Getting to it, we had very high hopes as over the years we've heard great things about Double Zero in Chorlton including 'It's way better than Rudy's', many times.  Plenty of people rate Double Zero as our premier pizzeria, and such noise often comes with at least a certain degree of accuracy amidst any intrinsic hype.

We kicked off with Truffle, Mushroom, and Mozzarella Arancini (£6.50) to share and were delighted when a trio of perfectly formed spheres landed.  No garnish or dressing, just a dab of tomato sauce to stop them rolling around whilst being served.  They were crispy, gooey inside, and packed with flavour plus plenty of truffle scent.  Enjoyable.

But we came for pizzas and really only ordered a starter to give this piece a bit more content.

Firstly, it was the undisputed classic which is the Margherita (£9.50), which is always our first order at any newly visited pizza place. It's quite simply the measuring stick of any self-respecting pizzeria.  Sauce, made from San Marzano tomatoes, grown in the volcanic soil near Mt Vesuvio.  It’s the only proper way to do things, Napoli style.  Toppings are limited to some mozzarella, fresh basil, and a swirl of olive oil.  Red, White and Green, as per the Italian flag.  And that's it.  The dough was very good indeed.  Bags of flavour, with plenty of love going into its clearly unrushed prep.  Slowly developed dough equates to flavour, and this was very good with a solid bake and lovely crumb structure, carrying just the right about of crust blister.  The tomato sauce was simple yet punchy, again showcasing a clear use of quality produce.  And then the mozzarella was again strong quality, in a more than generous helping.  A Neapolitan pizza for me needs nothing else in terms of flavour profiles.

However, the arancini weren’t arancini, they were croquetas.  We detected no individual grains of rice at all as per the photo, but rather a paste of mushroom and rice which felt bechamel based instead than a dry risotto.  They were enjoyable though and fortunately I enjoy croquetas as much as arancini, but still.

And the main event pizzas. They were good, yes, with excellent bases/crusts, and the use of top-quality produce was clear.  But both had way, way too much topping with the Margherita being a classic example of that.  The evidence comes when you compare the Marg on that A-Board outside to the delivered product.  Too much cheese isn't a bad thing I hear you say.  Say that in Napoli and you'll probably receive death threats.  There just doesn’t need to be this much topping on a pizza of this style.  The bases are just not designed for it.

But; initially we arrived without a reservation at 20:20(ish) and were told that no tables were free for 45 minutes, even though we spotted half a dozen empties amidst a packed dining room.  All our team have worked in decent level hospitality so can look at a dining room and within 5 seconds have worked out the state of play.  Double Zero is the kind of place where the average visit lasts little more than an hour and many people were coming to the end of their meal hence a supposed 45-minute wait felt exaggerated on all counts.  And did they really have 50 pending covers booked in for 9PM on a wet Thursday? 

So undeterred, we left and instantly went online to check table availability whilst standing outside. Low and behold, a few were free at the next timeslot which was 20:45.  We booked and went for a walk around the block/s.  Everything was hunky dory when we returned, and some of the same empties were still empty, but the whole thing made you feel a little misled and unvalued.  It wasn't a great start to any customer experience.