IF YOU were to award the leading pizza parlours marks out of ten, what would you give them?

Two to Pizza Hut for lack of effort down the years?

But maybe an average of seven for Pizza Express depending on whether you go to a small restaurant (good) or larger one (not so good).

Two years ago, with my lips tingling from fresh chillies, I remember congratulating somebody in a striped shirt at Pizza Express in Poole, Dorset.

He was delighted with my verdict – especially as it turned out he was the dishwasher in the warren-like restaurant.

But the best pizza I’ve had in Britain in recent memory was earlier this year at Bosco in Lytham St Annes.

Even though there’s a Pizza Express on the other side of Clifton Square, this place is thriving thanks to its great advantage – a wood-fired oven.

For the same reason, Rossopomodoro does not need to worry about there being a Pizza Hut within dough-tossing range or the fact that the city centre has four Pizza Express restaurants.

Best of all, this dinky little eatery in Selfridges’ foodhall uses great ingredients that left my lips really zinging.

Rossopomodoro might be an unfamiliar name, but it’s a fully-fledged Italian company trying to export its domestic success into proper restaurants in Chelsea, Notting Hill and Covent Garden – and in a shopping environment here.