Service ✪✪✪✪
Ambience ✪✪✪✪
1-2 Holly Avenue West
Jesmond
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE2 2AR
0191 281 5522
www.calsown.co.uk
Accessibility: Yes
Gluten free?: Yes
[STOP PRESS: On 2nd May 2017 Cal's Own received final notification that it had been admitted to the world's most exclusive pizzeria club - the Verace Pizza Napoletana Association. There is only one other UK member, A Casa Mia in Herne Bay, Kent. The notification came after a lengthy and rigorous vetting process by the Naples committee, which verified his methods and ingredients. This means that Cal's margherita pizza really is as good as the best you can find in Naples - and almost certainly one of the two best versions of the margherita in the UK.]
Usually I go, eat, write the truth as I taste it, and that’s about it. My job is simply to judge each restaurant on a single meal, just as any customer would.
Sometimes the owners and chefs are happy with what I write, and sometimes they are upset, but the world continues to turn and, as Del Amitri said, the needle returns to the start of the song.
However some of my reviews, I confess, come with a side order of apprehension. These are the places which, privately, I really wanted to be good, because I know the story behind the menu, about the sweat and tears that have been invested by an owner or chef committed to perfection. But you can’t review a chef’s dream, you can only report the reality. So you just sit at your table, pick a few dishes, and hope for the best.
Cal’s Own falls squarely into this latter category. Here is someone who is not just fanatical about what he’s doing, he has committed his life acquiring the knowledge and skills to create a product that’s up with the very best in the world. That’s a tall order, when that product is as ubiquitous as pizza.
