The Out In Brum usual roving correspondent was busy so on being invited to Bardolino’s for a pizza making evening we sent a substitute, so thanks to Andrew for popping along.  This was a freebie event – please see our reciprocity promise here.

Bardolino Pizzeria, Bellini, and Espresso Bar opened in The Cube last summer. The latest venture from Marco Pierre White, this ‘ultra-casual’, café-style restaurant focuses on providing authentic Italian food at affordable prices. As the name suggests, there’s a focus on pizza – thin and crispy and almost burnt at the edges, just like Mamma White used to make – but with many other Italian favourites available too. As the restaurant is also attached to the Club and Spa, there is also a range of super-healthy, super-salads to give gym-goers the energy they need to sculpt those bodies.

Thursday, 9th February, is National Pizza Day and so in honour of this, and to launch their new menu, we were invited to go along and have a go at crafting our own pizzas. Well…with free pizza on offer, on a cold and miserable Monday night, it would have been rude not to!

On walking in to the spacious, open interior we were offered a beer or glass of prosecco. The restaurant was showcasing Peroni’s new Gluten-free Nastro Azzurro so with trepidation we agreed to try a sample bottle. At first I thought they must have given us the wrong bottle as it tasted just like the pleasant, crisp, Italian lager we know and love. It was only when we tasted it side by side with the original that you could notice a difference. It’s slightly drier – but no less enjoyable for it.

Suitably refreshed it was on to the business of the day. Aprons and hats were donned and we took our place around a large table where balls of dough had been prepared ready for us. The Head Chef talked us through the ingredients available and then guided us all in stretching our balls out to become thin pizza bases. Cue lots of flying semolina flour, dough-tossing and amazingly no ‘dough-meets-floor’ experiences!

Then we were invited to let our minds go wild and create our perfect pizza. I opted for a layer of salami and bresaola topped with cheese, then chillis, mushrooms and more cheese, finished off with fresh spinach and a drizzle of balsamic, and dubbed it the Brumicelli. Adam started with a layer of Bolognese and topped it with a Birmingham assay anchor fashioned from bresaola, mushroom, and an egg, and dubbed it the 1877 (the year the assay office opened). The OutInBrum logo in pizza form!

After a surprisingly quick few minutes in the oven we got to the best part of the evening – tasting our creations. I may be biased but mine was amongst the very best pizzas I’ve ever
tasted. The base was perfectly thin and crispy and the toppings were a dream. Adam’s 1877 was very enjoyable and, from the sounds around the table, all the others were too.

We had a fantastic evening and it was a much better way of launching a new menu than simply sending out a press release. Given the success of the evening, Bardolino are now considering offering this pizza-making experience more regularly. Watch this space and if we get more details you’ll be the first to know.

All that remains now is to head over to Bardolino on a regular night and sample the food on the menu – it’ll be interesting to see whether it’s as good as ours!

Bardolino’s new menu is available from 7th February. Prices range from £8.95 to £11.95
for pizza and main courses. Brunch is available 11am-5pm and prices range from £4.75-£8.95. At weekends you can have a ‘bottomless brunch’ – any brunch item plus bottomless bellinis for £18 over a two hour period.