Lardo

I was a little bit disappointed about my meal at Lardo as I had heard lots of good feedback and was looking forward to a decent stone baked pizza. Starting with the positive, the service is very efficient and friendly. You get a jug of tap water without having to ask and the waitress helped me chose vegetarian options. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with my pizza (tomato and mozeralla) as the tomato base didn't have much flavour and it made the base really sloppy. There were no choices of side salads and I found it quite a limited menu. Hopefully it was just a blip and I will try it again as the service was good and it is nice and local. A bit of a warning, there were two couples in the restaurant that evening that really should have got a room – that put me off my pizza a bit!

After a big night out on Saturday and a day recuperating in front of some movies and a fire on a much-anticipated family ‘nightie day’, how better than to cap things off with a pizza in the early evening? We weren’t disappointed; we booked online in the middle of the afternoon and pitched up to a nice welcome. The place is a decent size and done out in the stripped out but not uncomfortable style that we know and love in Hackney these days. We had three good pizza cooked in their wood-burning ovens: great crusts and the toppings, cardoon and some cheese, a pepperoni variant, and a margarita for the nipper, all went down well. The cos salad with some roasted tomatoes was tasty and fresh with a nice dressing. We had some local beers, one which was described as golden but was on its way to becoming a porter – but not so bad. Pizzas were about £12 each. We took home one as we couldn’t finish everything. Overall excellent and we will definitely be going back when the wet weather and the need to kick back strikes again.