La Fornera (Altea) - Restaurant review

7/10 - Quality ingredients with opinion dividing pizzas

How can you argue a deep held perspective that someone has? One of my favourite newspaper columns 'You be the judge', asks readers to help warring couples to decide whose perspective is more reasonable. When one gets so dogmatic about a particular issue, it can be difficult to see things from another point of view, so getting insight from strangers could help people settle frustrating, verbal jousts.

Some recent 'You be the judge' debates and the CBFS response:

-Should the butter be kept in the fridge or not?

Depends on what you might use the butter for, wink wink.

-Should we apologise to our neighbour after our cat scared their toddler aged son?

Only if you laughed so hard that you accidently did damage to their fence when you fell into it.

-Should my boyfriend save his post gym shower for when he gets home?

Only if that creepy, cleaner fella who seems to be always in the shower area is working that day.

Alas, our dining table gently rumbled under pressure from our friendly debate, questioning: How thick and crispy should a pizza base be?

Aaaarrggghh!

La Fornera is an Italian restaurant located on Carrer Major in the heart of the old town of Altea alongside the heavyweights of Oustau and Crown of India. The building used to house a bakery hence the Catalan term 'La Fornera' being used by the Altean owners of the restaurant. It is also why you will see some Altean and Catalan themed menu items such as the 'coca', an empanda type pastry and our pizza of choice this evening - the Mallorquina.

After jostling our way through the still busy, cobbled streets of the old town, we sat in the interior of La Fornera with striking views over the countryside towards the Sierra Bernia. The local wine on offer was a tinto from Requena (3.60 euros per glass) which was superbly fresh with the right balance of fruitiness and acidity. Around us the restaurant was filling up with some customers utilising their translator camera app to try and make sense of what Coca Cola meant on the drinks menu.

True to the name, what La Fornera does terrifically well is baked goods. From the brushetta to the coca, all looked top notch. In terms of our Mallorquina pizza, opinion was divided on the extremely thin base. And when I say thin, I would say wafer thin. Now my particular preference would be for a slightly thicker core base with a bubbly, airy outer base with the lovely flavour from the wood burning oven. My co-eater thought it was perfect and started blabbing on about true Neopolitan bases. Blah blah blah! "But that is not what I like", I retorted. And with that, I lost my Snob standing and was reduced to philistine rating level with them. Toppings of sobrasada, burrata, basil and a nispero jam were a tasty combination with the sweetness of the jam balancing out the richness of the cured sausage. The fact that ingredients are locally sourced is a lovely bonus.

To accompany the wafer thin pizza, we ordered the chicken and avocado salad which was overflowing with tender chicken breast and a citrusy mayonnaise. The huge, morish salad was excellent.

The ambience and decor of La Fornera are spot on and there is outdoor seating on front side of the building away from the hussle and bussle of the narrow, whitewashed streets of the old town interior. Service was efficient if lacking attentiveness and personality.

Overall, it is difficult to properly critique La Fornera from a pizza perspective. One man's treasure is another man's rubbish and although I thought the pizza was good, I've had better in the area. My eating partner would disagree. Safest tip: you be the judge.