Archived on 6/5/2022

BOnA Pizza [2016-2019]

Pauline
28 May '16

I use BOnA for take away, takes me less than a minute to get there & even when busy only takes a few minutes to have them freshly made to order to take home & they are superb & great value for money. Though I do get traders discount :joy::joy:

£12 for a margarita & another plus cotto ham & mushrooms the other night!

Tweeted this!

Michael
28 May '16

Finally got into Bona today. Very nice pizza and recognised a few people!
Haven’t been to Mamma Dough yet but I did like Sodo.

TravelCounsellor
3 Jun '16

Popped into @BOnA_Pizza Wednesday night for a take out. Amazing pizza and such good value! Will def be heading back there with the kids :smiley:

Pauline
15 Jun '16

Woohoo @BOnA_Pizza now do deliveries :tada::tada:

thirstforwine
15 Jun '16

That is exciting news indeed. I still have not tried them.

Any news on gluten-free pizza yet @BOnA_Pizza??

Gary_Brown
15 Jun '16

Ask @andrea, proprieter

thirstforwine
15 Jun '16

I didn’t want to put him on the spot directly, since I saw some weeks ago on their twitter feed that they were “looking into it” … but since you put it so directly …

hey, @andrea - any chance you could get some decent gluten free bases (and kitchen separation) in place so my family and I can come along?! I would LOVE to try your pizzas

Pauline
15 Jun '16

@andrea gets notified when @BOnA_Pizza is mentioned, like I do when my shop name is mentioned. @anon5422159 is a clever chap, I’d never know how to do something this technological :+1:

appletree
16 Jun '16

Pizza is fantastic but it’s so loud in the restaurant my OH can’t stand it.

andrea
16 Jun '16

Thank you all for your comments and questions. Forest Hill responded amazingly since we opened up some 6 months ago and we are extremely grateful to you all. I’ll try to answer to all of you to the best of my possibilities:

  • DELIVERIES: We’ll start from today. We think we thought it through properly, but some teething problems will be undoubtedly there waiting to happen: please bear with us. It is a trial and should this prove successful we’ll roll it out to the other days of the week and possibly to all opening hours too (i.e.: lunchtime SAT-SUN). Maybe even other postcodes?..

  • THE BIG GLUTEN-FREE DEBATE: It was one of our chief intentions to cater for the gluten intolerant/coeliacs since before we opened. This proved more difficult than we initially thought, as flour in BOnA is literally in the air (a bit like love)… We would not be able to guarantee a 100% GF pizza base made in-house because of this reason. There could be a few solutions to obviate to this problem.
    The first would be to buy in some ready made bases produced by someone else. We are against this: firstly because we like to propose something that we make ourselves. Secondly (and possibly more importantly) this ready made bases require cooking for 20 minutes at 180 C/ 200 C. Our oven (the only cooking implement in-house) is launched at 450 C/ 480 C and the temperature cannot really be lowered with a dimmer. It fully cooks a pizza from raw in about 50 seconds. The ready made, part-baked base would burn before it cooks through.
    The second solution would be to come up with a GLUTEN ALMOST FREE Tuesday. Say one Tuesday a month. We would close on Sunday night as normal/ Deep clean on Monday and prepare the GF dough/ Open on Tuesday offering only GF fare. Of course the price per pizza would have to reflect A) the more expensive flours, B) the staff we have to pay for the extra work on that Monday. Off the top of my head I would say that’s about +£2.50/£3.00 per pizza, but it would need to be properly costed. Now it gets interesting: would we get people through the door if a Margherita would cost £9.00?

  • NOISE: Oh boy I know, it can be very loud at times with chatter and laughter. Often I cannot figure out what people say to me. Even more often I struggle to hear orders placed over the phone. There are quieter days/times though, and to quote Russell Norman that “noise” is the sound of people enjoying themselves, so I personally hope it is there to stay :slight_smile:

Thank you all again. Please let us know your views with regards to the GF debate so that we can move in the right direction. Hope to see you all soon!

Andrea + Kasia

Pauline
16 Jun '16

Hey Andrea, I’ve got a hen night booked in for Saturday night so don’t be surprised when you get a delivery order for my shop after closing time :slight_smile:

RachaelDunlop
16 Jun '16

Thanks for the info, @andrea . Do you have the menus and delivery information on your website? We may test your system for you this weekend!

appletree
16 Jun '16

Didn’t mean to criticise about the noise. The pizza is terrific. I hope OH will change his mind as I want more of it.

andrea
16 Jun '16

Yes the core menu is on the website. Specials will be posted daily on Twitter. Re: delivery info, we prefer to run it for a little while in order to publish relevant ones.

thirstforwine
16 Jun '16

Hey @andrea I gather you also know about wine. Do you have a copy of the wine list to share ?

andrea
16 Jun '16

Yes, have been a wine journalist in a post life and I’m still a panel judge for Decanter magazine for the DWWA. The full drinks list is available on the website, but BOnA doesn’t mean to be a wine drinkers paradise. Having said that, we often have very interesting bin-ends and hidden bottles in the cellar :wink:
One word of warning: not a single stemmed glass in sight, but people are welcome to bring their preferred glassware with them.

anon5422159
16 Jun '16

The last two posts could be the start of a beautiful friendship :innocent:

thirstforwine
16 Jun '16

I shall endeavour to bring my Zalto Universals next time :wink:

Pauline
16 Jun '16

Hey Andrea & Kasia, can you give me a shout as soon as you have decided on the specials for Saturday please. The organiser of the sweetie & pizza hen night wants to enjoy it & organise last minute bits ASAP. x

All done my end & 10 pizzas will be needed, toppings just have to be decided & I can run down & pick them up if easier,

First time for everything, I never expected to ever have a hen night party booked in, but the bride has a sweet tooth apparently, likes pizza & retro stuff so what the heck do I know.

I quite like this actually & hope they let me take pics to share :+1:

Pauline
18 Jun '16

This has got to be the most civilised hen night I’ve ever came across!

Thanks @andrea for delivering the 10 pizzas exactly on time - excellent customer service pal :slight_smile:

They loved them :+1:

RachaelDunlop
18 Jun '16

Just had a delivery from BoNa. Delicious pizzas inhaled within minutes. YUM.

Pauline
18 Jun '16

What toppings did you have, hope you never missed out on the cotto ham. It’s delicious!

Oh & just as a side note, I don’t sell alcohol the girls brought their own :joy::joy:

RachaelDunlop
18 Jun '16

I had the cotta ham, OH had the sausage, broccoli, smoked cheese and chilli. rubs belly

Pauline
18 Jun '16

We also tried the salami tonight with personal pizzas, it was good!

Pauline
18 Jun '16

YAY!

All clean & ready for tomorrow!

starman
10 Jul '16

How do you order delivery? Just call?

Pauline
10 Jul '16

Yup, just call & they will be with you in no time :slight_smile:

librarysarah
8 Aug '16

I think those which are GF would love to see a specific evening for them. My OH isn’t coeliac but knows I love pizza so would come along too. We now go to Mamma Dough and Four Hundred Rabbits in CP for pizza because we can’t come to you :frowning: which is a shame because we’d love to go more locally.

Michael
20 Jan '19

Would anybody like to buy a very nice pizza restaurant?

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/commercial/details/48269704?search_identifier=7f6f9ab38d74676e573fcb168ef27894

maxrocks
20 Jan '19

Oh No!!!
hope they’re not closing : (
We love it there !!!

andrea
21 Jan '19

Hello everyone, it was an old ad. Thank you for pointing out it was still live. We already asked for it to be taken down.

Beige
23 May '19

Just saw on twitter it has changed hands. Very nervous… Had my least good pizza there at the weekend and hoping it’s not a harbinger.

anon5422159
23 May '19

Oh wow yes:

That’s sad. @Andrea and his colleagues did an amazing job.

Beige
23 May '19

Perhaps the lures of rap music and Philipine dating were too great.

maxrocks
23 May '19

gutted-it was a really reliable go-to and even though I’m not a Pizza fan I was always able to enjoy theirs:pensive:

Dave
24 May '19

So the sale advert wasn’t a mistake? Good luck to the new owners.

weepy
24 May '19

I can understand why wouldn’t want the sale to be public knowledge

anon5422159
31 May '19

Continues: BOnA Pizzeria [2019]