Belly Logical

Pizzeria Chirico, 26-28 Mabel Road, Bedford, MK42 9JD, 01234 270214
Open: Wed – Sun 17:00 – 23:00

A week night... A night when really I shouldn't be thinking about pizza. Today
Is supposed to be one of my “diet days” but the coffee flowed today and then there was cake!
Well, since there's already been cake then I don’t suppose pizza is going to hurt any more than the cake has...

In fact I'm now ...convinced it will actually compliment the cake eating from earlier today.
And so, it may be done!

There is another reason to order pizza. Mrs Belly has been set free from the shackles of a dairy free diet! Those lactose free, tasteless, disgusting, cowless (much like most of the country’s current beef supply) chains lay broken and strewn across the floor, RUN! RUN TO THE DAIRY!!!

"Oh sweetheart that’s awesome. I know how much you’ve missed it so if you're allowed dairy then just for you I will sacrifice my diet day and order you in a full on cheese pizza...just for you."

And so, it may be done.

But where to go?

We had a menu come through the other day and it was a place I heard about but never ordered from so I thought we should give it a go. It's run by Italians and was recommended by an Italian friend of mine and in my world Italian recommendation + Italian food place = good eats.

Unfortunately (and I say this with not an ounce of truth in the word "unfortunately") the menu we had only displayed prices & listings for tray pizzas (approx. 30 x 18 inches… oh what a shame). Yes, there is the logical side to the argument which may say “well you could have just asked for the prices over the phone” and to this argument I say “Go **** yourself, I’m hungry!”

-cool as a cucumber

I (as you may well have guessed by now) did not ask how much regular pizzas were over the phone but I did do the next best thing however, and that was order a tray pizza AND a menu that contained the listings and prices for the regular sized pizzas (Belly logic WINS).

And so, it was done! Mwahahahahahahahahahaha.

It didn’t take long for the tray to come and we very quickly dug in. On first taste I wouldn't say there was anything special going on but with each bite the flavours really came alive. The tomato flavours became more and more intense and there was plenty of it too. The pepperoni was good quality and very tasty indeed but a little sparse (but I am a greedy bugger so perhaps there was enough for the average person). Plenty of good quality cheese, crispy base and cooked all the way through (I have had some trays in the past that have been sub-par on all fronts. The base is a Neapolitan style base which is thicker than more traditional pizza bases and the dough was nice and crispy on the bottom which helped. Had it have been any thicker then we may have been entering Andrea’s territory but then again the taste and quality of the dough far exceeds the crap that come out of Bedford’s oldest fast food shop.

All in all it was good quality eats and now we have the regular menu we’ll be trying them out again and I will report back when the deed has been done…. And it will be done!

In the meantime, if you have a family gathering or a bunch of drunk people round your house (I don’t mean this as in a home invasion of pissheads more invited guests that you have allowed in to your home despite their lack of sobriety) then you couldn't go wrong with a tray from Chirico.

Call In The Carvery!

The Tavistock, 117 Tavistock Street, Bedford, Beds, MK40 2SB 01234 219595

 

Ah, Sunday’s. Potential hangovers, long lay in’s, big old fried breakfast and home cooked Sunday lunch, bloody marvellous.

Back to reality: Oh Sunday, no lay in, changing a shitty nappy (I am well aware that food reviews don’t normally start with descriptions of someone elbow deep in little packets full of shit and piss as ...these things can tend to put some off of their food but in the cold light of life it happens), watching Cbeebies at 7:30am, no hangover, no breakfast, no home cooked Sunday roast…. But, there is hope.

TAVISTOCK CARVERY!

We knew it was going to happen of course, the table had been booked some days before. Do you hear that Toby? THE TABLE HAD BEEN BOOKED!!!!!!! We were guaranteed a table without the hassle of struggling to find somewhere to park only to get inside and find that there won’t be a table ready for at least two hours:

“Can we reserve one?”
“No you can’t”
“Then good day to you, I shall spend my money elsewhere… besides your roast is crap anyway so nah!”

Tavistock Street isn’t the prettiest road in the word and has got a pretty seedy reputation (well sex shops and brothels tend to do that for an area) and I’d been across the road in the Tasty Tuck looking over at it but not giving it a 2nd thought due to its location. I thought it was just another alcoholic’s hideaway, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

When you enter the pub you’ll see just how great it looks, very modern all round. It’s not too tightly packed either, yes it was busy but when you sat down you didn’t feel as though you had “guests” at your table.

We were seated reasonably quickly although there did seem to be a bit of a pile up as more and more people came in after us, we weren’t seen to our table immediately although several members of staff did look over to see the mountain of bodies now climbing on top of one another.

Once we were at our table though everything was just perfect. We got Baby Belly in to here high chair and although there were quite few folks in the pub the queue for the carvery wasn’t very long at all. There are other options on et menu but we knew why we were there, our eyes could see the meat glistening under the hot lamp, the roast spuds teasing us from afar, the Yorkshire pudding large and fluffy drawing us in… I gotta go, I gotta get up there!

ZOOM!

We’re in line! There were a few meats on offer, Turkey, Pork, Chicken & Gammon. You can either choose just one or have a little of each, I went for Beef and Gammon. The beef wasn’t daintily sliced either, there were some good bloody chunks being sliced of that bad boy. You’re given a Yorkshire and stuff and then left to your own devices when it comes to spuds & veg etc.

I grabbed myself some roast spuds, mash, red cabbage and carrots. I would like to make special mention of the red cabbage, it was pretty amazing stuff. I’m not sure if they’d done it with balsamic vinegar but it tasted as though it had been. Everything else was really goo too, spuds were crispy out & fluffy in, meat was perfectly cooked and you couldn’t fault the mash or other veg. I’m not a massive fan of gravy but I was informed that it was good also very good.

 If I had to compare this to Toby then Tavistock Carvery wins hands down, in fact I will even go as far to say that compared to the Tavistock Carvery eating a Toby is like sucking shit out of an old boot (I really mean that… although I have never actually sucked shit out of an old boot but you get my point).

We needed some hot water to warm a bottle for Baby Belly, it came almost instantly. Apart from the hiccup at the door the service here was fast and friendly. I don’t think anything was particularly overpriced either, everything seemed pretty reasonable.

I’ll definitely be going back there again and I think I need to take a few friends with me next time and introduce them to it. Seriously, if you’re in Bedford and you want a really good roast then you’re not going to go wrong with The Tavistock Carvery. If possible book ahead first but it is well worth a visit.

Hats Off To Mr Nose

Chef Beijing, 52-54 Ram Yard Town Centre, Bedford MK40 3NU
 

HELLO!

Did you miss me?

Yes, there has been a massive gap since my last entry but there is also now a massive gap between my belly and my jeans!

My weight was getting a bit beyond me, when you have satellites in orbit around your waist you kind of know that although you’re “cosmic” you’re just not “cosmic” in the right way.

 A lot has happened in the time between, Mrs Belly has dropped the sprog and so we now have a 5 week old daughter “Baby Belly” to contend with, it’s hell! A new level of hell that they never warn you about at the hospital or anti-natal classes. “Enjoy them while they’re small” they say, “you’ll miss all this when they’re older” they say. Well quite frankly as much as I love the little bundle of belly I’m really not going to miss waking up just to plunge my hands in to a shitty nappy at 3am!

Anyway, I digress.

The trouble with humans is that they tend to stay with the familiar, we all have our favourites and we tend to stick with them. Luckily we have variables in our life or “friends” as we commonly call them. Luckily for sake of variety they too also have their own favourites and from here the story goes…

A couple of weeks back we made our first trip out to a variables friend’s house with baby belly in tow. A simple night in of watching a movie and ordering some take away. As most of you should know I’ve been a pretty big fan of Lee’s Chinese take away down Castle Road but sadly they do not deliver. With that in mind another visiting friend, I shall call him “Mr Nose” suggested CHEF BEIJING. Now I’d heard of it and even seen the restaurant but I’d always been warned that it was a very expensive place to eat so have always avoided it….

Turns out it’s pretty good on price, I think they may do Thai food too which in all fairness is always a little OTT in pricing so perhaps that’s where the large price tag comment came from.

So how do we test this bad boy out? Well the answer is simple, order your favourites (see we all have them) and so I did.

Sweet & Sour Chicken Balls
Mushroom fried Rice
Pancake Roll

The delivery came in reasonable time, under 45 minutes and you can get delivery for orders over £12. I think my meal came to just over a tenner, in some places it can be as much as £14 so better than most IMO.

But how was the food?

In a word… AWESOME!

Really, really good food. The batter on the sweet & sour chicken balls was crispy, the chicken had no pink it (something I find with a lot of Chinese places). There wasn’t too much oil retained in the batter either so my mouth wasn’t greased up like George Michael coming out of a public convenience. You also got quite a few and they weren’t dinky either, I’ve seen that a lot of places have been reducing the size of their (forgive me) balls recently but these guys have (forgive me) massive balls for you to stuff in your mouth (yeah, I went there .

The rice was fluffy and really packed with flavour, something else I’ve noticed is that a lot of places seemed to add the mushrooms in after so the only mushroomy taste is in the mushroom itself and not in eth rice, well here they’re cooked right in there.

The pancakes rolls were huge too! And there were two of them, really packed in and again the wrapping didn’t lose any of its crispness.

All in all I think I have found my new favourite Chinese take away, obviously like all places you need to give it a few goes just to make sure but I can honestly say that I haven’t enjoyed a Chinese meal like that in a long time. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been “out of the game” so to speak but just writing this up is making me eager for more.

“Mr Nose”, thank you for this truly wonderful gift you have bestowed upon me and Chef Beijing…

I’ll be seeing you at the weekend you cheeky little so & so!

 

*Since this review there has been a major shakeup at Chef Beijing, mainly due to being caught using illegal workers. I'm not sure if there has been a change in management but my last couple of orders from here has been less than satisfactory which is a shame as you can see in my review I really did enjoy my initial meal.

Pack Your Trunk And Say Goodbye To The Circus

The Elephant, 118-120 Bedford Road. Kempston. Bedfordshire. MK42 8BG

Since the days of its conception and then through the days of its initial opening and on-going presence I’d always wondered what The Elephant was actually like. I remember that when it first opened it was impossible to get a booking at all, every time I passed by the place was heaving, that was a couple of years ago now and thankfully The Elephant is still around and even better we’d managed to get a bloody booking HAZZARRR!

The building is quite a nice sight in itself, what used to be a grotty hole is now an awesome looking place with a cool elephant drawn on to the side the building (thank god they didn’t call it “The Cock” and some nice wooden flowerbeds surrounding a small outside seating area.

Another bonus about this place is that it seems to have destroyed the Chinese take-away that was a few doors down, I can’t recall its name but I only went there the once and it was proper shitty! Mrs Belly had Chow Mein and there were burnt, manky bits of old egg in there as if they never cleaned the wok, sweet N’ sour chicken balls were pretty much frozen chicken nuggets. Dirty, dirty place!

The Elephant is a far cry from “the shit hole down the road” and rightly so, when you walk in you’re greeted to low lighting and a nice red interior. Lights that emulate candles are balanced on small shelves on the wall giving off a very pleasant atmosphere.

Mrs Belly and I were running late so we met all of our friends there, we sat down at our table (a rather large round table with a lazy Susan *or “bitch” as I call it*) and perused the menu. There’s quite a bit to choose from both Chinese and Thai food too (which neither of us were expecting).

I’d heard that the place was ok but a bit pricey, well to be fair some of the prices were on the high side and I did end up going for the cheapest dishes on the menu but that was because I had no idea of quality or portion size so didn’t want to go mental splashing eth cash when I may end up with a big bag of bollocks (not literally btw).

I ended up ordering the crispy duck pancake rolls to start and the stir fried mussels for mains with a portion of Jasmine rice as a side. The duck rolls came to the table, three rolls cut in half and placed on the plate like towers of deliciousness, enticing, inviting… If you can’t quite tell where I’m going with this I suggest you take some sort of IQ test as you’re obviously a bit of a jelly brain! The duck rolls were fantastic, I’ve had crispy duck at various places in the past but nothing as good as this.

The pancake roll was perfectly crispy while the duck was tender & juicy, I drizzled the hoi sin sauce over the rolls and they come alive even more.

A couple of JD & cokes to “cleanse” the pallet (ok, to help me get pissed) later and the main course came. The rice was enough for two and I did end up sharing it with Mrs Belly, the mussels were pretty damn good too. They came covered in a green pepper & black bean sauce and in fear of sounding like the long faced woman form that Sex/City thing “they were to die for” (I hate that phrase so please forgive me, I’ll smack myself now and bow my head in shame). If you’re not a fishy person then STAY AWAY FROM SEAFOOD! If, like me you’re quite partial to the salty shellfish then you really can’t go wrong with this order.

Just so I mention the rice… it was nice. One more time “the rice was nice”.

I think between myself and Mrs Belly our bill came to about £40 - £45 including the drinks.

Luckily I got to try some of my chums’ dishes too. Just so we’re all on the same page I did not (DID NOT) steal food from their plate, it was kindly donated freely by their own hand.

Mr B handed me some of his soft shell crab – excellent

MR & Mrs A passed over their Thai King Prawns with Mixed Vegetables + a Thai fish cake – also excellent

I cannot fault the food, it is in fact one of the best Chinese meals I’ve had in a long time, yes some of the prices are a little high but you’re paying for quality food and the service was also brilliant. The waiting staff were very friendly, helpful and chatty too, they made you feel comfortable and welcome (not something to often get these days).

If you fancy treating yourself and your pals then seriously get your ass to The Elephant, and if you can’t get in then Blue Ginger is right next door so you’ve always got a backup plan my friend!

BaJa-mbug (Not really)

Baja’s, Castle Quarter, Castle Lane, Bedford, MK40 3NT

It was the weekend of the Jubilee and what a hectic weekend it turned out to be! Mrs Belly and I had to drive up North on the Friday night to attend a friend’s wedding on the Saturday then rush back down again on Sunday for another friends birthday dinner then Monday was a gathering around Ma & Pa Belly’s with Tuesday being a day to actually ...relax!

This is obviously a review of the Sunday but let me just say a few words about the rest of the weekend first.

The wedding we attended was to be fair pretty damn awesome, ok it was all churchy & Godly (I’m an adult and don’t believe that an invisible man in the sky with an invisible beard created & controls everything, if he did then we should be cursing him rather than praising him because he really does quite frankly cause quite a shit!) but was a nice service all in all.

The reception was held on a farm in a barn that had been deckled out to look like a ball room (stunning!). As we arrived we were given drinks (that seemed to get topped up after you’d taken a mouthful) and staff were buzzing about with trays of tartlets, chicken & sausages on sticks. I did keep shouting over to the girl with the sausages “Oi sausage girl, come back!”… And she did and I ate all the sausage, Yum!

Dinner consisted of Parma Ham & Mozzarella to start, a roast beef dinner for the main course & Crème Brule for desert.

 The wine kept flowing because… IT WAS A FREE BAR! I’ve never been to a wedding with a free bar before, it was awesome. There was a local beer on tap at the bar which was very VERY good.
To top off the evening there was a live band and in place of the buffet a frickin’ Fish N’ Chip van rocks up with free Fish N’ Chips for all… Hoorah! What got me though is that the food from the van was better than most chippies’!

Anyway, back in rainy Bedford on Sunday we headed out for a friend’s birthday to Baja’s which is a Mexican restaurant on the new Castle Quarter in between Spaghetti John’s & The Riverside Grill.

The first time I heard about this place is when the boyfriend of the birthday girl told me we were going to eat at a place called “Badgers”, now this seemed like a rather odd name to me the only reference I could think of was the line “Badges? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges” (said in a thick Mexican accent in which case “Badges” can sound a bit like “Badgers”) from the book & film “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”.
Obviously a bit of a stretch so I asked how it was spelt. B-A-J-A.
Ah! Ok, I got it you’re pronouncing the “J” as a “J” and not as an “H” as it is in Spanish. So remember kids it is pronounce BaHa’s the same a Jalapeno is pronounced halepeno.

Now I only knew roughly where this place was an Mrs Belly and I walked around the main building twice without noticing it, I called a friend on the phone just to make sure I was where I was supposed to be (I was indeed). So why couldn’t I see the place? Well, turns out the sign is about the size of a postage stamp! Honestly it is so small, I was expecting something more in keeping with a sign above a shop, big, noticeable, inviting… nope. The reason we walked around the block twice is because, unless you know it’s there the windows are kind of dark and make it look like an empty building.

It’s actually at the back of The Lanes bar, there’s even an entrance to the restaraunt through the bar itself.
Wanting to make a good impression, being a little bit wet form eth rain and a bit irate that the sign was so pathetically small I burst through the door and instantly shouted at the manager “YOU NEED A BIGGER SIGN! HOW THE HELL IS ANYONE SUPPOSED TO SEE THAT BLOODY THING?”, this was met with a part frightened, part bemused smile and then a question “Er… have you got a reservation?”
 


Thankfully we did otherwise I have a feeling they may not have let me stay…

After everyone else arrived we were seated and had a scan through the menu. There’s some really good stuff on there and it’s already better than the Mexican that used to be on Tavistock Street where they didn’t sell Fajita’s or Burrito’s but did sell Enchilada’s (odd).

I opted for the cream cheese stuffed & breaded Jalapeno’s & Mushrooms for starters and then the beef Chimichanga (A deep fried Burrito) for mains.
When you order your main course you get a choice of filling, chicken, beef or the quite oddly and very un-Mexican lamb.
Mrs Belly and I also ordered a side of fries… (We did come to regret this!).

My mate and I were running low on beer so we ordered more with waitress who just went off to get a couple of pints, she then returned and my other mate ordered a beer for himself and she wandered off an brought back one more beer. Obviously the entire table was wanting drinks so someone else asked for a drink, the waitress went to turn again but someone piped up and said “Do you want to get everyone else’s drink orders too, might save yourself another 5 trips?”

The starters came and it was a positive reaction all round, the Jalapeno’s & mushrooms were excellent. Really crispy breadcrumbs but everything was moist inside, the jalapenos were not too hot either. I’m a big fan of spice but I know others aren’t so if you’re not then don’t be afraid to order these as they will not do you harm and are really tasty so you shouldn’t miss out!

It’s always a bit worrying when you’re in a new place as you don’t ever know what the portion sizes are like, have you ordered too little or have you gone overboard? Well in this case we had gone a little overboard. The main courses came and although it didn’t look like a lot boy oh boy can looks be deceiving!

That bad boy was packed to the brim with rice, beef strips, guacamole and vegetables and man was it filling! Mrs Belly and I had ordered a size of fries between us and we struggled with those and even offered them out to everyone else (which I never normally have to do).

The Chimichanga was excellent though, the beef was tender, the rice was perfectly cooked and although I’m not a big fan of guacamole even that tasted good. It was quite frankly perfect.
The actual restaurant was a little dead when we first arrived (most likley due to the fact that no one can find the bastard place!) but soon started to fill out, it’s clean, comfortable and not to expensive either.

My only issues I had were the sign problem (seriously guys you’ve got to get a bigger one) and the issue with the waitress getting drinks one at a time. These are a couple of minor niggles that can be easily fixed though.

All in all it’s nice to have somewhere new to go that isn’t an Indian, Chinese or Italian. We need more world food places in the town and this is a good start, hopefully they’ll do well and be around for years to come because there’s a great deal of food on the menu that I wish to try and it’s a place I definitely want to go back to in the future!

Bedford Belly: Pissed!

AL-Badar, 66 Midland Road, Town Centre, Bedford MK40 1QB



 It had been a glorious weekend, the sun had been shining, the birds had been singing and I had been drinking!

Trying not to give too much of my identity away (yes there are those who follow this that do know who I am) I was in Luton doing musical things and since it was a 6pm kick out time on Sunday we decided to... make the most of the weather and head to a couple of beer gardens, we had been drinking cans most of the afternoon anyway so why not just carry on?

We hit the first pub and within the hour had already consumed 3 pints… not the best idea we’ve ever had but it didn’t hinder us too much. We moved on to a pub further within Luton town centre and found ourselves a place. Looking round I suddenly felt a bit old, we were all at least 16years older than everyone else in the garden (where has the bloody time gone?). It was a bit pricey here so we made a united decision ”let’s not waste the money we have left on pub pints, let’s be wise with the cash and spend it on more cans. We can head back to yours…” (Fingers point towards the friend who still lives in the town) “… and put on some tunes”.

And that’s exactly what we did, for the next 3-4 hours we ploughed through the beer, listened to some sweet tunes (When I say tunes I mean real music, you know the kind with instruments and verses etc. not THUD THUD THUD BLEEP WOBBLE BLEEP WOBBLE *a sample of a woman shrieking some inane nonsense* THUMP THUMP THUMP).

Time rolled on and there were only two trains left so myself and another mate (Who was to stay at my gaff) headed off zigzagging our way down streets and alleyways until we were greeted by the rather good looking outer shell of Luton station (the inside is still a frickin’ dump but the outside is all Total Recall/Logan’s Run futuristic).

A quick train jaunt later and we were back in Bedford…. Now, the alcohol had really taken control and it was screaming, screaming oh so loudly “GET A KEBAB I’M HUNGRY!”. Well, who am I to ignore such pleas?

So after passing many an unsavoury character we found ourselves in Al-Badar on Midland road, in all honesty it’s a bit of a dive but it was that or Fried Chicken. Normally Alcohol has a dominating effect on the body and just tends to crave Kebabs. Perhaps it’s some kind of Grecian witchcraft but it’s true, you’ll never fully satisfy a drunken hunger until you have presented it with an offering of minced lamb in a bready envelope.

I went for the mixed doner with salad and chilli sauce. Now what I got was a mixed doner with salad & chilli sauce but it came in Naan bread. It’s not the first time I’ve had this and it in no way offends my drunken palate but I was initially a tad disappointed (perhaps this is the reason I’ve been craving pitta bread this week?) but it served its purpose well, tasted good and allowed me to roll it over the rest of the filling as we chowed down on our fodder during the additional walk back to my house, then we had to return to the kebab shop as the friend I was with had left his bag there, the bag he said he didn’t want to lose and then actually asked “Did I bring a bag?” when I told him he’d left it behind (thankfully it was still there).

The kebab meat was a mixed affair to be fair, it wasn’t caked in as much fat as you’d normally expect and some bits were really juicy but then you’d come across a handful of really dry bits which are edible enough (and they did get eaten) but you can’t help feel that there’s a good chance they’ve been kicking round the kitchen for a couple of days.

In complete contrast the chicken was actually excellent It was very VERY juicy and had been spiced perfectly, it wasn’t too hot but there was enough of a kick in it and it worked really well with the cooling salad. The chill sauce was pretty standard to be frank, there was nothing amazing about it, and it did the job but could have been better.

Funnily enough, earlier in the day as we had been walking in to Luton town we were discussing chilli sauce (yeah, we have some very deep and philosophical conversations sometimes) and as we did we walked past “Dial-A-Kebab” who I had to point out made the best chilli sauce in Luton (IMHO). It was pointed out that they had been on Panorama at some point as they were apparently a front for an Al-Qaeda cell! So there you go, the secret to their chilli sauce was obviously anthrax.... YUM

By the time we’d got back to mine all evidence had been consumed and no one was any the wiser…

In conclusion Al-Bader (although a bit grotty inside) isn’t the worst kebab house but it’s not the best either. It was the only kebab house open on a Sunday night down Midland road and if you have to head home that way then it’s fine but if you do want a Kebab and can be bothered then I’d just head up to Andrea’s in Tavistock Street since they do the best Kebab’s in the town, ok everything else Andrea’s sell is crap but you cannot in any way knock their mad kebab skills!

Talking Italian

Santaniello 9-11 Newnham Street, Bedford MK40 3JR

Ah the weekend, those 2 days at the end of each week (the name gives it away!) that we all look forward to. A couple of days where we can forget the stresses of work, relax, go on trips or just concentrate on the stresses of home life instead!

Yes, Saturday was here and I was up early(ish) as I had a job to do, a job I had been putting off for some time as I’d never done it before and wasn’t looking forward to doing it either… WALLPAPERING!

As it turns out, apart from the nightmare of trimming the bastard stuff once it’s on the wall the actual job itself was quite frankly a piece of piss! Sadly this now means that Mrs Belly knows I can wallpaper and therefore (I’m sure) will be already planning my next wallpapering project as I type.

Anyway, wallpapering out of the way and a lack of desire to cook anything I thought “Let’s get a pizza”. As you know by now the whole reason I started this thing was to name and shame those shitty Pizza joints that do the bog standard skanky pizza’s that have sadly become the norm in this country. Places such as Bella Italia in Kempston, Andrea’s in Bedford Town Centre etc.

Santaniello is a classic Italian Pizzeria run by an Italian family making classic Italian Pizza’s, this is how Pizza should be! There are only a handful of Places in Beds that serve proper Pizza and it’s such a nice change from the usual muck!

Proper Italian base, proper tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese, none of your dirty cheddar mix here!

I had myself a salami & chilli Calzone while Mrs Belly had herself an onion & mushroom pizza and we also ordered a mixed salad between us. Both Pizza & Calzone were a good size (there’s just one size here approx. 12”), cooked perfectly and also fast. I placed the order on the phone and they asked how long I would be, I asked how long they would like me to be and they told me 5 minutes.

We were just round the corner and got there pretty much 5 minutes later; they were literally just taking our order out of the oven!

Both of them were delicious and the drive home didn’t affect the food in any way, the dough was crisp, the cheese was stringy and the food was still hot! The salad came in an Italian dressing which was pretty damn good too.

In all honesty there’s not a whole load to say when food is good, if it’s bad then there’s plenty to say but when food is good all that really comes to mind are three things:

1) Yum
2) Mmmm nyom nyom
3) We are definitely going back there!

The menu is nice and simple; you won’t find chicken or pineapple on the Pizza’s here because they’re not things real Italians put on pizzas. Salami, Ham, Mushrooms, Onions, Olives, Peppers, Chilli’s, Artichokes, Anchovies, these are the kind of toppings you’ll find. Simple, flavoursome ingredients; that’s how Italian is and to be honest it’s all the better for it!

The only downside is that they don’t deliver but the only time that’s really an issue is if either:

A) Everyone’s drunk and you live out of Bedford Town Centre

You live outside of Bedford Town Centre but don’t own a car

If you want to taste a real Italian pizza then I suggest you stop calling up all the fakers, get off your ass and head to Santaniello. Find out what real pizza tastes like then give your skanky 10 a penny take away all kinds of shit until we’ve forced them all to start selling quality pizzas the way they are meant to be!