BungaTINI - Covent Garden

Family Feel - 3/10

Girls Night - 8/10

Romance - 9/10

BungaTINI has this incredibly authentic feel, so much so, it’s as if you’ve stepped across the sea and land into a traditional Italian restaurant somewhere in Rome, until you are reminded that you’re actually miles away when you catch a glimpse of London outside the front door. For those of you whom may not have been as fortunate to visit this beautiful country and therefore wouldn’t be able to fully appreciate my comparison, the feeling is like a warm hug from a kind chubby woman with a scent of tomato pasta sauce, garlic and basil. My Italian ancestors would have been right at home. The only thing that wasn’t typically Italian is that it was quiet when we arrived. I purchased this pizza making experience for my boyfriend as one of his Birthday gifts, this may or may not have been with ulterior intentions to open his eyes to more than creating tinned tuna with microwave packet rice and calling it a meal. I discovered this on Virgin Experience days and it's currently £60 for two people (with 20% student discount).

On arrival we were welcomed by a very joyful Italian man, as I’m sure they all are when they get to accommodate and feed people! A free drink was part of deal and I was served a ration-sized, though flavourful, prosecco while my boyfriend stuck with a beer. We enjoyed this along with the atmosphere of the place; hanging herbs and dried chillies, Venetian painted pots, old photos of portraits and farm house landscapes speckled the exposed stone walls. It was beautifully themed.

The class began by being directed to our stations by a very sassy, loud and friendly young lady. I thought they’d cast her perfectly! Around 20 of us shuffled round the table and took our seats after hitching our aprons over our necks and sticking our chef hats on our heads. Once all of us had simultaneously finished taking the obliged selfies we were introduced to our highly skilled Sicilian pizza making expert. And then, the chaos began!

The next half an hour was a mass of knowledge, flour, tips, water, flour, sticky hands, flour and a lot of laughter. We were given the reins with the first batch of dough, made by our own hands from flour, water and a few other classified ingredients. This one we were allowed to squish and toss in the air like excitable children, of which was rather surprisingly, much fun! The second, the pressure was on. This was the one we would be covering in toppings, sending to the oven and eating. We were each delivered a soft-looking round dumpling of perfectly mixed dough. This reminded me of the small (and rather cute) lumps of fat in the Doctor Who episode based on the questionable weight loss tablets people consume now-a-days. You may find this peculiar, although it is rather accurate. We moulded this piece carefully and with great precision, as closely to the way we had been shown by our teacher with such effortlessness moments before. This is a challenging task for perfectionist like my boyfriend and I.

Following roughly ten minutes of kneading and shaping we were instructed to remove the bases and put them on a plate. One did not succeed at this. Unfortunately, I had so passionately kneaded my dough that it had subsequently become one with the table. The teacher, who was a very sweet man, said not to worry, grabbed a fresh blob of dough and in what seemed like one swift movement presented me with a perfectly round a spirit-level approved pizza base. I shot my boyfriend a “mine is better than yours” smirk, to which he replied with an eye roll. Our bases were then covered with the most deliciously smelling tomato sauce and it was time for tasty decoration!

One at a time we shuffled round the table, which contrary to what the Italians may once have thought represented wealth and health, being a rounder person would have made significantly difficult, towards the front of the space where an array of toppings had been laid out. We filled our plates with a selection of sun-dried tomatoes, red onion, ham, mushrooms and peppers, although they seemed to have forgotten about olives which greatly disappointed me. However, this was well

and truly forgiven when I was greeted by the mountain of cheese awaiting my return to the table.

After contemplating carefully placing the toppings in an aesthetically pleasing design onto our pizzas we firmly concluded that we were absolutely starving by this point. It was now around 21:30 and the pizza had not actually been cooked. Both my boyfriend and I almost tipped our topping plates 180 degrees over the pizza base and quickly attempted eye contact with the teacher to indicate we were ready… and hungry! Our pizzas were then whisked off to be blazed on some splendid Jamie Oliver-esque wooden platters and within a few minutes were returned. After all our hard work and efforts we tucked in to our masterpieces and they really did taste fabulous!

We both found the experience thoroughly enjoyable. The ingredients were fresh, this was evident in the taste and I applaud BungaTini on creating an authentic and welcoming atmosphere for all culinary abilities. We left with a Tupperware full of dough complete with instructions to make one at home (of which I am still yet to see from my boyfriend).

A few tips for this experience:

1) A perfet gift for an Italian who misses home.

2) Don’t wear your best clothes, or anything black!

3) Take your own olives.

(Visited by The Lady Critique 26th May 2019 - 19:30)