If I was asked to describe my typical, and perfect, alpine restaurant/pizzeria I would simply conjure up an image of Pinocchio Pizzeria here in Alpe d’Huez.
Located smack in the middle of resort on Avenue Les Jeux (the main street) directly opposite the ice rink, its location is perfect, and there is free parking outside as well.
Its only small in size but large in character – you are welcomed into the ground floor and immediately you can see (and smell!) the large wood-fired pizza oven that sits proudly in the open plan kitchen area. The smell of fresh pizzas being cooked is the first thing that strikes you when you walk in – wow!
Over 10 years I have been to Pinocchio’s on many occasions and have never been disappointed, and it was again fantastic on my recent visit.
It’s perfect alpine décor – timber clad walls and log style tables set the ambience perfectly for the feast that was about to follow. As always it was really busy, with a mix of both locals, seasonnaires and visitors alike – but nevertheless we were shown to our table for two upstairs. The restaurant sits around 20 people on the ground floor with further seating for around 30 upstairs. The staff, as always, were really friendly and spoke English – but are equally happy to converse in “tourist” French if you fancy giving it a whirl.
Knowing full well that the pizzas and main courses here are a good size we didn’t order a starter – just a couple of reasonably priced drinks while me made our choices from the cracking menu.
Much as I looked at the menu, being the creature of habit that I am I rather predictably ended up ordering a Pizza Reine (tomato, ham, mushrooms and olives) – meanwhile my son, Harrison, broke from tradition and ordered the Gnocchi a la bolognaise with a green salad. So once I had worked out how to pronounce gnocchi we placed our order.
Even though it was busy the food only took around 20 minutes to arrive, in which time many new diners had arrived – such is Pinocchio’s popularity.
When it arrived we weren’t disappointed the food was great and the pizza really does take some beating. I tried Harrisons gnocchi and that too was fantastic. We both cleaned our plates – no surprise there though.
As I was dining with a teenage human wood-chipper (Harrison) we decided to order a couple of desserts as well – Harrison ordered the chocolate cake/gateaux and I had the Dame Banana a mix of cream, ice cream and banana. As with the main courses the desserts were fantastic and were promptly polished off – they cost around €7 each (and contained around a million calories!).
Pinocchio’s was wonderful as always.
Pizzas range from €10,50 for a Margarita up to €14,50 for the “premium” pizzas. Pasta dishes range from €11,80 up to €14,00 – which I think is great value, as the quality is second-to-none. Drinks aren’t too bad either with a small beer costing €3.10 and soft drinks at €3,30. In total our lovely meal cost €53,10 – for 2 main courses, 2 desserts and a couple of drinks – all in all good value I think.
I can definitely say, in the words of Arnie Schwarzenegger – I’LL BE BACK….
