Review: The Crust Conductor

Fancy eating freshly baked wood-fired pizzas on a double-decker London bus? Well, make your way under the railway arches at Peckham Rye and you’ll find a 1980s London Leyland Titan bus serving just that, pizza!

The Crust Conductor is owned by Jonny Henfrey of Peckham local, The Gowlett, which is already well-known for its pizza offerings in this small patch of South London. The double decker rollable restaurant contains a wood-fired oven and a sound system.

The Crust Conductor is currently parked up at Brick Brewery for our edible pleasure. We headed down to Arch 209 on Blenheim Grove on a Friday evening after work. The Brick Brewery is a microbrewery which produces craft beers. We ordered a pint each then headed back into the courtyard to jump on board the pizza bus.

Open from 5 till 9pm on Fridays (and all day Saturday) we were one of the last not to have to queue for a table at around 7pm. The menu is simple, pizzas start from £6 and there are a few starter nibbly bits to share as well. We went for a portion of the Baked Chorizo with Rioja and Garlic Dough Balls to start, followed by a pizza each.

The baked chorizo and dough balls came in a tin takeaway tray. The dough balls were dripping with garlic oil, half soaked in the red wine chorizo, they were pretty darn delicious.

Pizzas are served in brown cardboard boxes keeping the no cutlery + no crockery = no washing up rule to a minimum.

I went for the Retired Gangster, £8, which came with ‘Crust Conductor’ sauce, fresh mozzarella, chargrilled peppers, sunblush tomato and fresh basil. The toppings were fresh, with rich sunblush tomatoes and oily chargrilled peppers.

My dining partner went for the Spanish Archer, also £8, which came with chorizo, chargrilled peppers and garlic. The topping was nice and cheesy with lots of thin slices of chorizo and chargrilled yellow peppers covering it.

Overall the pizzas at the Crust Conductor were nice, I personally prefer doughy crusts on my pizzas whereas these were quite crisp. Some dipping sauces for the crusts would have been good, but the food was fresh, prepared to order and most importantly served in the coolest possible setting, on the top deck of a 1980s London bus.

Through the steamed up bus windows we could see people crowded around open fire pits, enjoying craft beers from the Brick Brewery. The atmosphere was bustling, with lots of social chitter chatter. For somewhere a little different to enjoy fresh pizza and craft beers head to the Crust Conductor in Peckham for fun double decker dining.

Details