Their tag line is ‘making great pizza isn’t rocket science’. If you venture way down Cowley Road, past it’s mother and infamous burger joint and near the Regal you’ll find Atomic Pizza: a little slice of fun.
They’ve got the same formula going, with comic book characters plastering the walls. But there’s no Frito Bandito, Messie Jessie or Audrey Hepburn in this Atomic joint. Instead, every pizza has it’s own comic book character. I sampled the ‘Paddington Bear’ – a large doughy pizza splattered with goats cheese, onion marmalade and rocket. A classic sandwich combination reinvented and very much true to the Atomic way of life.
Delicious as it was, and reinvented it may have been, the pizza didn’t blow my mind. The beauty of the Atomic Burger is it’s individuality. For an English girl born and bred, the American cereals, pancakes and the burgers complete with chilli fries are a step out of the ordinary.
Though Atomic Pizza has branched out – it’s bigger and just as fun filled – the crossover into this particular cuisine is not yet complete. To be fair, there are a few more inventive options than my conservative goats cheese – a Fat Tony is covered with meatballs, a Scooby Doo coated with hot dogs and the Tony Stark with a manly four kinds of meat (steak, bacon, chicken and pepperoni in case you were wondering).
But those three aside it’s ham, mushroom, pepperoni and cheese all round. Atomic Pizza is great for a truly delicious pizza in a quirky and nostalgic background – they say “once tried you are gonna struggle to ever eat anyone else’s”. I may still eat pizza elsewhere – but one thing’s for sure I’ll always be more than happy to grab an atomic slice of life.
Sarah Shapcott
