For the first video in season 3 of LP Eats, we headed down to Cafe Bar just off Winckley Square to try out their pizza i a stunning setting...
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00:00Hi, my name's Jack Marshall and I'm a digital reporter with the Lancashire Post newspaper
00:07and welcome to Season 3 of Lancashire Post Eats, which is our video food review series
00:12where we get into the nuts and bolts of the local culinary scene in Preston. We try out
00:17the best places as per your recommendations and other people's reviews. We try them out,
00:22we rate them, we crown the best at something in a particular cuisine. So we've done kebabs,
00:26we've done burgers, we're doing pizza. Like we said before, we've done a couple of pretty
00:32impressive cuisines so far, but pizza's one I'm really looking forward to because it's
00:36such a popular food, it's such a popular thing, which so many places do, so to be good at
00:41it, you've got to be good, you've got to stand out. It's pretty ubiquitous, so have a good
00:45pizza, you've got to know what you're doing. So anyway, first place we went to, after we
00:49put out a bit of an appeal, asked for people's suggestions, they came back in their droves.
00:54So the first place we decided to head down to was a place called Cafe Bar on Winkley
00:57Street near Winkley Square in the middle of town. Now, weather was stunning, incredible
01:02vibe, went to this place and it was just, it was lovely. Straight off the bat, the vibe
01:07of the place was lovely. It's got a little courtyard area where it's a little sun trap,
01:12so I've sat there having a little pizza, having just a little glass of water in the sunshine
01:17and it was like being on holiday in Preston, which, you know, it's an impressive thing.
01:23So yeah, that was a really good start. The vibe of it was great in there. It's five out
01:27of five on the vibe front. The people were lovely. The service was kind of prompt and
01:31quick, but not kind of overbearing. No, no, no. It was perfect. Absolutely perfect. Get
01:36yourself down, try it out. Amazing, especially on a nice day. Right, the pizza itself. I
01:41ordered a Phoenix pizza because that was the closest thing I could get to a pepperoni.
01:44Now, during the series, I'll be trying to order a pepperoni pizza, so I'm comparing
01:48a similar thing from each place. So I ordered the Phoenix, which had ham, pepperoni and
01:52jalapenos on it, so it was a bit of a spicy number. But anyway, we're starting off with
01:55the dough. The dough was nice. It was nice and airy and light, nothing too stodgy. Now,
01:59I was eating this at lunchtime, so I didn't want to feel like I was, you know, chugging
02:02down a massive load of carbs and then I was going to lumber around the rest of the day
02:05falling asleep at my desk. So that was quite nice. It was lighter than you'd kind of, than
02:11some pizzas might be. So that was a really, really good USP from this pizza. It was, it
02:17also had that like floppiness to it, which really good pizza has. It didn't kind of stand
02:22up on its own. Each slice like splintering into bits with each bite. So that was nice
02:26as well. I really rated them in that. Got to the point where you're literally like folding
02:30the bits over, which is, you know, that's how proper pizza should be. I'm going to give
02:33him a four out of five on the dough front. The only thing I could possibly want more
02:37was just a bit more of a flavour profile from the dough itself. Now, I know that's asking
02:42a lot and you don't really necessarily eat pizza for the dough, but I want it to be part
02:46of it. So that's the only thing. Onto the cheese and the sauce. And the sauce was nice.
02:52You could tell it was like, it had a nice homemade profile to it. Nicely seasoned. Wasn't
02:57too, wasn't too much of it. It was a nice ratio of like cheese and sauce to dough. That
03:02was a good ratio. The cheese itself was good. Didn't overwhelm it to the point where pizza
03:06gets oily. That's always good as well. But it did have that stringy bite to it. It was
03:11good. I just wanted similarly, similar to the dough front. Obviously you don't necessarily
03:16go to pizza to be blown away by, say, the flavour of a mozzarella, but you want it to
03:21be more, I wanted it to be slightly more present there. I don't know, I'm not a professional
03:26chef, I don't know how you go about doing that with a different mozzarella, but I wanted
03:29to just have a little bit more of a creaminess to it. And as for the tomato, a bit more of
03:33a kind of richness to it. That's the only thing I'd say, but generally it was very good.
03:37It's a four out of five on that front as well. Now, onto our final two categories, which
03:43will be the toppings and the value for money. We'll come to the value for money at the end,
03:47but the toppings, like I say, I tried to get the closest thing to a pepperoni. It did have
03:50pepperoni on it, so that was nice. The pepperoni hadn't kind of coiled up and burnt like some
03:55do in an oven as you're cooking it, the meat kind of bends and then gets singed on the
04:00edges. That's never the best thing, but this one was good. The taste was nice. The spiciness
04:06was good. The ham could have been better. It was all right. It was just standard. I
04:10wouldn't really have missed it if it wasn't there, but yeah, I'm really adjudicating the pepperoni.
04:15The pepperoni was nice. Jalapenos was a nice kick, but I found myself sweating a little
04:19bit in the sunshine, but never mind. Onto the value for money. This pizza, it was like
04:23a lunchtime deal. So myself and a colleague had one and they worked out to be £10.95
04:28a piece, which I think is pretty good value given the size of it, given the quality of
04:34ingredients, the quality of obviously like the chef who made it and the setting. The
04:38setting was so nice. The setting was part of it. To be able to enjoy that meal in that
04:42setting was, you know, I'm factoring that into the price because it was such a nice
04:46place to enjoy the meal. So yeah, I'm going to give them a four out of five on that front
04:50as well. Now, these are pretty high scores across the board. It gives Cafe Bar a total
04:54of 21 out of 25, which is a very, very strong start to our third season of LP Eats. Let
05:01me know if you've been to Cafe Bar yourself. Let us know if you like it. Let us know if
05:04you think somewhere else is better. We'll be doing nine other places as part of our
05:07review series. Check out our previous article to find out where we're going and where we'll
05:11be going next. We're going to randomise it so you won't know where we're going. They
05:14won't be able to prep for us or anything like that. So yeah, I hope you've enjoyed this
05:19review. Let us know if you are now going to try Cafe Bar yourself. I recommend it. Find
05:23yourself a sunny day. Go down for a pizza. You can't go wrong. Thanks for watching. Cheers.