We sat outside so it's a bit unfair to judge in many ways.  Assuming that you love the general feel of the NQ, which we of course do, in which case you'll love it.  A spot of people watching, well-covered just in case Manchester's climate rears its head, with comfy seating.  Ideal.

Hardly plush hence the score, but then would you really want that for a few beers and a pizza with your mates?

With enough pizza to feed 3 hungry adults, you can't really moan at the £30 cost at their premium 22" pizzas.  If you just want a classic plain cheese, then it's just £22, and an offensively cheap £16 for the cheese-less Marinara.  Drinks were as you'd expect to pay really.

Absolutely no complaints here.  A chunky tip was well justified.

There's an awful lot of pizza in Manchester these days. In fact, there's way too much of it. So when you decide to become a pizza offering you'd better have a strong USP; something to set you aside from the crowd.

As you've no doubt heard long before clicking on the link to open this article, Nell's have taken up residency at various venues across town. A 22" 'New York' style pizza provides that draw and is the reason why we visited. 14" pizzas and individual slides are also on the menu, but why bother with such amateurish nonsense?

Whilst I can count to 22 and can semi envisage such grandure, you're just not prepared for the sheer size when your pizza lands. Due to algebra being clever stuff, at 50% more diameter than their 14" pizzas, it still equates to about 250% the actual volume of its relatively bite-sized companion. In short, it's plenty of NY pie for 3 hungry adults.

Toppings are a mix of traditional and interesting. Italian purists would be appalled at some of them, but then this is NY style and as well as being massive food snobs and semi-purists, we are also fans of food being fun. If you like it, then it's good. Simple. We opted to split our 8 sliced 22" circle of joy with half Cacio e Pepe, and half Pepperoni with Chilli Honey. The latter is becoming a bit of a 'thing' generally, and we love it. The crust as relatively thin, and what looks like a huge amount of food went down fairly simple. Not at all stodgy or heavy, with a fairly modestly sized crust. It was well baked, tasted great, and was the perfect match to a couple of beers. No blurby food adjectives are needed to impress you here. It just is what it is. A simple, fun, well-made NY style pizza.

Super simple pizza, and the Cacio e Pepe needed way more 'pepe' as it was pretty much just a heavily cheesed pizza.  They could have tied it in with its inspiration via the addition of a few strands of spaghetti on top, even if just for garnish rather than substance.  If you're going to mash up dishes and irritate some Italian traditionalists, then why not go the whole hog?

Friendly, quick and ideally suited to the venue.  Ordering was via phone app/QR code, so half of the job was done for servers.  I suspect that long after the inevitable X, Y and Z variants have come and gone, that style of ordering will still be with us in many casual venues.  Apps don’t get paid by the hour.

COVID aside, I still prefer to order with an actual person as part of my experience, on any price point, because I'm a lot older than 22 and already spend too much time on my phone.

Ahead of writing this, I asked a mate from Naples for his thoughts on Cacio e Pepe served as a pizza topping, just because I wanted some light entertainment.  His reply was surprisingly positive.  I didn’t dare mention pineapple though.

So Nells at Common is what it is.  A good laugh, sociable, and above all, something a bit different in the hugely oversaturated Mcr pizza market.

Nothing at all really.  Hits the spot for what their intention is.