4.0 | Ambience: 4.5 I Overall: 4.0 (* an extra 0.5 forgone on account of scarce cheese)
Address: T-317, 3rd Floor, Ambience Mall, Gurgaon– 122001 | Tel: 0124-4665721
Meal for two: Rs. 2000/++ w/out alcohol | Credit cards: Accepted.
(Disclosure: This review was done after repeat anonymous visits to the outlet, with the reviewer having paid for the food in full)
