So, as many of you probably know, my favourite pizza is the pizza from Pizza East. They have the worlds best pizza, that is just a fact. I know, it’s a bit weird to write about Strada, but telling you that the best pizza you can eat, is at Pizza East. Though there is a reason, because before I discovered Pizza East, my favourite pizza was from Strada. They do have very yummy pizza’s too. I didn’t go to Strada for quite a while, because there is no Strada restaurant close to me and the ones that were closest to me, are all gone. Then a while ago, I went to Southbank in the afternoon, so I popped into Strada to have lunch.

I was very excited about going here again, just because I was wondering if I would still like the pizza that much, after being so used to the Pizza East pizza’s. So I normally always order a pizza with the same toppings: olives, mushrooms, onions, broccoli and aubergine. Though, then I saw this pizza called ‘Caprino’. It has tomatoes, roasted courgette and aubergine. It also has mozzarella and goat’s cheese, but I asked for olives and rocket instead of that. I just wanted to try something different. It had roasted veggies and I thought it was still a very safe choice. It turned out to be a very good choice, because it was delicious! I’m quite sure I’ll order it again, next time I’m here. You should really try it. What answers the question if I still liked their pizza. I sure did! The base is very thin though, what is good, but the only thing is that it’s a little soft in the middle, what makes it tricky to eat. The taste is good though. Neutral, but crispy, with more flavour on the sides where the oven burned the edges a bit (yum!). The tomatoes are semi-dried and they tasted so good with the roasted courgette and aubergine. After a whole pizza (yes I can eat a whole pizza) I was too full for dessert, but in case you want to oder dessert, they have sorbets in 3 flavours: mango, raspberry and lemon. They do have quite some vegan options on the menu. Olives and bread as a starter. Very nice rosemary/garlic potatoes, (skin on) fries, tender stem broccoli’s and salad, as side dishes. When I didn’t want to eat pizza, I often ordered 3 side dishes as a meal. Oh they also do a nice spaghetti with a tomato-basil sauce (order without the mozzarella) and bruschetta. The bruschetta looks very good. The lady next to me ordered it and she kept saying how good and tasty it was. So, a good thing to try too!

The Strada restaurants are very family/child friendly. The kids pizza’s are quite big btw. You could easily have them, with a salad on the side, as an adult lunch. The Southbank restaurant is quite a big restaurant, what is good, because it’s always busy. Mainly because of the tourists, but I also think because the National Theatre and the Southbank Centre are close. I like that the kitchen is basically in the middle of the restaurant and that you can see how and where the food is made. I also really like the big Italy prints on the wall, with the basil and yummy looking tomatoes. It sure works for your appetite! All together it’s a lovely restaurant to eat tasty food, but I do think it would be nice if they had a few more vegan options. It would also be handy if the menu showed you the vegan options available. They only specify vegetarian at the moment.

WHO? Strada.
WHERE? 6, Royal Festival Hall, Belvedere Rd, SE1 8XX.
CUISINE? Italian.
VEGAN? No! (omni)
OVERALL? 8 (tasty Italian food, they could improve the information on the menu)

Do you know Stada already? Or are you going to try it now? What would you order? Please let me know! You can do this by leaving a comment below. You can also show me by tagging me on Instagram or by using #PlanetManel. Thank you! X