Our visit to Piazza Firenze

   Last weekend, my girlfriend and I went on a day trip to Godalming in Surrey, the focal point of which consisted of a high street through the town centre, sporting three kinds of shops; hairdressing salons, estate agents and restaurants. This being said, we did stumble across a small deli selling all kinds of fine wines and cheeses (which I went crazy for, I could live off of cheese).
   The spirit of the place was very old school, with plenty of olde Englishe touches.

   While foraging through the undergrowth of salons and estate agents, we stumbled upon a gem of a place called Piazza Firenze.

   While the restaurant was laid out in a fairly modern and classy way, you could tell from a mile off that there was a major Italian influence there, simply from reading the menu.
   While in Rome, I have noticed many times that the key to good Italian cooking is 1. Good quality ingredients, and 2. Simplicity. A good Italian chef can create a masterpiece from three or maybe four ingredients, letting the food speak for itself, the chef only allows the good qualities of the food to show through, with minimal input, making the chef more of a facilitator of taste, not a creator.
    This was clear once my girlfriend had her starter served, a Portobello mushroom stuffed with wilted spinach and goat's cheese, topped with pesto. Four ingredients.

   The key to this dish was by a long way, the goat's cheese. It was very fresh tasting, but still managed to retain it's spicy but nutty taste, that comes from aging a fine quality cheese.
   My starter was a deep fried ball, similar to an Arancino, but instead of being filled with risotto, it was filled with a mixture of spinach and ricotta cheese.

   Now, usually I steer clear of any dish that boasts to made made using spinach and ricotta, mostly because I find it far too supermarket for me. Call me a ponce, but I prefer to experience new things, rather than something I could buy for a couple of pounds at the shops. Although this time, I had a good feeling about this restaurant, so I thought I would give it a go. Rightly so. The inside (I'm sorry I haven't got a picture of this, I was far too focused on eating it as quickly as possible!), was clearly made form scratch, and was mostly green, but with a delicate hint of ricotta, rather than the piped ricotta with green flecks in it that I have come to hate of recent years.
   Next, I decided to go with the pizza option, and chose the Quattro Staggioni, mostly due to my fond memories of eating pizza for breakfast at the roadside on Rome's Via Veneto. The bases were thin and crispy, and the mozzarella so fresh tasting that you could excuse eating a huge pizza at 10 o'clock in the morning!

   The flavours of this pizza were incredible, especially the tomato sauce, of which I am always very fond. I love how soft the artichokes were, and the pepperoni was picante and very delicious. The only issue I had with this pizza was that the base - lovely and fresh as it was - was slightly too thick, I have said before about how I'm a purist when it comes to food, and I believe that a good pizza should always have a wafer thin crust.
   Mr girlfriend ordered a chicken and bacon Caesar salad, an Italian classic, and very easy to do badly.

   This time though, the chef had done extremely well. He had avoided the classic pitfall of covering the entire dish in salad dressing. The croutons were large and freshly baked rather than tiny and impossibly hard, as is done so often, and there was a scattering of anchovies which are excellent for subtly seasoning a dish like this. They had used a good quality Parmesan, and hadn't opted for the finely grated option, which always creates a sludge when it mixes with the dressing.


   As well as the food, we both found the service to be of a good standard, the serving staff were very attentive and friendly, and on top of all of this, the price was very reasonably indeed. We only paid £38 for this entire meal, as well as a large beer and a small glass of wine.


   All in all, I would highly recommend a visit to Piazza Firenze if you are ever in the area of Godalming.




   If you enjoy any of my posts in particular as the weeks go on, please leave me a comment or two to tell me what you think, I am always open to suggestions and ideas!


Thanks, Anthony.