Circolo Pizzeria, Southsea | Restaurant review

But because it’s so readily available now, pizza seems to have lost its pizzazz. I mean, you can pick up a decent Margherita from the Co-op nowadays, and have a spicy chicken feast delivered to your door day or night on the back of a moped. So for a pizza to stand out, it has to be really good and I’ve heard Circolo Pizzeria is the place to go. It looks pretty promising when I search Google and am greeted by four-and-a-half gleaming stars. Expectations are high. Amid storm madness – who knows which one – my companion and I battle gales to get to Circolo on Osborne Road, Southsea. It is mid-week and the tiny restaurant is pretty much empty, which I’m surprised about because it’s usually packed to the rafters when I walk past. According to some reviews, this is the best pizzeria in Southsea, competing against the likes of Giuseppe's up the road, and Soprano’s round the corner. So we’re rather excited as we walk through the door and are greeted by a cheery waiter who shows us to our table – which is pretty much in front of us considering how small the restaurant is – and hands us the menus. To kick the evening off in a respectable manner, we order two Aperol Spritz (£7) while we browse the menu. We order the arancino (£7), calamari (£7.50) and dough balls (£3.80) to start. The arancino – risotto balls stuffed with sun blushed tomatoes, pesto and buffalo mozzarella – is just heavenly. They are huge, piping hot, and ooze mozzarella – I really struggle to finish them all. My companion assures me the calamari is 'ace’. Dough balls are dough balls, so easily meet our expectations. No complaints here. For mains, I order the Circolo – their signature pizza – with goat’s cheese, pancetta, spinach and caramelised onions (£12.80), while my friend decides on the Porcetta, which is topped with tomato sugo, mozzarella, slow roasted pulled pork, mushrooms and red onions, also (£12.80). Our pizzas arrive swiftly afterwards. I tuck into my Circolo and, although delicious, I find myself opting for the slices with the least amount of spinach on because it is literally plastered all over it. I enjoy a bunch of spinach as much as the next person but I don’t want muscles as big as Popeye’s and I believe the chef has gone a little overboard here. My pal also enjoys their pizza but says that it lacks the punch and flavour she was expecting from the Porcetta. I am defeated and decide to take the last third of mine home for lunch the next day. When I rang up and booked the table I was warned they don’t take cards, it’s cash payments only. We are prepared, but in this day and age why isn’t a card machine available? Come on, it’s 2020… But what we are a caught out on is the menu prices online don't match those in the restaurant. They’ve been hiked up a little, so we pay a bit more than originally planned. The relaxed vibe of the restaurant is great and despite my spinach overload, we leave in good moods and nicely full. The problem is, there was nothing about the pizzas that made them stand out from what we can get anywhere else. They lacked the necessary pizzazz to make us want to return. So the search for the best pizzeria in Southsea continues.