Two Pizza places that I absolutely loved in Bangalore

I am quite a frequent visitor to Bangalore as my son is based there. Our entire family has a common love of pizzas, so whenever we get together a few times in a year, we make it a point to visit a pizza restaurant at least once. During our recent trips to Bangalore, there are two specific places that I absolutely loved – Pizza 4P’s and Si Nonna’s. Both are very popular places where you mostly need a reservation to get a seat. And their pizzas really stand out, due to their specialities – cheese for the first and sourdough bread for the second.

Pizza 4P's: Burrata Salad Pizza

Pizza 4P’s is a Vietnamese chain of pizzerias. Originating in Vietnam, the chain has outlets in five countries. The only outlet in India is at Indiranagar, Bangalore. There is so much demand for this outlet that you need to book in advance, for the weekends, the reservation is often full, 2-3 weeks in advance.

The biggest attraction of this place is that they make their own cheese. They have a Cheese Lab on the top floor, where you can watch the preparation of various types of cheese. One of their signatures on the menu is the Assorted Cheese Platter that you can try out while waiting for your pizza to be prepared. Different varieties of cheese are served with pizza dough, and the net result is exceptional.

Assorted Cheese Platter at Pizza4P's

For couples and small group who want to try different pizzas, they have something called Half and Half, where two flavours are presented in one pizza. From the vegetarian lot, we tried the Burrata Salad pizza, with a blob of  burrata cheese, rocket leaves, veggies on olive and caper sauce. They have a non-vegetarian version of this pizza with Parma Ham too. The pizza was absolutely ravishing, with the cheese in the middle so fresh. 

The other interesting options in the vegetarian section seemed to be the Premium Mushroom and Eggplant Margherita.

From the non-vegetarian choices, we did a half and half of Garlic Shrimp (the sauce was Arrabiata) and Pepperoni. Apart from the cheese, a major differentiator at Pizza4P’s is that they have many oriental flavours on their pizzas too – Korean Bulgogi, Yakitori Chicken, Okonomiyaki being some examples. 

Pizza 4P's : Garlic Shrimp & Pepperoni

Apart from pizzas, they have some contemporary Italian dishes – Shrimp Arrabiata with Mascapone and Spaghetti, Mushroom Carbonara, and Japanese style Mushroom Pepperonchino are some that looked interesting.

The pizzeria is a fusion of Italian and oriental flavours. This, and their fresh cheese are stuff that make the restaurant interesting. The delightful service adds to the experience.

The second place I want to talk about is Si Nonna’s. It is an Indian chain of pizzeria with multiple outlets in Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Surat and Ahmedabad. Bangalore has quite a few branches, and the nearest one for us was Koramangala. It was a weeknight and the pizzeria was full, but we were lucky to get a table easily.

Si Nonna’s is known for its Neapolitan pizzas, and is especially liked for its sourdough bases that are made in-house. They brand their pizzas as “The Original Sourdough Pizza”.

Si Nonna's: Spicy Chicken & Jalapeno

The pizzas here are soft and fluffy giving it a unique taste. The menu made interesting reading with the pizza varieties numbers 1 through 10. They also have a variety of oven baked starters – we ordered a Spicy Chicken & Jalapeno that had mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Served with bread, it was a delightful start to our meal.

Si Nonna's No 4 (Fior De Latte Mozzarella, Ricotta, Blue Cheese & Parmasan with a topping of cherry tomato and basil)

The pizzas that we requisitioned were No 4 (Fior De Latte Mozzarella, Ricotta, Blue Cheese & Parmasan with a topping of cherry tomato and basil), a vegetarian cheese-rich beauty and No 10 with cheese variants and Belgian Pork Bacon topping. The combination was much appreciated one being cheesy, and the other meaty, with the thin crust sourdough base providing an ideal foil to the toppings. It was indeed a very interesting meal with Peach Tea to go along with it.

Si Nonna's No 10 with cheese variants and Belgian Pork Bacon topping

The other pizzas that may be worth a try includes No 5 (Mushroom and Mushroom cream with assorted cheese) and for chicken lovers No 7 (Chicken Pepperoni with Mozzarella)

Service here is good too, my son owing to multiple visits knew the wait staff by name. This helped too.

Bangalore has many other big names in pizzas like Toscano, Chianti and Brick Oven. Look forward to exploring them soon.



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Vacationing in Vietnam: Hanoi and Halong Bay

From serene Da Nang we flew into Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam. The first look of Hanoi felt it was kind of an old city, compared to the glitzy Saigon and surreal Da Nang. 

Read: Da Nang and Hoi An Travelogue

As is becoming the practice on this tour, we hit food straight from the airport, this time to a place called Madame Linh Restaurant. This was quite a crowded place, but the food justified it all, we had Ostrich meat cooked in Vietnamese style, Fried Fish, some lovely salad and Fried Coated Prawns. 


Food at Madame Kinh Restaurant

After this, fully satiated we went on a city ride. The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum has the embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh, the father of modern Vietnam. The mausoleum is open early in the day, and a large queue forms before its opening. The people in Vietnam adore their leader, and turn up in large numbers to pay respect to him.

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

Later we went on a tour of Hanoi downtown on Cyclo, a local version of cycle rickshaw. The Cyclo is king of an “ulta” cycle rickshaw with the seats in front and driver at the back. It was an interesting ride through the lit up lanes of the city. We stopped by at the St Joseph’s Cathedral to have a look at the architecture. Hanoi is known for its Water Puppet Theatre, but we could not dovetail it in our schedule. Instead, we decided to go for “Egg Coffee” that is so popular in Hanoi.


St Joseph’s Cathedral

Egg Coffee or Ca Phe Trung is a signature of Hanoi City. Many of my friends had categorically told me to try this out. We went to this coffee place called Café Dinh, a small joint on the first floor facing the lake, that is supposed to be iconic for its Egg Coffee. It is said that during the war, milk was in short supply, and Nguyen Van Giang, a bartender, came up with the idea of using whipped egg instead of milk in the coffee. Café Dinh belongs to the daughter of Nguyen Van Giang making it a very famous place where tourists drop in.

Egg Coffee

We watched the making of Egg Coffee and tasted the drink.  It was very different, more like a dessert, and I liked the taste.

Hanoi Bier Street and Skewered Pork

We came across a Gujarati restaurant, aptly named Gujarat. I was told that this restaurant serving Gujarati and Marwari food has four branches in Hanoi itself, a testimony to the number of Indian tourists coming in. However, we had our dinner at the Beer Street, with a local Vietnamese “bier” accompanied by Noodles and Stir Fried Pork on Skewers. 

Halong Bay Cruise

The next day was reserved for Halong Bay, where there are limestone cave formations in many small islands. This is a UNESCO Heritage Site and draws a large number of tourists every day.  The jetty at Halong Bay jetty is a three-hour journey from Hanoi. 

We had a launch boat waiting for us at the jetty. This was exclusively for our group for this scenic journey through various islands in the bay. The sumptuous lunch served on the boat was one of the best on this tour.  The spring rolls, sautéed prawns, and chicken curry were all so good. 

Our Boat and the Sumptuous Lunch

We got down at an island to visit a cave. While the caves are similar to Bora caves (Arakku) or Batu Caves (Malaysia) with stalactites and stalagmites, the maintenance of the caves was one thing that caught my attention. 

Halong Bay Caves

The Vietnamese tourist places are all maintained well as squeaky clean. The lighting inside does well to illuminate the natural colours of the limestone.

The Halong Bay trip took about the entire day. On return, we went to a street-side restaurant for dinner to enjoy Vietnamese food including Mixed Seafood Noodles and some local beer. We would depart for another country Cambodia, the following day.

Seafood Noodles in a Local Vietnamese Restaurant in Hanoi

Vietnam is a pleasant and place to visit. The people are friendly and the cuisine is very different from India, but you start loving it in a few days. The country has everything – hills, valleys, sea. Tourism is encouraged and what struck us was the cleanliness in general in this country. I had good expectations from this trip, and Vietnam did not disappoint us.

Also Read: Ho Chi Minh City Travelogue

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Also Read: Travelogue of Ho Chi Minh City

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