Birmingham – Rudy’s

I hadn’t heard of this small chain of pizza restaurants before and we found it by chance on a Saturday night in Birmingham as other restaurants we tried were full. It has only recently opened but it seemed a popular location given by how busy it was.

Rudy’s don’t take advance bookings of any kind, which means they’re prepared and experienced in how to deal with waiting diners. We gave a phone number and a text was sent around ten minutes before our table was free. This gave us time to pop to another Good Beer Guide pub, so win-win.

I think that this pizza looks reasonably good, but it tasted even better. A soft crust, but sufficiently crispy base, gave contrasting textures. The sausage was spicy and full of flavour, the tomato base was sweet and the cheese wasn’t too strong. All rather lovely.

The tiramisu, which was well presented and light in texture with a suitably rich taste of coffee.

The pricing here is off the scale, but in a good way. Pizzas were reasonably priced at under £10 each, side salads were £2 and desserts under £5. The quality was far better than the prices might have otherwise suggested.

The service was excellent as it was efficient, engaging and knowledgeable. We were never left waiting for service at any time, with the pizzas being brought over promptly. There were also some pizza and dessert specials to add to the fixed menu, with plenty of interesting choices. There is also an open kitchen, so you can watch the pizza being prepared. Well, you could if you didn’t have your back to the kitchen, but it’s a good concept.

The storage set up reminded a little of Five Guys and how they stack their potatoes up in the restaurant. And everything about this restaurant felt on-trend and fun, without being too artisan or overdone. The pricing makes this particularly good value and I’d certainly return here again, and also to other outlets in the chain. How lovely.