It seems that everyone’s making vegan pizzas! This is the third one I’ve tried so far, after the efforts from Pizza Express and Oumph!.

Right, I’ll get straight to the point: it’s a fairly decent pizza. Lots of flavour, helped along by some peppers which add some heat. It’s good value too – at £2.50 it’s the cheapest of the vegan pizzas I’ve tried so far, and also the largest. I thought the “stonebaked” base was a bit ordinary (especially compared to the Oumph! one), but for £2.50 I’m not complaining. It could have benefitted from being a bit more saucy/cheesy, but it did still taste good.

But here’s the thing: it’s a falafel pizza. A falafel pizza! I imagine the product development meeting went something like this:

Dave: OK guys, we’re getting in on the vegan market with a new pizza. Stu, you’re in charge of toppings.

Stu: Oh. Hey Bernie, you’re vegan right? What did you have for lunch today?

Bernie: Um, falafel and hummus and stuff like that.

Stu: We’ll use that.

There are two reasons why I think a falafel pizza is a silly (albeit tasty) idea:

First of all, I think a vegan pizza should be as much like a non-vegan pizza as possible. Pizza is comfort food; new and potential vegans need to be reassured that they don’t need to give it up, or settle for something hippy-sounding and alternative. The Oumph! pizza did a great job of just being a really tasty ‘normal’ pizza.

Secondly, I just don’t think it’s very imaginative. I eat falafel all the time (I had some for lunch today!). It seems to be the standard vegan food; often the only vegan option for lunch in a supermarket is a falafel and hummus wrap. Sure it tastes pretty decent on a pizza, but can’t we have something else?

So thank you Goodfella’s, your pizza tastes good and I will buy it again. But when you introduce the next one in the range can you make a vegan version of a regular pizza?