Franco Manca

144 Chiswick High Road
W4 1PU

020 8747 4822


We've got a lot of catching up to do, and thanks to the Coronavirus we're getting plenty of time to do it. Back before Christmas (in the year 1 BC) after a few weeks in Japan feasting on seaweed, tofu and raw fish, I must admit I was craving a simple pizza and a bottle of red wine. And being a bit of a glutton, I ended up having pizza two nights running. You won't be reading a review of Zia Lucia and its delicious vegetable charcoal and wholemeal bases here, partly because it's on the Holloway Road and partly because, well, this is not a blog about where Arsenal fans eat pizza.

Sadly there isn't a branch in Chiswick (the nearest is in Blythe Road W14) so we had to make do with Franco Manca, which is (just) our W4 favourite. (It also has the cheapest margherita in Chiswick at £6.75 which, according to its most recent online menu, pips Pizza Express by a whopping £5.15 if you haven't got a voucher).

Numeric talent and a passion for economics brought Giuseppe Mascoli from Positano to London and eventually a job as assistant lecturer at the London School of Economics. But in 2008 he lit his first wood-fired oven in Brixton Market on the site of a more conventional pizzeria, Franco's; in Italian ’manca’ means 'gone’ so literally Franco Manca means 'Franco’s gone'.

The second Franco Manca was opened in Chiswick in 2009, on the site formerly occupied by Eco. The back wall features a mural by Enzo Apicella, who started designing the interiors of trattorias, including early branches of Pizza Express, in the 1960s. (According to his obituary in The Times, Apicella would eat mainly vegetarian meals, insisted on plenty of garlic and drank a glass of red wine with most meals. At home he liked to try new things, including curry pizza and porridge with pesto or parmesan. And he lived to the age of 96, so who are we to judge?)

When we visited the youngest member of the family was at uni (probably tucking in to her signature Italian dish - white pasta with butter and cheese) so there were just four of us. We shared some olives, British bresaola and baked aubergine parmigiana to start with.

We all had different pizzas: the vegan special (with butternut squash, kale and vegan cheese); the veggie special (yellow tomatoes and green peppers from Vesuvio and watercress pesto); the meat special (with lightly spiced Ventricina salami and Franco & Cantarelli grana); and a Napoletana. You can probably guess who had which. And we washed them down with a bottle of Montepulciano from Francesco Cirelli's organic farm in Abruzzo. You can probably guess who had most.

We rarely get to pudding on the blog, but purely in the interests of research we shared a fairly dense chocolate and hazelnut cake and young Mr W had an affogato, which he enjoyed to the very last drop (see picture).

40 per cent of Americans eat pizza at least once a week. I could happily join them. But on the flipside, I can at least walk to Chiswick High Road and back unaided.

Food (for 4): £53.55
Drink: £19.50
Total: £81.05