Slick, tidy, simple semi rustic, and totally in keeping with what  you expect of a proper Naples pizzeria, in Naples. Only it's not in Naples.  The addition of a pizza station seating area allows you to watch the guys work their magic.  It was like an accessibly priced Chef's Table; the prized covers in very small numbers at a top-end place,  where you can interact with the kind person prepping your tea.  You'll never see a baker turning down such an offer when it comes to pizza, and this was no exception to that rule. It was great to see the guys plying their trade, pun absolutely intended, close up.

I'm not so sure that the name Rudy's sounds Italian or suggests pizza.  That’s a pretty pointless, space filling point to mention though, isn’t it?  Whoever dreamed up the name 'McDonalds', and they didn’t do anything, did they? Decor wise; its never going to win any awards for style or luxury, but is that the intention anyway?

In short, an absolute steal.  A baseline Marinara is an almost offensively cheap £4.90, with the cheesy version minus garlic and oregano, aka the iconic Margherita, being a paltry £6.50.  It is without question, one of the best value meals anywhere in the land.  Even the pizzas with all the toppings under the sun, including daily specials, come in at only £8.90 at most, so none of the all-too-common overpricing for toppings, which intrinsically cost next to nothing regardless of quality, purely because you can put that much topping on a proper pizza!  Compare that for value against some of the large corporate big boys, dishing up massively inferior pizza, and what you end up with is a total bargain.

I've tried hard to think about what to put into this section.  I need to hit so many words before this becomes an article rather than simply Post-It Note scrawls.  But pointing out any downsides to value at these prices would be absurd. Absolutely everything on the menu, from the pizzas, snacks, cocktails (mainly £5.90), G&Ts, wine, beers, is priced either perfectly, or cheaper than they could easily get away with in a city centre venue.

A warm welcome with a genuine character to it. The front of house staff at Rudy's are clearly all very well versed, well trained to a high standard, and have it down to a tee.  It's not the typical Italian welcome, and it's definitely not trying to be Italian as such, more a modern British hangout-esque feel. But we felt looked after for the duration.

Absolutely nothing.  Sure, there was no offer of taking our coats, no check backs, no Sommelier to take our drinks order, or any of that, but would you want any of it at a pizzeria?

We opted for a Margherita and also the Carne pizza, fancying something on top of the blueprint Margherita.  Both were topped with broken down Strianese San Marzano tomatoes and quality mozzarella, all adorning a top class crust.

Now if you ever try making bread at home, ignore the nonsense which tells you to leave the dough to prove in a hot place, as that speeds up the process.  The latter is true, but a long, slow prove at room temp or cooler is what develops flavour in a dough.  You could taste the super-slow prove in Rudy's pizza crust. Yeasty, rich, and full of flavour, with the perfect texture and lots of chew, yet still light.  Spotless.

My colleague, who's also a pizza fanatic, as well as crucially being born in Napoli commented 'It doesn’t have to be this burnt', referring to the purposely-blistered Neapolitan crust, which was indeed more than just blistered. 

Drinks wise, Rudy's version of the Negroni (£5.90), despite being pre mixed, was pretty decent, despite the slightly clunky orange wedge.  My colleague again piped up and called it 'proper'.  Gin Ondina, Campari and Cinzano; diluted properly with ice, and balanced well.   A good rendition of one of the greatest cocktails on earth. How so many places make a bad one is beyond me.  Mastering a combo of just 3 ingredients poured in equal measures is a bit like making a perfect Margherita pizza.  Utterly simple on the surface, yet not at all, with absolutely nowhere to hide.

On this visit, the Carne pizza, was topped pretty unevenly.  And you could easily argue that my colleague was correct on the over-charred crust comments.

Last week, an outlet called Big 7 Travel listed Rudy's as the 10th best pizza on the planet. The piece had clearly been edited by an American, with a Chicago based pizzeria dethroning the iconic and legendary L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele in Napoli from top spot.  I've personally fired a pizza there, and it's quite simply, the Neapolitan pizza Don.  It always will be, as they wrote the book.  It's the place which invented what we know as pizza. 

Regardless, such subjective accolades, whether you're listed 1st, 2nd, or 22nd in the world, bring in the punters without question.  What's clear though, is that I'm not the only one who rates Rudy's highly, and it's now got a far-reaching audience.  During this visit, the tables around us housed customers from China, America and Canada.  This is clearly a big deal for the brand.  Only last week they announced plans to open in Birmingham, and I'm hearing whispers of this radius broadening even further for late 2019/early 2020.

This baby looks primed for take-off on the journey to becoming a popular new pizza name on every UK city's must do food itinerary.  Let's just hope that if I'm right, they don’t lose that magic touch and keep it to one or two branches per city. As we saw with the still admittedly decent Franco Manca down in London all those years ago; when you increase the size, you can easily lose some of what made it special in the first place.  

Whilst I've praised pretty much everything about Rudy's, at the same time, I'm not so sure that it’s the kind of place that I'd go for a proper evening dinner, as in going out, eating 3 courses over a bottle+ of wine, then coffee etc, over a couple of hours.  It very much feels like a quick lunch or casual bite spot, or perhaps for a convenient, quick pre theatre dinner at most. 

It’s a simple pizzeria, and that’s its intention and indeed part of its charm.  Sure, I'm bordering on being prehistoric, and I'm sure that there's masses of people whose idea of a top dinner is a quick grab-and-go pizza.  I'm just not one of them, and there's other really good pizza places in the locality who definitely do the 'dinner' occasion much better.  But I won't name drop.