Little Chan : Scrumptious pizza

JD and I hopped on our vélos on Saturday and headed down to trendy Portobello Road to meet one of my friends who was setting up a market stand at the farmers market there (it was her first weekend so went down for support). As usual, we were out and about during lunchtime so after the market, we then had to find somewhere for a bit of grub. I remembered the last time I was in the same neck of the woods, I had driven past a Pizza East (pizza place with its original resto in Shoreditch and now with an outpost out west) and thought it looked pretty cool. I was sceptical about us getting a table on a Saturday afternoon but we chanced our luck and got seated at the bar by the pizza ovens. The place was pretty funky/trendy (retro chic decor) with a somewhat "interesting" clientele (preening is the name of the game!).

We ordered a couple of small dishes (meatballs and grilled squid) to start followed by a couple of pizzas. Our meatballs arrived which we polished off and then were left in limbo for a good 15-20 minutes with no sight of our squid. One of the front of house (slimey Bradley Cooper, the other was Heather Locklear wannabe) noticed we were sat waiting for a while, went off to investigate what had caused the delay and returned apologising profusely that our order had gone to another table but we would have ours very shortly and offered extra drinks on the house whilst we waited. In fairness, it was very courteous and over and beyond what we would've expected.......but he should've left it at that and not insisted on giving us embraces every time he came to check on us?? (definitely not a fan of touchy feely staff) Our squid came promptly (which was scrummy) followed closely by our pizzas. I have to say it was seriously good pizza and for me, even topping Franco Manca! JD concurred to a point but said he would like to try a few more other types on the menu before coming to a conclusion. We were too stuffed to try desserts but perhaps that will be an excuse to return some other time? As we were leaving, "Bradley Cooper" came over to bid us farewell and we were gifted with some hilarious soundbites ("That's the last time you will have to wait" and to another table, "We'll set it up all nice.......cos we're professional!"). I have since found out that Pizza East is affiliated with Soho House which takes a bit of a shine off things but I honestly could not fault our visit - oh wellos, gotta give credit where credit's due :)