High Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester
Dough Pizza Kitchen is
celebrating ten years of being cheesy in the heart of the Northern Quarter.
It’s an independent Italian restaurant and pizzeria with an emphasis on
inclusivity. The extensive menu is full of classic dishes and quirky pizzas,
many of which can be adapted to meet any dietary requirements, with gluten
free, dairy free, vegetarian and vegan options available.
It’s a rustic and basic
interior set up for casual, daytime dining. The staff are friendly enough but
the service could do with improvement – more on that later.
The starter selection is
rather basic. There’s a host of Italian favourites which are perhaps best
suited to sharing: garlic breads, bruschetta, baked camembert and dough balls,
as well as meat and vegetarian platters.
Having perused the menu
several times before my visit, I knew from the offset that I had to try one of
their delicious-sounding desserts, so to ensure I had room, myself and my
friend just shared a garlic bread. It’s a 10-inch pizza bread, demonstrating
the ultra-thin, super-crispy bases which are used. For me, it was a little too
thin and crispy, on the cusp of being crunchy. You need a tiny bit of
floppiness in the middle. There was a generous layer of tomato but not quite
enough garlic for my liking.
The choice for main course was
overwhelming. There’s a huge selection of pizzas, including a section of the
menu dedicated to ‘Modern Pizza’, with toppings including Full English
Breakfast, BBQ Pulled Pork and Chicken Balti. They all sound intriguing and
delicious. It’s not very often I’m drawn in by pizza, but I’d definitely like
to give one of these a try.
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| Tomato Garlic Bread |
However, there was something
even more intriguing which caught my eye: White Chocolate Risotto. The title of
the dish is slightly misleading, as the chocolate is only very subtle and
certainly doesn’t qualify as a main ingredient. Still, I suppose the point of
the name is to catch your eye, and it certainly does. Pieces of lemon torn
roast chicken, smoked pancetta and fresh spinach were folded through the creamy
risotto, with white chocolate droplets delicately placed on the top, melting
into the dish.
It shouldn’t work, but it did.
In principle, I don’t agree with combining savoury and sweet, firmly believing
they should be kept to two separate courses. However, this little hint of white
chocolate provided added a rich, creamy taste to the risotto without it being
sweet. It contrasted perfectly with the lemon chicken and the saltiness of the
pancetta.
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| White Chocolate Risotto |
My friend had the Rustica
Pizza: sun-blushed tomatoes, mozzarella, rocket and parmesan, with added
prosciutto. The base was thin, crispy and light and there was plenty of
topping. It was exactly how I’d like a pizza to be.
The quality of the food was
let down by the painfully slow service. It took long enough for our garlic bread
to arrive, but the length of time we had to wait for our main courses was
beyond a joke. I had to ask after our food twice before it arrived. On the
second occasion, I pointed out to our waiter that we’d been seated for a whole
hour, during which time we’d only had a garlic bread. He said it was his fault,
as the plate for the garlic bread was left on the table for ages after we’d
finished, so he hadn’t told the kitchen to start preparing our mains. Granted,
he apologised, but he seemed to think that this was acceptable. They could have
knocked something off the bill or even offered us a complementary drink, given
that neither of us were drinking alcohol, but all we got was ‘it’ll be with you
shortly, they’re rushing it through now’.
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| Rustica Pizza |
Despite the wait, I couldn’t
resist dessert. Dough offers something a little bit different to your
run-of-the-mill selection. There’s a Triple Chocolate Brownie, an Orange and
Almond Cake and Peanut Butter Krispie Bites.
The one that stole my heart
was the Triple Chocolate Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich: three chocolate oat cookies stacked
with scoops of vanilla ice cream and topped off with fresh berries. This was a
spectacular dessert and outstandingly amazing value, priced at just £4.75.
The cookies were stacked with
dairy free vanilla ice cream. I enquired as to whether it would be possible for
it to be made with regular ice cream. After all, they pride themselves on their
ice cream cabinet, with quirky flavours such as birthday cake. However, I was
told that the kitchen only has dairy free ice cream, with all other flavours
prepared at the bar. Our waiter reluctantly offered to prepare my dessert at
the bar with regular ice cream, but I couldn’t be bothered asking questions so
I just accepted it.
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| Triple Chocolate Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich |
When it comes to the ominous
question of whether or not I’d return, I’m stuck between the devil and the deep
blue sea. The food was delicious and there are loads of different pizzas I want
to try, but the exceptionally slow service is off-putting. Perhaps this
explains why a central Northern Quarter restaurant wasn’t packed out on a
bustling summer Saturday afternoon.
Website: http://doughpizzakitchen.co.uk/
