Is Franco Manca the most irritating chain in the country? The original premise was brilliant: Order, eat, street, all in about 20 minutes. And in the middle you had had one of the best pizzas you could hope for. The first restaurant was in Brixton, but we used to go to one of the early “expansion” restaurants in Chiswick. Never without a queue, and I never left without a smile.

Fast forward to today. Like a lot of chains, money moves in and tried to replicate what was good about the original, and parachute it into city centres around the country. And Fulham Shore who bought them did an excellent job with the Real Greek (which I still wish would open up in Richmond). Not so with Franco Manca.

They have tried everything, adding starters and puddings to keep people in the restaurant, doing all sorts of specials. But for the most part, when you go to Franco Manca you can expect 2 things: Every pizza you have will be cooked differently, and the wine will be crap.

Problem 2 is an easy one to solve. Hard to know why they double down on bad drinks, but it is possible to buy natural, organic wine, and not have to feel like you are drinking a hair shirt: Enjoyment and doing good can happen simultaneously. I have to carve out an exception here for their Negroni: It doesn’t taste much like a Negroni, but, correctly, it is the colour of Irn_Bru, is astonishingly well priced at £6.95, and is not at all unpleasant.

Problem #1 seems a little harder, and leaves me hot and cold about Franco Manca. Since I stopped going to Chiswick, I have never had the same pizza twice, in spite of always ordering a number 6 with extra artichokes. I cannot count how many free pizzas I have got because I have complained about the quality (usually undercooked in the middle). Yes, the Neapolitan base is supposed to be soft, but damp is not the required texture.

Anyhow, I’m doing this review simply because, for once, Franco Manca got it right (and this is one of the branches I got a free pizza from because it was so awful).

Keen-eyed readers will notice I had a number 7 with artichokes for the first time ever, but do not let that detract from my praise. You can see it is blackened round the edge and cooked to the middle. How hard can that be? I think that if there were a “crispy” option when you order, it might encourage the chefs to leave the pizza in for the right amount of time.

It’s not a hard problem to crack, if you have quality control. If you are in Glasgow, try Paesano, and you will see what I mean.

So well done, for once, Franco Manca. Franco Manca, named after its founder, means “Franco is missing”: Not often a restaurant names itself with such self-awareness

Rating: 5/5

Franco Manca Putney: https://www.francomanca.co.uk/restaurants/putney/