I’ve been promising this review for a couple of days and have finally got round to it. Its been really busy time at work with some exciting projects on the go but also a sad time as this week saw my fabulous partner in crime leave for a new job so I’m a lone soldier for the time being. Anyway, lets get on with it – this post is all about one thing. PIZZA.
So The Bulls Head in Repton is a place which several of my friends frequent and I’ve only heard good things so I was pleased when friends of ours suggested we head over there after a trip to the Summer Market at Derby’s roundhouse (more of which another time).
Its a lovely traditional looking pub and the menu looks great but we went for their pizzas. They make them from fresh – with dough made in house – in their wood fired pizza oven, imported from Italy. We had a table right near to the oven and I loved watching the chefs ‘throwing’ the dough around before adding your chosen toppings and sliding the pizza into the oven.
The nice thing about eating pizza in a group is that you can all share. We cut each pizza into quarters so that we could try all four flavours. Between us we had the following:
- The Bordeaux: Wild boar salami, bacon, roasted potatoes, red onion, mozzarella, sour cream, Bulls Head tomato sauce, garlic oil and chives.
- The Geneva: Pepperoni slices, crispy bacon, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms, roasted peppers, red onion, Bulls Head tomato sauce, mozzarella and fresh parsley.
- The Mumbai: Moroccan spiced marinaded chicken, aubergine, herbed yoghurt, sun dried tomatoes, feta cheese, mozzarella and fresh parsley.
- The Boston: Home grown Gloucestershire old spot pulled pork shoulder, bacon, sliced peppers, red onion, Cajun spices, sliced tomatoes, Bulls Head tomato sauce, BBQ sauce and mozzarella.
Sadly The Bordeaux was a little over cooked which made the paprika bitter. I wasn’t expecting to like The Mumbai with its strange flavour choice but it really was gorgeous! The Geneva was the real winner of the day for me with gorgeous pepperoni and tangy sun-dried tomatoes to boot. The bases are light and delicious and we loved that they have their old Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs which they breed for use in the kitchen. The Bulls Head own tomato base sauce is flavourful and delicious. All in all, very nice indeed!
The only real criticisms I have are that the pizzas are not really authentic – well in terms of toppings at least. There is a whole range of flavours, all of them with seemingly random country based names, some complex and some surprising. For example, The Mumbai has chicken marinaded in Moroccan spices, aubergine, minted yoghurt, feta cheese….and The Hong Kong with spicy chilli beef, black bean sauce, mushrooms, peppers and more! I think if you can throw ideas of authenticity out of your head and embrace the crazy toppings you’ll enjoy your pizza. I mean come on, we can’t be serious all the time can we?!
Its a really clever idea to bring the wood fired oven into the pub – something different for what is essentially a village pub (albeit a nice one). This is something I’ve occasionally seen in pubs but not too often around the East Midlands so well done to you guys! Love it!