Earlham Street Clubhouse is a newly opened bar that serves wood fired thin crust pizzas on Earlham Street in Covent Garden (the same road as Flesh and Buns). I was invited down to give it a whirl and as I’ve recently become addicted to pizzas thanks to the likes of Homeslice and Pizza Pilgrims I was a touch excited.

It was quite an unusual layout as there wasn’t one main area – there were plenty of nooks and crannies. At both ends there were booths for larger parties and in the middle a narrow and slightly cramped bar. We were seated opposite the open kitchen by the entrance area. As it’s a basement restaurant it was dark and the music was very loud; it had a fun clubby atmosphere.

There was a strong American pop culture theme present wherever we looked which followed onto the pizza menu. My gentleman companion and I decided to do a “Ross and Rachel” which was basically a 50/50 on a twenty inch pizza (£18). It arrived on our small table and looked impressively humungous.

I opted for half the “Screech” which featured tomato, mozzarella, salami picante, fresh chillies and oregano. Our waitress informed us that the fresh chillies were in fact Scotch Bonnets and suggested that we had them on the side. Thank heavens she did as after one small teaspoon I nearly had my head blown off – I’ve never tasted anything so spicy! The slices were large meaning you could fold them in half and drench them in chilli oil which was great. The thin slices of salami had crisped up like good ‘uns. The crusts were crispy and the base was cooked perfectly.

My gentleman companion enjoyed his “Fresh Prince” which featured homemade ricotta sauce, scamorza cheese (I’ve never heard of it either), fennel sausage, wild mushrooms, fresh basil and baby tomatoes. It tasted fresh and the cheese was slightly tangy which worked well with the greasy sausage.

I was slightly disappointed they didn’t do any puddings as I could have murdered a sponge cake with custard or one of those nutella and ricotta pizza rings that Pizza Pilgrims do. Instead, we decided to order another pizza – only we went for a smaller twelve inch this time topped with mushrooms, wild mushrooms, ricotta and oregano. It was named Marty McFly (£10). They were an enjoyable blend of flavours that worked very well together and there was plenty of gooey cheese which is always a plus.

I really enjoyed our pizza at Earlham Street Clubhouse and the staff looked after us really well; they were charming and energetic from start to finish. I’m not so sure I’d necessarily head there for dinner on its own though; but if it’s good cocktails and a nibble of pizza you’re after (they also serve them by the slice) then I reckon it would be a good bet.

7/10