I took my family to Edinburgh's newest pizza restaurant, and they were so impressed
This new place offers New York style slices
According to Google, New York has 1,897 pizza restaurants.
Edinburgh has a wee bit of catching up to do, but we’re pretty well serviced these days.
We have a variety of varieties, too, because it seems that a pizza is not just a circle of dough with cheese and tomato plastered on top.
There’s the Neopolitan style, with its puffy edges, which is available at places like Razzo in Leith. The paving-slab-thick Detroit style that’s one of the types they serve at Civerinos in Stockbridge, or the crunchier Roman style at the capital’s pop-up Pala.
There is absolutely no need to get yours at a chain like Dominos or Papa John’s, unless you like a crust that tastes like a stale digestive biscuit.
Now, in the Marchmont area, we have a new addition, Sear’s, which is opposite where Alphabet Video used to be - I know, that reference makes me old.
Sear’s already has an established branch in Glasgow’s West End, and is owned by Daryl Leach, founder of takeaway Baked Pizza Al Taglio, Paul Beveridge of Ramen Dayo! and Tom Lauckner of Piece Glasgow. They serve New York style pizza slices. Think thin based, and very foldable.
I took my sister and her three offspring, and we descended them on the stroke of opening time - noon - and commandeered their only window booth.
There are a few more tall seats, lining the restaurant, should you want to sit in.
The interior of this place is very NY, circa 1986, with a PIZZA BY THE SLICE neon sign in the window, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle posters, Knicks paraphernalia, plus black and white photographs of celebrities like Warhol and Anthony Bourdain.
It’s not a light nod to the place and era it’s almost like you’re on a film set. I could imagine the local Margiotta’s as a bodega, and the nearby Meadows had become Central Park.
For a slice of pizza, expect to pay from £2 up to £3.50, which seems very reasonable.
We all went for the two slices and a soda deal for £7.90, though you can have a single slice and a drink for £4.90.
There are various options on the menu, though on our visit they were out of the buffalo chicken number and the salami picante, though they had a veggie special instead, which they’d called Suzi’s, in tribute to the little vegetarian restaurant that was in this tiny Marchmont Road slot before them.
I went for their classic Sear’s slice (£3.50 individually, if you’re not doing the deal), which featured a thin burnished crust and a tomato and vodka sugo, a dappling of cheese, and chlorophyll green pesto dribbles. To be honest, I wouldn’t really have known the booze was there, if they hadn’t told me, but I enjoyed folding this sloppy and sweet creation in half and shovelling it in.
The mushroom slice (£3.50 individually), was a good contrast, with a white base of scamorza, mozzarella, a few pools of truffle oil and chestnut mushroom cross sections. The base is very light, chewy and crispy. None of the dreaded biscuity-ness.
Once I’d rinsed this down with a huge cup of Pepsi Max - though there is also Fanta, Irn-Bru, Old Jamaica Ginger Beer and other pops available - I felt that £7.90 was a real deal.
Across our group of five, we tried everything available (apart from the Suzi’s, since we didn’t find out about that one until it was too late).
The six-year-old nephew happily scoffed the pepperoni slice (£3.50), which was neatly topped with loads of little sausage-y discs like stickers in an album. He also had a slice of the simple cheese slice (£3) and poured almost a whole container of hot honey (£1) dip over the top. I think he has unlocked a new addiction, though his white shorts will never recover.
Although, at the start of our visit, I had been pestered to get them a whole 18 inch pie, which they do offer, from £16 to £22, everyone was sated with two slices per person for lunch.
I’m sure this place will do very well, especially as it’s in student-ville and near a school.
Who wouldn’t want a great slice of pizza, for a couple of quid? They can have ALL my dollars.
Next time we visit, if it’s not raining, I think we’ll try taking our spoils away.
After all, we’d be very happy to go and eat them on a bench in the lovely Central Park. I mean, the Meadows.
Sear’s Pizza, 27a Marchmont Road, Edinburgh (0131 563 9979, www.searspizza.com)
Read more: “I tried the new £39.50 lunch in Edinburgh’s most elegant dining room and it was a proper treat”.
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