UE Paisa – Italian Vegan Pizza That Won Me Over

This foodie adventure took us to UE Paisa for pizza in Hillsborough, Sheffield. They serve authentic Naples-style Italian pizza / Neapolitan pizza.

I’ll be honest, this night I was fancying ramen, so when we turned up at an Italian pizza place, I wasn’t exactly jumping around with excitement. Very grateful and open-minded of me, obviously.

The owner was welcoming straight away. I don’t want to generalise too much, but he really did sound like Gino D’Acampo. I looked up where Gino is originally from, and it is actually Naples, so maybe I wasn’t generalising quite as much as I thought.

It’s a little Italian café / restaurant with the kind of vibe I love. Somewhere you can just chill out and eat. You probably won’t catch me in too many fancy restaurants, to be honest.

The place had recently been redecorated with an all-blue Napoli / Italian look, which I really liked. They also had Italian hip-hop music playing, which gave it a proper bit of character.

As I’m autistic, I can sometimes be a bit awkward with socialising, so I mostly let the person I was with do the talking. Like I said in the video, the owner really is the star of the show in this café.

I had the Mergellina Pizza, which is usually made with baked aubergine parmigiana and Fior di Latte mozzarella, but done in a vegan style.

The person I was with had the vegan pizza from the originals section of the menu, which had San Marzano DOP tomato sauce, vegan cheese, capers, artichokes, mushrooms, black olives, basil and extra virgin olive oil.

I was glad I went with the one I chose, because I’m not a huge fan of olives. I’ll eat them, but I don’t exactly wake up dreaming about them.

The bread game here was honestly mind-blowing. My words probably won’t do it justice, but it could be one of the best pizza bases I’ve had so far in my life.

At that point, I no longer cared about ramen. My tastebuds had been completely converted.

The sauce wasn’t a sugary mess either, which some pizzas in the UK can be. It tasted balanced, proper, and like someone actually knew what they were doing.

As with most food I really enjoy, my brain took over and I ate it far too quickly. The whole experience was gone in a flash, which is annoying, but also usually a sign that I was very happy.

Once we left, I was smiling, and I was genuinely glad we went to UE Paisa.

A very good end to the Sheffield food adventures.