Florencio

Florencio is a pizzeria, the sister of Zoilo. It notionally serves “Argentinian pizza” (according to our waitress), with chef Marcus Whitfield (2nd Pizzaiolo) running the little kitchen today with its big pizza oven. The oven here generally runs at 250C or so, each pizza taking 6-7 minutes to cook. This is very different from Neapolitan-style pizza, where the oven temperature should be 450C-480C, and the cooking time is just 60-90 seconds. The restaurant has 18 seats upstairs and 18 more downstairs; the tables are quite closely packed together. The lighting is rather murky, hence the matching photos.

The menu is short, with just half a dozen pizza offerings (plus a calzone) and quite a limited selection of starters. For example, you could have Gordal olives (£4.90) or a green salad at £7.90. We went straight into the pizzas. I am curious about the description “Argentinian” style pizza, as my understanding is that this is typified by a thick crust and lots of onion and mozzarella. Pizza was introduced to Argentina by Italian immigrants in the late 19^th century but diverged into a distinct style. They are often accompanied by a baked pancake made from chickpea flour called faina, though that didn't seem to be an option here.

The pizzas that we ate here had a thin base, and seemed to me more like a New York-style pizza, which has a thin crust that is usually slightly crisp on the edge. I tried an El Cuartito (£17.90), presumably named after a well-known Buenos Aires pizzeria El Cuartito, which has been running since 1934. This pizza had San Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella, spicy salami, grilled peppers and salsa verde. My dining companion had muzza (mozzarella) pizza (£13.50), which had San Marzano tomatoes, fior di latte (fresh mozzarella made from cow’s milk), Parmesan, basil and olive oil. The base of both pizzas had a good texture, and the tomatoes had plenty of flavour. Both pizzas were enjoyable and nicely made, with generous toppings (13/20).

For dessert, a banana split was not the traditional recipe but rather banana ice cream with chocolate flakes. The banana flavour was rather muted, but the texture was fine (12/20). Much better was a pair of sorbet scoops, in this case passion fruit and blood orange. These were both lovely, with plenty of fruit flavour and excellent textures. They were made in the kitchen in a Musso L2 Stella machine (14/20). Coffee was from Difference Coffee.

Service was very good, led by a former restaurant manager of Zoilo. The bill came to £37 each for two courses with just beer to drink. It would be a little more if you had a starter and drank wine. The place was doing really well on a Wednesday in January, so had clearly found an audience for its unusual pizzas, helped along by warm and friendly service.