Crazy Pedro's

Crazy Pedro's! I'd only heard about this before but never really got chance to look into it. Looked online and saw that there's now two branches, so thought I'd pop into the Northern Quarter branch, which was a little tricky to find, but is basically nestled behind Affleck's, next door to Dive.

Their decoration seems to be this weird quirky blue guy... is this Crazy Pedro? Lives up to his name anyway from what I can see. But moving on. You enter down some stairs into a basement space, which is dark, modern, and very Northern Quarter, right down to recycled aluminium lighting and filament light bulbs against bare brick. I like the colourful artwork though, and the music posters on the ceiling. It also has pinball machines, which is always a plus. It has a nice atmosphere too, friends meeting up to laugh and chat over big ol' pizzas, nachos, cocktails, and beer.

As we enter, a friendly staff member at the bar welcomes us and lets us choose from the menu, giving us some advice on the pizzas, and when we decide we want to share a pizza, he lets us know that we can even have half-and-half on a pizza, so we can try a couple of options. Great idea. What's even better is that we appear to have arrived during Happy Hour, meaning a 16 inch freshly made pizza was only £10! Bargain!

We opted for half pepperoni (classic!) and half The Cuban. Both arrived in decent time, and were hot, fresh and tasty. I particularly liked that the base tasted toasted, and wasn't soggy in the middle with the toppings sliding off into a fatty pile or anything like you tend to get with a lot of pizza places.

The pepperoni was great, can't fault it, but The Cuban was really REALLY good! Ham, roast pork, Swiss cheese, pickles (gherkin slices) and mustard, and it was perfect. It wasn't greasy, it was full of flavour, and all the flavours worked together really well. I would DEFINITELY order this again!

So although it was a fleeting visit, I was really impressed. Good atmosphere, friendly staff, surprisingly good prices for the Northern Quarter, and damn good quality pizza! Go! Go now!

Crazy Pedros NQ
1 Short Street
Manchester
M4 1AA
(0161) 359 3000
www.crazypedros.co.uk