I have been coming to The Empress since I can remember. Granted, not as often as I would like these days but I always try to catch the beautiful Christmas lights once a year. It is something that they are well known for here at The Empress and in my opinion are truly the best lights in Cambridge.

Christmas lights aside, The Empress is also well known for its pizza. People in the Cambridge Foodies community have recommended that I visit for a while now. Excitingly, they also have a new chef, Giuseppe, who is now offering Neapolitan style pizzas from the pub. He also runs his own website where you can buy Italian products, home made dishes, and read recipes. It’s well worth a visit and gives you a great insight into the passion and love he has for food.

The pizzas are all prepared in a small open plan kitchen located in the room we were sitting in (the room behind the main bar). It is reassuring to be able to see the kitchen in its entirety and even more reassuring to see it spotless. Giuseppe runs a tight ship! 👍

There is a wide selection of 10 pizzas on the menu. Prices start at £10.50 for the margarita and go up to £13. This is a fair price for the Romsey Town area. A ‘chocolate and walnut pizza’ is also available, if dessert is required.

⭐ 2-1 pizzas on Mondays! ⭐

There are two options of garlic bread – garlic bread and garlic bread with cheese. I couldn’t help but think that these would be perfect for someone having a pint or two and in need of something to soak up the beer.

We ordered the garlic bread and cheese. As it was made to order, the bread came out incredibly warm and soft. It was generously covered in a lovely mozzarella cheese that stretched out when you picked it up. It was like one of those pizzas from a cartoon and was a theme we would go on to notice throughout the evening. Top marks!

It was a cold winter’s evening, so I decided to order ‘The Empress Badboy’. This is made with a tomato base, mozzarella, jalapenos, pepperoni, sausage, mushroom, and peppers. Perfect for warming up with a bit of spice!

Like with the garlic bread, the pizza was made fresh to order, which made the base lovely and soft. Toppings were generous and I was pleased to see that stretchy/stringy mozzarella cheese was also present. Eating these pizzas by hand is almost entirely out of the question as the toppings are completely loaded. This is a good problem to have, just make sure to use a knife and fork…Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

The jalapenos gave it a nice fiery kick and there was Tabasco sauce available at the table, if required. I was particularly fond of the sausage on the pizza that were herby and really juicy.

My guest ordered ‘the special’ which changes every week to help things stay fresh and interesting. This week it was a tomato free base, served with capers, tuna, cherry tomatoes, black olives, basil, and mozzarella.

The weekly tuna special was beautifully presented and visually appealing. As with the Empress Bad Boy, it was very heavy on the toppings, making it impossible to eat with your hands. I know that it is generally encouraged to eat Italian pizza with a knife and fork and if you insist on eating it with your hands you can usually get away with folding the slice but with this tuna special, there was simply no way. Luckily, eating with a knife and fork is my preferred way to eat a pizza anyway, so for me, a generous amount of toppings is only a winner.

One of my guests couldn’t make it, so we ordered a pizza to go – a ham and mushroom, served with a tomato base, mozzarella and fresh basil.

I didn’t get to try this pizza myself but it looked fantastic. Everything from tomato to the cheese ratios looked about right and the base was perfect.

A truly lovely evening was had by all at The Empress. The Christmas lights looked as impressive as ever, the pub was bustling, and the pizzas were fantastic. Giuseppe really gets the balance right with the ingredients and each one is cooked perfectly. The tuna pizza special was something different and there is a wide selection on the menu to choose from. For me, the cheese is what made it stand out above the rest and I really wish I saw it on more pizzas as it is great fun as well as delicious.

It’s going to be tough to decide where to put this on my pizza league table. 🫣

Thanks for reading!