My Lucky Valentine

T'was Valentines Day yesterday. So I booked Pizza East for a little spot of Valentines lunch.



Pizza East is owned by the Soho House group, and is in fact underneath the infamous Shoreditch House. It's housed in the Tea Building in what used to be Tea Bar. It has an industrial, modern feel with exposed brick and plaster, lots of pillars and metal beams but still manages to feel quite homely with its leather seats and rustic charm.

We started with a Cauliflower Carbonara and a Mixed Beetroot, Pecorino & Horseradish salad. The Cauliflower Carbonara was pretty much and ever so posh cauliflower cheese and tasted delicious. But the real star was the salad, which included heritage varieties of beetroot. It was lovely and beautifully complemented by the cheese and horseradish.



We followed these with the restaurants staple; pizza. Jaimie opted for a slightly unusual choice, a 'white' pizza with veal meatballs, prosciutto, sage, lemon, parsley and cream. The white pizza came without the usual tomato base, and was actually quite delicious. It had a lovely freshness from the lemon zest along with the earthy sage notes. The inclusion of the veal meatballs were also very nice.

I followed a more traditional route and had a pizza with San Danielle ham, tomato, ricotta, pesto and baby chard. The pesto was course and really flavoursome, but perhaps used a little sparingly for my liking. The ham was beautiful. And obviously the people of San Danielle agree as every June they have a festival to celebrate it. More info here.

The pizzas were so lovely I forgot to take a photo of them.

We finished off with coffees and deserts of warm banana cake, toffee sauce and hazelnut gelato and a salted chocolate caramel tart. Both were very nice.

We didn't have anything to drink (well I had a grapefruit juice, but I don't think that counts) and the bill came to about £60 including service. Not the cheapest meal out I've ever had, but it was certainly very nice. It was Sunday lunchtime and Valentines day to boot, and the service was a little inattentive and slightly rushed. But it was nice that there wasn't that awkward Valentines, hundred of couples smooching air. It was mainly full of large groups of friends making the atmosphere lively and relaxed. Perhaps they'd saved all the cheesing dining until the evening. I'm pretty glad we missed that.


No thanks.

I'd completely recommend this place, as the quality of the food is high and consistent, they're accommodating of large groups of dinners and it would make a great destination for a birthday, or other such celebratory occasion.