Bella Italia Pizzeria

I commented in my last post that there aren't many pizza shops around my village. In fact, a lot of the pizza places seem to be in the chip shops (fish and chips). Not only do I try to stay away from the big chain pizza places, I also try to pick out shops that are actual "pizza places", not chip shops who also happen to sell pizza.

Again, many places have no presence on the web - all you're given is a name and address from a local directory. I found a place called Bella Italia Pizzeria in Kempston - surely, they're a pizza shop, and not a chippy. Well, kind of. They do have a big pizza oven and one guy devoted to making pizza, but they also serve fish and chips.

Rather than my usual ham, mushroom, and onion, I went with the Parma (# 7 on the menu). I really was hoping the UK pizza drought would end, but no luck. Another sub-par pizza. It had all the makings of being great - but it just didn't happen. I had high expectations for the crust - as it was hand tossed. However, it was far too thick with no noticeable flavour or texture. I really like when you have a nice soft crust that has a bit of crispness on the bottom. This was just soft and flavourless, and had absolutely no browning on the bottom. As with my pizza from Pizza Max, there wasn't enough sauce on it to even provide a hint of what it might taste like.

The parma ham (aka prosciutto) was not quite what I was expecting. I can't say I've seen parma this shade of brown. The taste was fair, but I've certainly had much better.

I'm attaching a scanned image of the pizza portion of the menu to give everyone an idea of the "set combinations" as well as the options for toppings. Not only is it interesting to see what's available (i.e.; mussels, crab sticks), it's also interesting to note what isn't on the menu. Can you figure it out? For those of you wondering, rocket is arugula.

The pizza
















The menu




















The rating

Pizza Max

Based on the previous entries by sister, the US is by far much better at pizza than the UK. I've had two pizzas since my last entry in January - first up is Pizza Max in Olney.

I really try to stay away from the chain pizza restaurants, but I didn't want to cook dinner one evening, and this was the closest pizza shop around. Unlike my sister, who has 8 or 10 pizza places to choose from in her small little town, this part of the UK just doesn't seem to have many pizza shops. Or - if there are, they're not advertised very well (which is a good possibility - it seems most places have absolutely no web presence!). Anyway, I've got to drive at least 20 minutes to find a pizza shop.

The first challenge was to find the shop - it's hidden back off the side of a small walkway between buildings. Once found, the second challenge was ordering. Having been to several pizza shops now, I've learned that you can't just go in and order a pizza with ham, mushroom and onion. There are "set" combinations, usually named and numbered. You have to find the combination that's closest to what you want, and then "add" whatever it is missing. In this case, I told the guy what I wanted and he found the closest match on the menu, and then suggested I add the onion as an extra topping. Crazy, huh?

As for the pizza itself, the pluses were: it looked good and it was fairly cheap. The minus - taste. The crust had no flavour and I would put money down that it's not made on site. I've had better pizza crusts from frozen pies I get at the grocery. I'd like to comment on the sauce, but there wasn't enough on it to really give me an idea of how it tasted. It appears as though they put some sauce on the dough, and then scrape it all off - and all you're left with is the little bit that has found it's way into the nooks and crannies. As for the cheese, not high quality and little flavour.

Pizza Max is a take-away shop only; it was interesting to sit and people watch whilst I waited on my pizza. At one point, a group of 4 boys came in - probably around 16 - 18 years old. They all had on their ear-flap hats and were carrying around their open cans of Carlsberg (with the rest of the beer in a plastic bag). They sat and drank until their pizzas were ready. You sure wouldn't find that happening in the US.

The Pizza:
















The rating: