Rudys Westfield Serves Great Pizza… If You Can Survive The Service
Rudys Westfield Serves Great Pizza… If You Can Survive The Service
The Rudys menu delivers on proper Neapolitan pizza, but the Westfield experience is harder to love
Rudys is fortunate its pizza is excellent, because our lunch begins with the special thrill of being told to wait 20 minutes while staring at a half-empty restaurant.
We are behind one pair of diners.
Inside, empty tables sit dressed and ready, doing their best impression of being available. But apparently not. Some may be reserved, we’re told, which becomes less convincing when we’re later seated at one of those exact empty tables, while the others around us remain untouched.
All this with a hungry four year old, whose interest in restaurant pacing strategies is limited.
Taking a child out to eat already involves enough emotional risk. Will they sit? Will they eat? Will they suddenly decide pizza is offensive? Adding a pointless-looking wait is not what I’d call a strong opening move.
So yes, I am annoyed before we even sit down.
And then, irritatingly, the pizza is brilliant.
Quick info on Rudys Westfield
- Restaurant: Rudys
- Where: Westfield London
- Cuisine: Neapolitan pizza
- Order without hesitation: Margherita pizza
- Also good: Tarantina, if you like anchovies, capers and olives
- Good to know: The Rudys menu is pork-heavy, so ordering is more limited if you don’t eat pork
- Family friendly? The pizza is great for kids. The restaurant experience is less convincing
Find out more in the full Rudys Westfield restaurant review below.
The Rudys menu is simple, but not effortless
The Rudys menu is built around Neapolitan pizza with San Marzano tomatoes, fior di latte mozzarella, blistered crusts, and soft centres.
In theory, ideal.
In practice, if you don’t eat pork, the Rudys menu options shrink quite quickly. Almost half the regular pizza menu includes pork, and one of the three specials does too. There are still things to order, but you do spend a little longer scanning the menu, mentally crossing off pizzas that sound good but you can’t order.
Thankfully for us, the simplest option turns out to be the best.
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The Margherita pizza is excellent
We order the Margherita, made with San Marzano tomatoes and fior di latte mozzarella.
This is where Rudys wins.
A proper Neapolitan base should be soft, elastic, easy to fold, with a raised crust and the flavour of well-baked bread. Rudys gets very close to that ideal.
The base has that lovely Neapolitan looseness where the centre is soft and yielding, but not soggy in a depressing way. It folds easily, bends without snapping, and carries the toppings nicely.
Then there is the crust, which is where the real joy is.
It’s puffy, chewy and blistered in patches, with little semi-charred spots that bring smokiness in just the right amount. There’s a gentle pull to it when you bite down, followed by that warm, bready flavour you only get from a good base.
The tomato sauce is just as important. It’s bright, sweet, lightly acidic and beautifully balanced, cutting through the creamy fior di latte without overwhelming the dough. There is enough cheese to feel generous, but not so much that the whole thing collapses.
Even our four year old, who initially eyes the pizza suspiciously because the whole thing is not smothered in cheese, ends up eating five slices.
Let me tell you, there’s no better endorsement.
The Tarantina pizza is for anchovy lovers
My husband loves anchovies on pizza, so the Tarantina is always going to be his order.
This one comes with San Marzano tomatoes, fior di latte, anchovies, capers, Kalamata olives and oregano. So, as expected, it’s saltier, sharper and punchier than the Margherita.
The anchovies bring a deep savoury hit, the capers add bite-sized salt bombs, and the olives pile on even more briny intensity. The tomato base still comes through underneath, adding balancing brightness.
It’s a very good pizza if you like big, salty flavours.
I like it.
But I still think the Margherita is the better all-rounder.
The problem isn’t the pizza at Rudys Westfield
On our visit, it seems as if the issue with Rudys Westfield is that the food is doing better work than the restaurant experience.
Once we’re (finally) seated, things remain slow. Orders aren’t taken quickly, there’s a delay in getting drinks, and the pizzas take a while to appear.
From our table, we can see the open kitchen working furiously: dough being shaped, toppings going on, pizzas flying in and out of the oven. I can only see two people in there, and it looks relentless.
Which makes me suspect the queue at the beginning is not really about tables at all, but that it might be about pacing the kitchen.
Fine. I understand the logic. A slammed kitchen is a slammed kitchen. But theres got to be a more hospitable way to manage that than making families wait in line beside empty tables.
Westfield has a way of flattening good restaurants
This is the bit that frustrates me most.
Westfield desperately needs better restaurants – properly decent places to eat. Places you would choose even if you weren’t already trapped in a retail labyrinth.
Rudys should be a very welcome addition – and food-wise, it is.
But the experience reminds me of something I’ve noticed before: when good restaurant brands land in malls, something often slips. The food might survive, but the hospitality becomes thinner, and more functional. Less like the original thing people loved.
I had a similar feeling after visiting Black Bear Burger at Westfield.
The magic of the non-mall original restaurant gets slightly scuffed under the shopping centre lights.
Flat Iron and Sticks’n’Sushi seem to manage it better. They still feel like themselves. Rudys, at least on this visit, feels like outstanding pizza trapped inside a joyless system.
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Is Rudys Westfield family friendly?
Food-wise, yes.
The Margherita is ideal for children because it’s simple and delicious. Ours loved the thinness of the dough too, which is probably a lot easier to chew and less demanding too. It’s also bright enough for adults to enjoy too.
But in terms of experience, service and general hospitality, I’d have to say no, it’s not a family friendly restaurant.
The wait is annoying (and seems totally unnecessary), while the service is slow. Worse, the toilets are upstairs. Not great for a young child.
Final thoughts on Rudys Westfield
I wanted to dislike Rudys Westfield more than I do.
The waiting system is irritating, especially when glaringly empty tables make the queue feel absurd. The pork-heavy menu limits choice if you avoid it. And the whole experience is less welcoming than it should be, especially with a child.
But then there is the pizza, which is incredible.
The Margherita in particular is outstanding with its bright tomato, creamy cheese, blistered crust, and chewy edges. The Tarantina is also strong if anchovies, capers and olives are your idea of a good time.
So yes, I would eat Rudys pizza again. But next time I’d skip the Westfield branch, escape the oppression of the mall, and head to the Soho one in central London. It can’t be any worse.
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Rudys restaurant review
Address – Southern Terrace, Unit 1032, Lower, Westfield, London W12 7GF
Nearest Tube – Shepherds Bush
