The best Italian restaurant in the UK is a chain that serves £4.50 pizza, according to Yelp
The Neapolitan chain Franco Manca has been named the nation's favourite, beating out the likes of Edinburgh's award-winning restaurant La Vittoria and London's Homeslice Pizza, where each pie costs £20.
Franco Manca - which is known for its brick oven-baked sourdough pizza - is much more affordable, with the cheapest item on its Spring 2016 menu, a tomato, garlic, and oregano pie, priced at £4.50.
The popular chain currently has 21 restaurants across the UK in London, Brighton, and Surrey, each with a modern yet authentic decor, designed with patterned tiles and a "tufae" brick oven made by Neapolitan artisans, where every pizza is cooked at 500° C for just a minute.
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Origins
The story of Franco Manca begins with an inside joke.
In the 1990s, when founder Giuseppe Mascoli moved to London from Naples, he worked at Franco's, an Italian restaurant at Brixton Market that was run by a friend of his named Franco. In 2008, Mascoli and co-founder Bridget Hugo took over the place and renamed it Franco Manca's, which means "Franco's missing," a tongue-in-cheek way to honour the former owner.
"Lots of people still remember it as Franco's place," Mascoli is quoted saying in an email from the restaurant's investor David Page, who knows the industry well, having owned two Italian restaurants in London.
Mascoli began working with Page in 2010, after opening a second Franco Manca in Chiswick. Since then, the pair have gone on to open several restaurants around London, while new restaurants have popped up outside the capital in Brighton and Guildford, Surrey, this year.
Franco Manca will continue to expand throughout 2016, with additional restaurants set to open in London locations including Kentish Town, Putney, and Tooting Market.
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So, what should you get at Franco Manca?
Choosing something to eat at Franco Manca is easy because the menu is short, comprised of a handful of pizzas (the Spring 2016 menu has just six variations), a small selection of salads, and wine and beer.
While you can't go wrong with any pizza - all of them are made fresh, from slow-rising sourdough that sits for 24 hours before being blasted in a wood-burning oven - customers on Yelp prefer the tomato, garlic, oregano, capers, olives, anchovies, and mozzerella-topped pie.
The courgette, basil, mozzarella, buffalo ricotta, Franco and cantarelli grana, a white, cheesy pizza that comes without tomato, is also favoured by diners.
A less loaded yet classic pie, the tomato, mozzarella, and basil pizza is popular as well, with many customers noting the fresh taste and softness of the dough, in their reviews - so whatever you do, don't leave the crust sitting on your plate.
While the pizza undoubtedly steals the show, a mixed leaf salad with alfalfa sprouts on the side compliments any pie well.