When you are in the mood for pizza, you would have thought a visit to an American-style pizza restaurant with a reputation for excellent pizzas and a salad bar to match, would be the perfect restaurant to ease your cravings.

Sadly, this wasn't the case when my partner recently treated me to a pizza at the Deep Pan Pizza Company in Ocean Village. We had both had a bad day at work and needed to cheer ourselves up, and felt this would be the perfect place to do so.

Not having visited the Deep Pan Pizza Company before, I was really looking forward to a freshly made pizza that wasn't luke warm after a brief trip down the A27 by motorcycle delivery like my usual pizza experiences.

My partner, James, has often talked about this restaurant having an impressive salad bar, so I really couldn't wait to try out a place that I've heard so much about.

We were welcomed at the door and shown to a table, where we were swiftly given a menu to browse over.

It only took us a matter of minutes to decide what we wanted. I chose a polynesian regular pizza that consisted of ham, cheese and pineapple, and there was no surprises what James ordered. For starters he went for the "famous" salad bar and for the main course he chose a medium ultimate pizza that came with pepperoni, bacon, sausage, mince beef and a selection of two cheeses. We also chose some garlic bread as a side order.

After a few minutes the waitress, who was serving us, came back to our table and informed us that James's beloved salad bar was unfortunately not available, due to a fault with the freezer bar compartment.

His face dropped, as he is a genuine fan of fresh salads and had really built up an appetite for one. He enquired whether a salad of any kind was an option, as salads appeared to be quite a dominant feature on the menu, and the reply was sadly no.

After having a car crash somewhere up north earlier in the day, this wasn't the best start to a supposedly relaxing evening for him.

A quarter of an hour passed and still no signs of our meals, so we just assumed that the staff were tied up with other guests, despite the restaurant being less than half full.

Nearly half an hour after we ordered, (which in our opinion was a pretty straight forward order) the pizzas finally arrived.

Despite the wait, the pizzas looked fantastic, and we wasted no time in getting stuck in.

However, one thing that we did notice, before we tucked in were that the pizzas were sizzlingly hot, and the plates we had were ice cold. Although, we were so hungry at this point we were past caring.

My polynesian pizza was delicious. The toppings were generous and it was everything a deep-pan pizza should be, a fresh soft base with toppings that conjured up many different flavours.

James's Ultimate pizza looked quite sensational, and was presented to him still in the deep pan. He thoroughly enjoyed the combination of all the meaty toppings, which, from my side of the table, smelt absolutely superb.

Our side order of garlic bread was also very tasty and made the perfect accompaniment to our pizza feast.

We didn't stay for dessert, although the options on the menu looked very tempting.

For just £20.14, we felt it was good value for money, and as for the problems we encountered during the evening, we'd like to think that was down to it being a week night during the lull before the Christmas storm!

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