Donnellis Pizzeria has long been known for its wood-fired pizzas in Norwich, so we returned for a Friday night dinner to see how it compared with our earlier visits.
It had been a while since our last visit to Donnellis Pizzeria. When it first opened, I was working nearby and had popped in regularly, so I was interested to see how it had changed.
Walking through the door, the smell of wood smoke was immediately promising. Unfortunately, our Friday evening visit didn’t quite live up to those first impressions – or my memories of pizzas past.
At around 7pm, the restaurant was surprisingly quiet. There were only two other occupied tables when we arrived and both had left by the time our pizza arrived. It may well be much busier during the daytime, but on a Friday night it meant the restaurant lacked a atmosphere and we felt a tiny bit conspicuous.
The interior itself is fairly stripped back, with very little in the way of decoration. That isn’t necessarily a problem, but some of the details could have done with some attention. A vase of artificial eucalyptus on the windowsill, for example, was noticeably covered in cobwebs.
More off-putting were the tiny fruit flies that appeared around our table shortly after our drinks arrived. There were enough of them for it to become distracting while we ate and it felt slightly off-putting.
What’s on Donnellis Pizzeria’s menu?
The menu is very much focused on pizza, with plenty of different toppings to choose from, alongside a small number of salads.
There wasn’t much available if you wanted something small to start. The main options were olives and dough balls. With The Chap not being an olive fan and neither of us particularly wanting bread alongside our pizza, we gave them a miss.
There were five salads at these were all around the £10 mark, which we decided against because we only really wanted a small side salad.
It’s worth mentioning that drinks weren’t especially cheap, particularly given that the wine was simply listed without information about what you were ordering. It’s £6.90 for a 125ml glass of ‘red wine’ or ‘white wine’. The details weren’t volunteered by the servers. In The end, we opted for a Peroni Red each instead for £4.80.
Thankfully, the pizza itself was very good.
We chose the nduja and hot honey pizza from the specials menu, which had a thin, crisp base and a generous balance of toppings. The nduja brought plenty of heat without overpowering everything else, while hot honey and soft red onions added sweetness, which and worked particularly well with the creamy mozzarella.
At £16.80, it isn’t a budget option, but in terms of flavour, I couldn’t fault it.
A rather rushed dinner
Where the experience really fell down for us was the service.
I had barely finished eating before my plate was cleared and we were asked whether we wanted anything else. When we said ‘not for the minute’ because I needed a second to think, the bill appeared almost immediately, rather than coming back in 5 minutes and checking whether we had changed our minds. I was still finishing my drink when the card machine was brought over, even though we hadn’t asked for it.
If the restaurant had been full and there had been another booking waiting for the table, I could have understood the urgency. But with nobody else waiting and the restaurant almost empty, it left us feeling as though we were being hurried out.
From arriving to paying, I don’t think we were there for much more than half an hour.
On this occasion, while the food was good, the overall experience was disappointing. Based on this visit, I’m not sure I’ll be going back.
