Fucina

Fucina is an impressive set-up. The building is striking, the staff were really friendly, and the oven is a show in itself: a brick oven with a tall chimney and a round stone inside that rotates under the pizzas and lifts them up towards the heat as they cook. They ferment the dough for two days, and you can see from the way they stretch it that they're after a big, high Neapolitan-style crust.

The pizzas look beautiful. The Margherita came with stripes of cheese across it and a couple of basil leaves, but pick up a slice and the problem shows. Half the dough is in the crust, so the base underneath is very thin and has no structure. The crust itself is puffy and doughy inside, with no crispness at all. The cheese doesn't melt and spread, so the stripes stay exactly as they went on, and the sauce is plentiful, a touch too much, but acidic, without much richness or sweetness.

We also tried a vegetarian one with a creamy pumpkin base, cheese and fresh vegetables, including lots of broccoli florets. It was too heavy to pick up, and a smoked cheese in the mix gave it a strong smoky flavour that buried the pumpkin.

These are pizzas made for the photo. They look great and the building is lovely, but on the plate they're disappointing.