The international chain of Pizza from UK – opened its second NCR outlet at Gurgaon Ambience Mall some months back and had been trending the scene of Gurgaon Foodies quite a lot.. Had been wanting to go there and try it out but plans never materialized.

Opportunity presented itself in the form of an invite of attending their Chef’s Table to experience their new menu – Pizzaiolos Favorites.. This menu has been introduced to celebrate completion of 50 years of their Brand.

The specialty of this chain is their signature Pizza base, called Romano as its thin crust and quite close to what you would get in Rome. Their Pizzas are made to order, therefore more fresh and retain flavor of each and every ingredient they use. Another signature ingredient, which is common across the world in their outlets is their Tomato Passata – which is made by Greci family of Italy since 1965 thus retaining the same taste worldwide for over 50 years, not a mean feat I say.

                                               Art of Pizza making

The concept that we were invited for was to know the art of pizza making and interact with their Pizzaiolos (pizza chefs).. try your hand at making one and experience their brand, food and hospitality.
 

                                           Pizza making class

Ambience: 4/5 –

Located on 3rd floor of the Ambience Mall in Gurgaon, this place sits out demurely amongst all kinds of Restaurants that you can imagine. They localize ambience of each outlet based on local significance. Thus, the Gurgaon one is inspired by the industrial revolution. It looks functional, yet elegant.

Service: 3.5/5

The area where invitees were sitting was secluded and seemed more crowded than the rest of the restaurant. This was probably done to ensure better interaction within the invitees and ease of service for serving staff. Servers seemed informed and well-groomed. However the service was a little slow and we had to ask for service to our table a couple of times. There definitely is room for improvement in quality of service.

Food: 4/5

Since this was all about experiencing their new menu – we tried food from the same. For starters – we had a Veg platter – Antipasto Verde. This had Roasted Veggies, fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese along with basil pesto, pesto rosso and dough sticks. The bread sticks were good and basil pesto better. The cheese slices were good and fresh too.

                                     Veg Platter

For drinks – we tried Tropical (watermelon, mint & lemon) and Ginger Fresca (Fresh Ginger, Mint, Green Lime & Ginger Ale). The punch of ginger was missing in the Ginger Fresca and Watermelon was a bit bland.

                    Tropical and Ginger Fresca

For mains – In Pasta section - we tried Penne con Peppadew (penne pasta in white creamy sauce with veggies) and Pollo Pesto Baked (Baked penne pasta in basil pesto sauce) in Pasta and Il Padrino 65 (grilled chicken, veggies, buffalo mozzarella cheese drizzled with basil pesto sauce)  & Margharita Pesto (buffalo mozzarella cheese, passata, with fresh basil leaves) in Pizza.

            Penne con Peppadew                      Pollo Pesto Baked

As mentioned, the pizza base was superb and Il Padrino 65 was awesome. The baked pasta was above average too.

                      Il Padrino                                              D.Andrea

They also provided chili olive oil and garlic olive oil as accompaniments and I just loved the chili one. For desserts we were served with a cheesecake. This was again superb.

      Chilli olive Oil and Garlic Olive Oil                         Cheesecake

The menu seems good and interesting. A must try if you are a pizza fan and are looking for the real deal. I would definitely go back again and try out more things out of the menu.