Gluten Free Pizza: Pizza Buzz, London EC2

Pizza Buzz is a new pizza restaurant offering tailor made pizzas to either eat in or take away. The restaurant is located in the new Alphabeta building on Worship Street London EC2 meaning it’s a short walk to both Liverpool Street / Moorgate or the Old Street roundabout, which should guarantee a good mix of clientele. The inside of the restaurant is clean, bright and I particularly liked the original art on the walls which one of the team explained had been drawn by an artist, freehand, with a couple of pens.

Pizza Buzz have clearly given some thought to catering to those with not just a gluten intolerance but also those intolerant to dairy.  I was impressed with their cross contamination procedures. It’s hard for any restaurant to completely eliminate the possibility of any cross contamination but Pizza Buzz have taken great steps to minimise the risk of cross contamination.

I visited with Carly with whom I have an occasional gluten free lunch date and catch up. Our offices are located close to each other and I really enjoy the opportunity to try out somewhere new and gluten free, with great company.

Pizza Buzz works with an assembly line to create a customised pizza of your own choice. You can have their suggested specials “Worship Street Loves” (ham and pizza, weirdly, appealed to me) but why do that when you can create your own?!

It works like this:

1. Request a gluten free base (if you eat gluten, the Pizza Buzz bases are 50% white flour, 50% spelt)
2. Select your base from 5 options which include dairy/lactose free
3. Then ready yourself to select from the many, many toppings options from protein, cheese, vegetable stations as you walk along the line making your choices

Once you advise you’d like a gluten free base, you’ll be assigned the dedicated gluten free chef (complete with a big, green shiny badge to identify them!) who will firstly change to clean gloves. This chef takes sole charge of creating your pizza from base selection to adding the toppings of your choice and delivering it to the wood fired oven for cooking. I liked this idea a lot. Gluten free pizzas are assembled in dedicated tins which are only used for the gluten free pizzas. The gluten free pizzas are placed within the tins into the oven to cook meaning no chance for cross contamination with the regular pizzas while in the wood fired oven.

The gluten free pizza bases are currently sourced from a Finnish supplier but at some point Pizza Buzz may move to making them in house.

One tip if you’re a little indecisive – like me – when it comes to selecting food (what you mean I can have ANY TOPPING?!) then you might want to give some thought in advance of visiting to Pizza Buzz to which toppings you’d like on your pizza. There’s an enormous choice and it’s a little overwhelming to choose, especially when it’s so rare for those of us with allergies and intolerance to be able to do this.

Once the pizza has gone in one of the two massive wood fired ovens, it’s ready in a couple of minutes. You’re given a ticket with your pizza number on it and once you’re pizza is ready, your number is called. It’s super quick.

So quick, in fact, I’d not managed to select my soft drink from the space age drinks dispenser with up to 120 flavour combos (yep, more choices to make) by the time my pizza number was called.

I went for pancetta, fennel salami, gorgonzola, tomatoes and black olives on my pizza. Each topping is priced depending on whether it’s standard or premium ingredient (see below). You could really go to town with the mix and match toppings –veal meatballs, smoked provola cheese, roasted aubergine and curly kale perhaps? But one word of caution – if you get too carried away with toppings the cost of your pizza could quickly rack up.

How did the pizza taste? The base was thin and crispy, just as I like it. While some pizza bases can be a little sweet/sugary, I didn’t find this with the Pizza Buzz bases. The toppings were all good quality ingredients.

We tried the burratas (£5.50) on the side. I chose mine with beetroot and mint and Carly went for the tomato and basil. The burrata was creamily delicious but of the two, I preferred the tomato and basil flavour. Other side options can include a variety of different side salads.

For dessert, Pizza Buzz offer three options for ice cream: cow’s milk, goat’s milk and almond milk. Once you’ve chosen the base for your ice cream, you then mix and match it with selection of various flavours including vanilla, rose, confit of orange.

NB FOR THOSE WITH NUT ALLERGIES: The ice cream machine does a full clean down after the ice creams have been made using the different milk bases but there are nut products going through the machine so please note this. You’ll need to make your own decision whether the machine’s clean down is sufficient or not.

Many thanks to Pizza Buzz for inviting us to lunch. Although we ate as guests, the views expressed above are my honest views and I will be returning soon of my own accord!

Where: Alphabeta Building, 2 Worship Street, London EC2A 2AH

Website: www.pizzabuzz.co.uk

How Much: 12” bases start from £4.25. Toppings range from £1/£1.5 for veg, £1.50/£2 for protein to £1.95/£2.50 for cheese depending on whether you go for the premium option or not. Worship Street Loves pizzas start from £8.20. Gluten free pizza bases have a £2 surcharge

Would I return?: Definitely! Dreaming of the current pizza and bottomless prosecco deal for £25….