The pizza path

Britain’s pizza chains are generally as bad as anywhere else’s outside Italy, but in Edinburgh, at least, there is good news. The justly-named La Favorita, an Italian-owned pizzeria in Leith Walk, has recently opened its own takeaway in Morningside Road. Delivery is not the quickest in town, which means that you need to place your order with foresight, but your pizzas arrive very cheerily in a bright yellow Fiat cinquecento.

La Favorita is not not just another pizzeria, nor is it the cheapest, though it has good offers, especially on Tuesdays - offerta Tuesday, as they call it. And it is really quite special, with log-fired ovens, excellent mozzarella, high-quality vegetables, and beautifully thin bases  as well as the choicest toppings among its assets - a real Italian job, in fact.

The pepperone pizza is fiercely fiery.  Starters include the indigenous riceballs of southern Italy.  There are polenta sticks, and even a well-priced selection of  interesting wines by the bottle. 

 And they are experimenting, not yet wholly successfully, with gluten-free pizza dough. Is gluten-free pizza a contradiction in terms? Not if La Favorita can prove otherwise. A more detailed report will follow. The Morningside takeway (let's  hope it develops into a restaurant) is at 350 Morningside Road, telephone 0131 447 4000.

6 September 2014