Of course it is in the name of the restaurant, but the pizza is their speciality, and most people love pizza, and yet, it can be quite difficult to find a good Italian pie that isn’t a greasy, floppy, cheesy mess.

Yes, sometimes, a greasy cheesy pizza is quite often the cure to a hangover, or even the perfect food after a night out. But I wanted to try a restaurant where I would be eating a great pizza in an a la carte setting.

On arrival to Pizza by Goli, which is based on 49 Birmingham Road, Sutton Coldfield, it is nicely lit on the outside, with alfresco dining an option, but as we hit the colder months, indoor dining was the sensible choice.

The restaurant itself is really spacious, with dining set in a sort of 360-degree layout, with a bar in the middle, and despite it being a random Tuesday, the restaurant was at least three quarters full, which told me that all the recommendations were the real deal.

However, I had tried another ‘popular’ place in Birmingham City Centre that is known for its pizza based on recommendations, and when I went to try them, I was bitterly disappointed with what myself and my partner could only describe as a floppy, cheesy pancake. I won’t name the name of that restaurant chain but it may or may not rhyme with moodys.

Now, moving on to Pizza by Goli is a traditional Italian restaurant that serves all the classic Italian dishes; pizza, pasta, along with steaks, poultry and fish dishes, so there are a range of options for all sort of diners. They say that their culinary style emphasises flavourful and authentic Italian ingredients to create a menu that is both traditional and exciting, and their pizza bases are created daily from fresh dough to their own recipe, and all of their pasta is freshly made too.

Our first thought, having been shown to a table despite not having made a booking, was that there was no long wait, just a quick scan and we were swiftly taken to our seats. The table itself, as pictured, without exaggerating was awesome. A clear glass top with dozens of pasta shapes inside, makes for a clever touch and a conversation starter.

Usually, when visiting a restaurant that I haven’t dined at before, I will have a browse through their website, to get a familiarity with the menu, and have a sort of idea of what I would like to eat, but this time I didn’t and so with fresh eyes, we looked through the extensive, long menu with an array of options.

I had been told that their garlic bread was amazing, and so we chose the garlic bread with mozzarella, along with the ‘Frittura di Pesce Misto’, and marinated olives.

The ‘Frittura di Pesce Misto’ is their fried mixed fish dish. It contained breaded calamari, tiger prawns with fresh marinated vegetables on a bed of salad. It does usually come with a basil pesto dressing, but as I have a nut allergy, they did not add that due to the pine nuts (I have an allergy to tree nuts but choose to avoid all nuts).

The host was kind and considerate, and had no issue altering their dish to accommodate my allergy.

The breaded tiger prawns were served piping hot, and wow, so good. Crunchy, meaty, and so tasty. The calamari was okay, I have had better – the breading was fine, but the prawns were the better of the two. Quite considerably better. Fortunately, there were more prawns than calamari in the dish. A nice starter, but could have been that bit better if the calamari was maybe spiced up a bit more?

Moving onto the olives, which were all pitted, thankfully, were marinated well, and a great addition to the starters.

Now, the main thing that everyone had been raving on about, the garlic bread with mozzarella.

The garlic bread with mozzarella It was okay, maybe better than the average, but it could have maybe done with more garlic, and that was something both myself and my partner agreed on.

The cheesy addition was great, and it wasn’t overloaded with mozzarella cheese, just a nice sprinkling. I would say the dish was okay, not bad at all, but at the same time, nothing special.

Would I recommend it? Probably, yes.

Now onto our main dishes. The menu is so vast, I was spoilt for choice. I was torn, do I want a pasta dish that sounded so good or did I have to eat what I had come here for, the pizza.

Browsing through the menu, there are so many pizza options, but I chose to give with the appropriately named, ‘Pizza by Goli Special’, which comes with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, ham, salami, garlic sausage, green peppers, onions, pepperoni and oregano. So a lot of toppings.

My partner was torn between either the lasagne or the spaghetti bolognese, both hearty dishes, quite perfect for this time of the year. She chose the lasagne, and on arrival, served piping hot in a huge dish, it was perfect.

First, the pizza, it was huge,! A very big serving which is a plus, and they are generous with toppings, which is another plus. Now the pizza taste. Sauce, good, more than enough cheese, and toppings, so tasty, flavourful, seasoned well, and the base was a perfect crisp – no flop, no unnecessary grease.

Each bite was the right amount of cheesy, meaty goodness with the perfect amount of crispy onions, and peppers. The pepperoni in particular was the show stealer, as they are cut a bit thicker than the norm and so they tasted so good, and more so than any of the other toppings.

The lasagne, served in a piping hot dish, was cheesy, saucy, meaty goodness. The pasta, fresh, and not over cooked, along with the bolognese meat sauce, combined, made for a beautiful, hearty meal.

We shared both dishes, and it made for such a delightful meall, that had us perfectly full and satisfied with our food.

We compared our food and whole restaurant experience to a popular Italian restaurant in Wolverhampton, Fiume, which is equally as good, maybe slightly better.

We shared the dessert, which was listed on the menu as white chocolate profiteroles, which I thought was quite unusual but was looking forward to it as a big fan of white chocolate. It was in fact a normal choux pastry filled with milk chocolate, and in fact topped with white chocolate sauce, and so a little bit of a downer, instead of a white chocolate profiterole.

The profiteroles tasted good, but I think we had hyped ourselves up for a white chocolate version, and so just having a white chocolate sauce was a bit of a let down, with the fresh cream.

We joked with the server that we were expecting actual white chocolate profiterole, but she said to mention that next time, and they will see if they can do something.

The service was absolutely brilliant. Funny, having a laugh and a joke with my partner and I, and it added to our experience.

The food was good, servings generous, and the service was great.

Good food, good pizza, and all round good vibes, and I would certainly recommend you pay it a visit.

Here is an example of the menu:

Starters:

Frittura di Pesce Misto (breaded calamari and tiger prawn tossed with fresh marinated vegetables on a bed of salad) – £10.50

Marinated Olives – £4.50

Garlic bread with mozzarella – £6.95

Main dishes:

Pizza by Goli Special (Tomato, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, ham, salami, garlic sausage, green peppers, onions, pepperoni and oregano) – £15.95

Lasagne al Forno – £13.95

Spaghetti Bolognese – £13.50

Desserts:

White chocolate profiteroles – £7.20

Tiramisu – £7/50

Hot chocolate – £3.95

You can visit Pizza by Goli at pizzabygoli.co.uk/