Pizza Fella, Leeds

Pizza Fella has been open in Leeds for just over a year now and they say that their pizzas are made and cooked in the true style of Naples.

Having been to Naples many times and eaten pizzas there from street vendors to those eaten in restaurants in this chaotic city I thought it would be good to see if Pizza Fella could live up to the claim.

The interior it has to be said is very minimal: you eat on wooden tables that look like they have been put together on a budget and sit either on plastics chairs or wooden benches. The floor looks like corked tile flooring although the restaurant was warm when we visited.

Perhaps with the seating not being too comfy they do not want you to stay too long?

The pizzas are all numbered and with over 14 different ones to choose from there is plenty of choice. It lacks a children's menu though.

Service it has to be said was brusque, indifferent and not interactive, no one seemed to have a smile on their face, no suggestions were made and little time was given to take your order, they were leaving the table before you had even finished giving your order.

The saving grace though is the food and pizzas although my partner's starter of Green salad was drowned in balsamic vinegar which spoilt the salad, the bottom of the dish was swimming with vinegar. My starter of Garlic bread priced at £5.50 was ideal for sharing and although a little salty was very tasty.

I went for pizza number 11 which is the Spicy pizza, cooked in true Neapolitan style with a bigger crust and the filling in the middle did taste just like a proper Neapolitan pizza, although it soon seemed to go cold. Priced at £9.00 in Naples it would probably cost around €6.00 there.

My partner went for pizza number 2, the Classic Margherita which again seemed the go cold very quickly, perhaps a little too oily for some, this traditional pizza was true to that of a proper pizza from Naples. Priced at £7.00 it was responsibly priced.

The dessert menu is minimal too but then it is in Italy. My ice cream scoops were creamy and tasty with the vanilla perhaps being a little too frozen. My partner's Tiramisu was light and full of flavour.

Cooked in a wood burning pizza oven the pizzas were very good. If you can put up with the clinical and functional service and the minimalist design of the place then by all means give it a try.

Great pizza let down by poor service.

Pizza Fella, 114-116 Vicar Lane, Leeds LS2 7NL
www.pizza-fella.co.uk