Stirling's new pizza restaurant was so good we went back for more
Have you ever eaten something so good that you still think about it years later?
For me, it's a margherita pizza from Napizza in Stirling.
A few months after I moved to the city, I was hearing stellar reviews of the Friars Street restaurant and wanted to see if it was as good as everyone claimed.
It was.
The base was soft, yet chewy, and that classic tomato and mozzarella combination was perfection.
I couldn't wait to go back, but it wasn't to be.
Napizza closed down, then the pandemic struck, and the world came to a halt.
Little did I know, five years later, I would be eating the very pizza I had thought about countless times.
And as it turns out, I wasn't the only one fantasising about that authentic Neapolitan pizza.
One of Napizza's most loyal customers, David Atkins, was waiting in line for at a pizza restaurant in Italy when he decided to message the owner, Alex Sorlei.
The pair then decided to go into business together and bring those benchmark pizzas back to Stirling.
Piotsa Pizza officially opened on May 15 and, of course, I had to pay a visit.
I'm told there was a queue down the street on opening day
It was just as busy on the Friday, but luckily my partner Joe managed to snag the last table.
The King Street restaurant is very inviting.
There's warm lights, brick walls and you can watch the pizza chefs at work in the open kitchen.
You can feel the buzz in the air as diners debate which of the ten pizzas to choose from.
People are waiting by the door for a takeaway and based on the reactions of the pizza fans around me, I have high expectations.
Somehow the chefs don't seem overwhelmed as they make their way through the mountain of orders.
The rosemary fries (£4.50) are the first thing to arrive.
Each chip is crispy, some crunchier than others, plus they're fresh and flavourful.
It doesn't take long for us to devour them and await the main event.
I chose the four meats pizza (£15) which is topped with Parma ham, salami, nduja and pancetta.
The base is also half margherita and half fior de latte.
I'm not sure words can do this pizza justice, but every bite was just as I remembered.
The dough is light and pillowy, the edges lightly scorched from the wood-fired oven and providing that subtle charred flavour.
Each quarter brings something different – spicy, salty, rich, gooey mozzarella.
Once devoured, I knew that I needed to visit Piotsa again for another one of these perfect pizzas.
Joe was of the same opinion.
His pizza, the diavola (£13), was topped with San Marzano tomatoes, smoked fior di latte, Neapolitan sausage, chilli flakes and basil.
It too is just as he remembers, perhaps better.
Gelato and tiramisu feature on the dessert menu, but we decide on the Nutella calzone (£10).
As you cut into it, Nutella oozes out the side and it's satisfying to scoop it back onto the dough.
It's reminiscent of roasted hazelnuts, as the faint smokiness on the dough from the oven couples with the chocolate.
It's rich, sweet and an outstanding end to our meal.
When I first interviewed Alex and David, it was evident how much passion goes into this pizza.
Alex, who lived in Naples for 17 years, prides himself on creating authentic pizza with fresh ingredients.
He has honed his craft through books and real-life experience.
This comes through in every visit to Piotsa and, given how busy it has been, these pizzas have been deeply missed.
It lives up to and goes beyond my memories of Napizza.
The food is faultless, the staff are friendly and the restaurant is incredibly inviting.
This is genuinely the best pizza I have ever eaten.
At the time of writing, it has been 10 days since Piotsa opened.
We've now been three times and I expect that a fourth visit is not far away.
As Joe put it: 'Every waking moment I'm not eating this pizza, I'm thinking about the next moment I'm going to be eating this pizza.'
Address: 35 King Street, Stirling, FK8 1DN
Telephone: 01786 643308
Website: https://www.piotsa.co.uk/
Price: £51.50 for two drinks, two mains and one dessert
Accessible: Yes
Dog Friendly: No
:
Food: 5/5
Service: 5/5
Surrounding: 5/5
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The Courier
6 hours ago
- The Courier
Stirling's new pizza restaurant was so good we went back for more
Have you ever eaten something so good that you still think about it years later? For me, it's a margherita pizza from Napizza in Stirling. A few months after I moved to the city, I was hearing stellar reviews of the Friars Street restaurant and wanted to see if it was as good as everyone claimed. It was. The base was soft, yet chewy, and that classic tomato and mozzarella combination was perfection. I couldn't wait to go back, but it wasn't to be. Napizza closed down, then the pandemic struck, and the world came to a halt. Little did I know, five years later, I would be eating the very pizza I had thought about countless times. And as it turns out, I wasn't the only one fantasising about that authentic Neapolitan pizza. One of Napizza's most loyal customers, David Atkins, was waiting in line for at a pizza restaurant in Italy when he decided to message the owner, Alex Sorlei. The pair then decided to go into business together and bring those benchmark pizzas back to Stirling. Piotsa Pizza officially opened on May 15 and, of course, I had to pay a visit. I'm told there was a queue down the street on opening day It was just as busy on the Friday, but luckily my partner Joe managed to snag the last table. The King Street restaurant is very inviting. There's warm lights, brick walls and you can watch the pizza chefs at work in the open kitchen. You can feel the buzz in the air as diners debate which of the ten pizzas to choose from. People are waiting by the door for a takeaway and based on the reactions of the pizza fans around me, I have high expectations. Somehow the chefs don't seem overwhelmed as they make their way through the mountain of orders. The rosemary fries (£4.50) are the first thing to arrive. Each chip is crispy, some crunchier than others, plus they're fresh and flavourful. It doesn't take long for us to devour them and await the main event. I chose the four meats pizza (£15) which is topped with Parma ham, salami, nduja and pancetta. The base is also half margherita and half fior de latte. I'm not sure words can do this pizza justice, but every bite was just as I remembered. The dough is light and pillowy, the edges lightly scorched from the wood-fired oven and providing that subtle charred flavour. Each quarter brings something different – spicy, salty, rich, gooey mozzarella. Once devoured, I knew that I needed to visit Piotsa again for another one of these perfect pizzas. Joe was of the same opinion. His pizza, the diavola (£13), was topped with San Marzano tomatoes, smoked fior di latte, Neapolitan sausage, chilli flakes and basil. It too is just as he remembers, perhaps better. Gelato and tiramisu feature on the dessert menu, but we decide on the Nutella calzone (£10). As you cut into it, Nutella oozes out the side and it's satisfying to scoop it back onto the dough. It's reminiscent of roasted hazelnuts, as the faint smokiness on the dough from the oven couples with the chocolate. It's rich, sweet and an outstanding end to our meal. When I first interviewed Alex and David, it was evident how much passion goes into this pizza. Alex, who lived in Naples for 17 years, prides himself on creating authentic pizza with fresh ingredients. He has honed his craft through books and real-life experience. This comes through in every visit to Piotsa and, given how busy it has been, these pizzas have been deeply missed. It lives up to and goes beyond my memories of Napizza. The food is faultless, the staff are friendly and the restaurant is incredibly inviting. This is genuinely the best pizza I have ever eaten. At the time of writing, it has been 10 days since Piotsa opened. We've now been three times and I expect that a fourth visit is not far away. As Joe put it: 'Every waking moment I'm not eating this pizza, I'm thinking about the next moment I'm going to be eating this pizza.' Address: 35 King Street, Stirling, FK8 1DN Telephone: 01786 643308 Website: Price: £51.50 for two drinks, two mains and one dessert Accessible: Yes Dog Friendly: No : Food: 5/5 Service: 5/5 Surrounding: 5/5
BBC News
7 hours ago
- BBC News
Tinder new height filter: 'It doesn't matter that my boyfriend is 5,6"'
Joe is somewhat shorter than the average American man, at 5'6" (1.6m) - but when Ashley came across his Tinder profile last year, the last thing she was thinking about was Joe's height."We were talking about our hobbies and passions," Ashley says, "not superficial things."News that the dating app where Ashley and Joe found love is trialling a new feature - allowing some premium users to filter potential matches according to their height - was met with mixed reactions earlier this daters like Ashley worry it might stifle possible connections, others say the feature might actually help shorter men find a match. Tinder's trial is running in "limited" parts of the world, excluding the UK, with the feature only available to those who pay for its two highest subscription tiers. Tinder has not told the BBC which countries it is being trialled works by informing the app's matching algorithm based on a user's stated preference, rather than filtering out certain users altogether. But online reaction to its launch has ranged from amusement to outrage."Tinder just declared war on short kings," wrote one social media user, while another said they'd be "using the Tinder height filter to filter out all men taller than 5ft 9in (1.7m)".Another commented: "I don't care what Tinder says - short kings are elite."Ashley, from Wisconsin, says she understands why height can be a deal-breaker for some daters - but that wasn't the case for her."I've heard people talk: 'I can't wear heels or my partner will look shorter,'" the 24-year-old says, "but that's never mattered to me".Joe is "just such an amazing person", she says, it wouldn't matter to her "if he was six feet tall or five feet tall".Using a height filter might actually have prevented her and Joe from ever meeting, she adds - and she reckons others could be missing out too. Joe, meanwhile, says Tinder's height filtering feature could actually make dating harder for shorter men."Limiting yourself to physical things about someone will lessen your opportunities and chances of finding a partner," he says. "Height shouldn't matter when you're looking for forever."The 27-year-old says his own dating experience hadn't "all been so bad" and that his matches had judged him based on his personality, rather than his he thinks the new Tinder filter might affect other users' chances of meaningful is not breaking new ground here - seasoned swipers will be familiar with various kinds of filter, which are now common features of dating apps including in the a key Tinder competitor, already allows paying users to filter matches according to their height. Other filters include education level, religion, and checking whether potential matches smoke, drink or take allows premium users to avoid matches with certain star signs, while paying Grindr users can filter by body as the world's largest dating app, Tinder's experiment with height filtering still has huge significance, and has sparked discussion in Britain too. At 5'9, Matt Heal, from Manchester, says he feels jaded about the online dating scene. Matt's around average height for a man in the UK, but says some daters' preferences for taller men have disadvantaged him on the apps. "As someone who is neither very tall nor financially well off, I have definitely felt desensitised about dating [using apps]," he 28-year-old thinks it's understandable that apps like Tinder try to optimise their matching algorithms, though."People have preferences based on all sorts of things," Matt says, adding these features help people "see others they are interested in, rather than swiping for hours on people you don't consider compatible".However, he thinks daters shouldn't be too rigid about what they're looking for."If you were into people who are over six feet, would you really not date someone who's 5'11" - if they were good looking and had similar interests?"Matt feels it's easier for men his height to meet people offline, explaining that meeting someone in person, through mutual friends, for example, can mean a less prescriptive approach. But Beth McColl, 31, thinks the Tinder height filter may offer shorter men some reassurance. The London-based writer and podcaster says it could help people avoid "women who only want to date really tall men". Whether or not women will actually use this feature, Beth is uncertain."Women typically don't have a problem with dating a shorter man," Beth says, "but they do, maybe, have a problem with dating a shorter man who is really hung up on it."Aside from the filters, Beth believes the real problem of modern dating lies with the dating apps themselves."It encourages us to treat dating like picking something from the menu," she says, adding, "there's nothing in being a little bit taller that will make that man a better partner - but I think we've tricked ourselves into thinking that there's truth in that."As to whether the Tinder move will prove popular with users on a mass scale - that remains to be seen. "Features like this capitalise on a well-known preference - some women desire taller partners," says Lara Besbrode, managing director at MatchMaker UK. "They don't address the deeper issues at the heart of online dating fatigue."But, she says, attraction is "not static" and can evolve over time."A man who is 5ft 7in (1.7m), but confident, kind, and emotionally attuned can be far more attractive than someone who ticks the 6ft (1.8m) box but lacks substance," Lara told the BBC its new filter demonstrates it is "building with urgency, clarity, and focus" and that it is "part of a broader effort to help people connect more intentionally" on the app.A spokesperson said: "Not every test becomes a permanent feature, but every test helps us learn how we can deliver smarter, more relevant experiences and push the category forward."And that fleeting moment when stumbling across each other's profiles on a dating app can be vital, as Ashley and Joe worries that people who use Tinder's new filter "might be cutting themselves off from people who're a potential match for them, rather than someone who's their preferred height".But for now her swiping days are over, and her relationship with Joe is blossoming. 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Daily Record
9 hours ago
- Daily Record
Joe Swash in 'bizarre' confession about family life with Stacey Solomon
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