Review: Pi Shop, Bristol

Quick one, this. Pi Shop is the pizza place just opened up next door to Casamia. It’s the second piece in the new Sanchez Brothers culinary empire! Couldn’t be more different to Casamia, though. It’s a clean white space, with rustic Italian ingredients sitting alongside bare wood, plaster and metal. Seating is simple and built for a quick bite to eat rather than a lingering lunch. Perfect pizza setting, then.

Maureen’s pizza was the best muddle of toppings: lamb, courgette, blue cheese and rosemary, prettied up with a sprinkling of petals and citric nasturtium leaves. The lamb was very good, deeply tasty slow-cooked shreds. My topping was simpler; tiny firebombs of n’duja sausage and an egg in the centre. But what about the basics? Well, the tomato sauce was lovely and fresh, but that did give us a bit of a problem. The edges of the pizza base were great, chewy and crispy with that lovely burnt flour taste that makes a pizza great. The middle of the base was just too soft and uncooked.

Now, I’m no expert… (oh hell, did I really just say that?) …but I think the problem was the tomato sauce, which was too wet. Whenever I’ve made tomato sauce for pizza, I’ve always left it simmering until pretty much all the water is driven off. Maybe they wanted a much fresher taste than the deep ruby spread that I end up with? But if you’ve got free water in your tomato sauce, surely it’s gonna make the dough soggy?

Good coffee, and I most certainly enjoyed my pizza – but I’ve had better, and I think that’s down to the dough.