When it comes to pizza, I really don’t think you can beat the stonebaked kind.
Said to be a healthier alternative to typical takeaway pizzas that are often made with processed ingredients, stonebaked pizzas are usually made with simply flour, yeast, water, and salt before being baked on top of a stone slab inside the oven.
So when I heard that a new cocktail bar and restaurant called The Side by Side had opened in the heart of Cleethorpes – serving up a range of stonebaked pizzas, loaded fries and sharing boards – I just had to give the pizza a try for myself.
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Although I haven’t had chance to visit the restaurant itself yet, I was pleased to see that the food was available to order on the Grimsby & Clee Eats app.
It took my partner and I forever to choose, because each pizza just sounds absolutely delicious, but in the end we decided on a simple Pepperoni pizza for him and the Spicy Calabrian for me, which includes tomato, Fior de Latte mozzarella, Calabrian sausage, nduja and sweet red peppers. The app does give you the option to add more toppings, so I went for the chorizo.
The food arrived quickly, and we got stuck in. The crust was light and airy and reminded me of the pizzas I ate when I visited Italy – I much prefer woodfired and stonebaked pizzas to the typical takeaway ones because I just think they’re so much more authentic.
The tomato passata was packed full of sweet flavour and was complemented by the creaminess of the mozzarella, while the nduja (a spicy, spreadable pork sausage from the Calabria region of Italy) just gave the whole thing a spicy, meaty kick that was unlike any other spice I’ve ever tried.
The richness of the chorizo and Calabrian sausage combined with all the other toppings reminded me of an Italian ‘meat feast’ pizza, if there ever was such a thing.
For two pizzas plus delivery and service charges, the total cost came to a little under £37. The Pepperoni pizza cost £13.50 and the Calabrian pizza with the extra topping of chorizo came to £17.50. I did think it seemed a bit high, price-wise, but the pizzas were very good quality.
I look forward to visiting The Side by Side in person and enjoying one of their pizzas alongside a cheeky cocktail (or two).