Story Deli, 9 August 2007

It's been a while since I tried somewhere new, so you've had to wait for this new entry.

I first saw this place about two years ago when out one evening with friends for a curry. It is in Dray Walk, which is a little lane off Brick Lane and part of the Truman Brewery complex. It looks very boho, with a large table and cardboard stools around in the middle of the room, with the kitchen on a mezzanine at the back. The menu is entirely Pizza, but given that, extensive and eclectic - I had spicy sausage, and my dinner guest had a mushroom type of thing with added parma ham. While we were waiting, the chef came down and asked us to try a new pizza he was trying out - pear and blue cheese. That was nice, but I'm not too keen on pears - there was a nice sweetness to the taste, which finely off-set the tang of the blue cheese.

The pizzas are as rustic as the decor and furniture - simple, crusty bases, almost like a slightly thick filo pastry. The topping was fairly sparse on mine, a bit more on my companions, but then she had an extra ingredient. Awkward to eat - you had to fold the centre of a slice towards the crusty outer part, and it was difficult to leave topping behind once a bite had been taken. The spicy sausage was nicely spiced, and the sample I tried of the mushroom thingy was ok as well.

Then we come to the bad news - the price. My pizza was £9. The markup must be astronomical. I will not go back.