Review – Cafe Grounded, St. George

Once again, reviewing one of our favourite local restaurants.  We discovered grounded a couple of years ago and have been popping in every couple of months for great pizza and fantastic desserts ever since.  Grounded is quite unassuming – it looks like a standard boho style little cafe.  But a look at the menu gets you thinking, as does the great range of beers and decent wine list.  Inside and out, there’s a relaxed atmosphere, though it can get a little crowded inside at times.

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I tend to order pizza, and this time, for the first time ever, i order a 12” Calzone… trina goes for a veggie one, and we get one of their fantastic garlic and rosemary flatbreads to share – oh and some olives (yes we were hungry…).  We also go for a bottle of their house rose, which is a great, light and sweet accompaniment to pizza.  This comes to about £40.

The calzone when it turns up looks like a giant Cornish pasty! It’s enormous – I'm sure it was a 12” base, but it looks like it’s been stretched over the toppings of what would normally be 2 pizzas!  Still, i manfully struggle through, though have to share a few mouthfuls with Trina to finish it!  Trina’s own is nice, though the chestnut mushrooms are a little overpowering, and the base is a little soggy.  This is a bit of a shame, as Grounded really do the best pizza bases i’ve tasted – but they can occassionally pile on the tomato sauce and the middle goes soggy – possibly the pizza stone isn’t hot enough or the oven is too full and the heat’s not even…  But otherwise, it’s tasty!  The rosemary garlic flatbread is as ever amazing.

On to a second bottle of rose, and then we decide to get some dessert to take out for ‘breakfast’ (i.e. we’ll eat it after the walk home when we don’t feel quite so piggy!).  I chose a the baked cheesecake with brownie base – really light and fluffy, beautiful texture and flavours.

In all, Grounded is a little more expensive than our other local eateries, but is a nice treat for a change, and the food is very high quality.  We’re moving to Southville soon, and are really looking forward to trying out Grounded’s sister cafe over there – i hope it’s the same atmosphere and great food – highly recommended.