American Pies

American Pies in Ancoats serves deep-dish pizzas when everyone else seems to be all about the slow-proved Neapolitan style. Sometimes it’s good to be different. After all, American Pies provides what might be the best cheese pull in the city.

Inside, it’s pretty casual but the black and white tiles on the floor and the polished dark wood show that some effort has gone into capturing the mid-century Italian-American diner aesthetic.

This food is not for the faint-hearted. It’s going to fill you up and clog your arteries quicker than you can say tater tot.

Starters are rich, cheesy and often fried, from the pepperoni crisps with ranch dressing to the crispy brie parcels with ‘nduja honey to the massive-meal-in-themselves ultra cheesy garlic breads.

Try to leave space for the main event. These pizzas are deep-dish versions, also known as pizza pie. Now, as Ol’ Blue Eyes knows, that’s amore, but it’s also very filling. Deceptively dinky in appearance, there’s so much heft and depth to them they could defeat a World’s Strongest Man contender.

The pizzas – and about half the menu – come glistening in a sheen of grease largely thanks to all that cheese. It may not sound too appealing, but where there’s fat there’s flavour. With spicy sausages, blue cheese sauce, fried chicken and beef brisket chilli all regular features, American Pies isn’t about reining it in; it’s about living life large and then taking a day to recuperate afterwards.