Review: Rudy’s Neapolitan Pizza

On a rather early Friday evening, I took my foodie companion with me to try out the much-awaited Rudy’s Neapolitan Pizza. We took a bus to Piccadilly bus station and from there it was a pleasant ten minutes walk through the Northern Quarter until we reached the equally trendy Ancoats. Despite it being very early in the evening, the restaurant was already jam packed. Pro tip: Arrive soon after opening time to avoid a long wait.

Rudy’s, unlike any other Italian pizzerias in Manchester, felt very authentically Italian and the vibe and ambience of the place was very bright and very cheerful. The chit-chat from the crowd doesn’t seem like noise, but blends in with the background music and the entire restaurant has a scintillating smell of wood-fired ovens.

As it is a walk-in restaurant and they do not take reservations, we didn’t have the option of pre-booking a table. Nonetheless, we asked the waitress for a table for two and were asked to wait at the bar in the meantime. Less than 11 minutes later, we we were seated.

We ordered their famous Campana — sans meat — as a starter and for the mains ordered the Calabrese and the chalkboard special white pizza with potato, mushroom, and olives.

While waiting for the food, we observed the light decor of Rudy’s that is very simple and Scandinavian in style. Within five minutes of ordering, the starter arrived. The Campana was a mixture of buffalo mozzarella and wild rocket radicchio, with some toasted house bread. We ordered the vegetarian alternative by removing prosciutto crudo, which is an Italian ham,  although in my opinion the original would have tasted even better.

Soon after we finished our starter, we were served with our mains. The white pizza — a pizza without a tomato base — was an extra cheesy delight placed atop a mouth-watering Italian crust. The smooth potatoes enhanced the taste of cheese and the salty taste of the mushrooms and olives really completed the experience. The next pizza, the Calabrese, was a sinful combination of tomato sauce, basil, Fior di Latte (fancy Italian cheese) and spicy N’duja sausage. The speciality of this pizza was that the Calabrian sausages  melted into the crispy pizza crust, and when my friend took the first bite, she was taken aback by the heavenly flavour.

As soon as our plates were taken, we ordered our last course for the night: the chocolate olive oil cake with vanilla ice cream. The cake was somewhere between a cake and a brownie but tasted perfect with the ice cream. The chocolate added a balanced sweet taste and the usage of olive oil made it taste very light. I would recommend Rudy’s Neapolitan Pizza to everyone and especially to students. It is fairly priced and gives you value for money — trust me.