Milano and Francesco Mazzei

Milano, the Irish arm of the UK chain Pizza Express, has recently launched a new menu which was created by celebrity chef Francesco Mazzei.  Mazzei runs the Italian restaurant L’Anima in London, and has created 11 dishes for Milano.  Milano very kindly invited us along to try them out, and treated us to a very pleasant lunch indeed.  I brought my lovely Italian friend Elisa along, to get an expert perspective on the authenticity of the food, and there were also some familiar faces  – the  Daily Spud and Pricewatch were also there, tucking into the new range.

The new menu consists of two starters, three pizzas and one pasta dish, and we were brought absolutely everything to try. The Insalata Semplice was lovely, with gorgeous ciabatta croutons, but the winner for me was the Tricolore – beautifully fresh and creamy avocado, mozzarella and sundried tomatoes on a crisp, tasty flatbread.  The pizzas were all good, and Elisa was impressed with the thinness of the crusts.  Our favourite was the Calabrese, which has two kinds of spicy sausage and fresh green chillies.   The grana padano cheese on the Rustichella pizza was delicious but the dressing, like the one on their Leggera pizza, had a strong tang of salad cream about it – the only quibble about the food that I had.  The creamy mushroom pasta dish was nice too, but we were so overwhelmed with pizza that it didn’t really get the attention it deserved.  There was also no chance that we would have fit in dessert, so just had tasty cappuccinos to try and stave off the food comas.  Milano boxed up the leftover pizza for us, and I had a yummy lunch of cold pizza the following day.

The Francesco Mazzei menu is well worth trying out,  the prices compare well to their existing menu, and I’m looking forward to going back and having the Tricolore and the Calabrese again.  There are currently a few offers knocking around – the last time I went to Cineworld, there was a voucher for 2 pizzas for €15 in Milano on the back of each of our tickets, so keep an eye out for that.  And I’ve said this here many times, but Milano’s kids menu is second to none.