Pizza Buzz – gluten free pizza in London
Pizza Buzz is a new kid on the block in London city, between Old Street and Moorgate stations. Recently we had the opportunity to try out their pizzas and ice cream – gluten free for me of course!
On entering you feel a good energy and everything is clean and bright. It is a self service restaurant where you can eat in or take away, seven days a week. There is a menu of pizzas (including all day breakfast for the hungover city workers), but mainly it is a ‘make your own’ approach where you choose your base sauce and then add from the cheese, meat and vegetable options and finally herbs and spices at the end. There are also salads and burratas (mozzarella cheese with salad items).
If you want to just have a few drinks before ordering, you can find a table and then order from your table using the flypay app, which you can download on the free wifi.
If you are gluten free, they have a full size (thin style), low sugar base which they are importing from Finland. It is put into a black tray so that it can be baked safely away from the normal pizzas in the wood fired oven. The server changes gloves and uses a clean spoon to apply the base sauce, but there is a small risk of cross contamination as the spoons used for the gluten pizzas are put back into the same sauce. You can ask for an ‘allergy’ card to check for gluten or other foods that may be an issue for you.
The staff are great helping you make a choice from all the amazing toppings, and being able to watch the toppings go onto your pizza gives a little extra comfort about your ingredients when avoiding certain foods. It is also great to know that a separate cutter is used to cut the gluten free pizza.
You pay at the end of the counter and choose your drink. I loved the option of having a fresh juice option, but if you are into soft drink they have an amazing machine that will mix and match the many flavour options which I think the kids would love. For alcoholic drinks, there is wine, beer and cider (there isn’t a gluten free beer). There is also a free filtered tap water area. Here you can also pop your spare change into a donation box for cystic fibrosis.
You then find a table and when your pizza is ready (in a matter of minutes) your order number is called out. The atmosphere is casual and trendy and they were playing cool music.
My pizza was one of the best I have had, I think mainly due to the fact that I could choose my own toppings and make exactly what I felt like, plus the quality of the toppings makes a big difference. I chose the Verde base (pine nut basil pesto, mozzarella, parmesan) with proscuitto, fontal cheese, portobello mushrooms, green pepper and butternut squash topped off with a sprinkle of chilli flakes.
My husband had a normal gluten pizza (spelt and plain flour) with the margherita base with pepperoni, anchovies, mushrooms, goat’s cheese and black olives and he also thought it was a fantastic pizza.
I was just looking around the table for some black pepper when a lady appeared with the biggest pepper grinder I have ever seen!
We finished off our meal by sharing a pistachio ice cream, which was delicious. The ice cream is made in house (called Mamoo) and there are also goat milk or almond milk options if you are avoiding cow’s milk. Check the daily specials board for the options. You can also order the ice cream from your table using flypay if you don’t want to get up again!
Prices are clearly shown on the menu online and in store. Bases vary between £4-6 and you pay per ingredient added, which if you have a quite a few toppings it could add up, but at least you are in control of what you add. The gluten free pizza base is £2 extra, so if I had not had a complimentary meal my pizza would have come to £15.40, which is a little more than other pizzas I have had, but mainly because of the extra cost of the gluten free base.
I really enjoyed my visit to Pizza Buzz as it has a nice vibe and I loved all the fresh ingredients used. It is a great option for city workers and Shoreditch is not far away. They are making a great effort to cater for special diets, but as with most restaurants there is a small risk of cross contamination.
Alphabeta Building, 2 Worship St, London EC2A 2AH Tel: 020 3815 6696
Open 7 days
Mon-Thur 11.00am-10.30pm, Fri-Sun 11.00am-11.30pm (Sun 10.30pm)
