Franco Manca © Jonathan Perugia
London's best pizza
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By Time Out editors. Photography Rob Greig.
Posted: Mon Apr 19 2010 -
We set ourselves a challenge: find the best pizza in London. Our five judges – Simon Coppock, Guy Dimond, Nicky Evans, Euan Ferguson and Charmaine Mok – each took on an area of London, and narrowed it down to the best five in their patch. Then, pizza aficionado Richard Ehrlich picked an overall winner after visiting the best in each area. Check out the map for some of our other favourites - be sure to tell us your favourite in the comments below
Central | North | South | East | West | The Winner | MapCentral
BEST IN CENTRALFeature continues-
Malletti
Soho, 26 Noel St, W1F 8GY (7439 4096). Tottenham Court Rd tube.
Malletti’s an anomaly in this list, not because it’s primarily a takeaway,but because it’s a pizza al taglio joint. Pizza al taglio is the Roman take on the dish. Instead of being served in huge round pies, the thin pizza base is baked on metal trays and cut into paired squares, then quickly reheated to order, perfect for on-the-hoof munching. At lunchtimes there’s a constant queue of local office workers out the door, and no one seems to mind the wait for what is Soho’s best slice of pizza, at a mere £3.95. Our two squares of margherita had a thin, firm base with just the right degree of crispness, plus a mouthwatering tomato topping and aromatic dried, mixed herbs pepping up the existing basil and mozzarella. There are plenty of surprising toppings too, such as potato with herbs, spinach and artichoke hearts, or a salami with fresh chili which oozes tasty oil. You can eat in – there’s a long counter along one side, facing the queue, but there are no stools. There’s a larger branch in Clerkenwell, though it lacks the vibe of the Soho original. Pizza slices: £3.95. Read more
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Princi
Soho, 135 Wardour St, W1F 0UF (7478 8888 / www.princi.co.uk). Leicester Square or Tottenham Court Rd tube.
This stylish Italian caffè, an Alan Yau-backed branch of the original in Milan, is packed day and night with bohos enjoying good snacks before heading en route to somewhere else. The wood-fired oven and long-handled peel (pizza paddle) make quite a window display on Wardour Street. The array of baked breads and pizza-like snacks includes tiny pizzette mignon – two of them for £1.50 – each barely more than 3 inches in diameter; focaccia, with toppings or with various sandwich-like cooked fillings (the latter £4.50). There are also squares in the style of a pizza al taglio place, such as the ‘wood-fired margherita’ at £4, and other toppings at £4.20. The ham version is covered with huge pieces of sliced, high-quality cured meat, and the cheese versions even include a tangy blue cheese topping (better than it sounds). The quality of all these is excellent – just don’t come here expecting ‘proper pizza’. A true pizza should have a thin base, and not be an inch-thick wodge of focaccia-like dough. ‘Margherita’ from £4. Read more
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Santoré
Farringdon, 59-61 Exmouth Market, EC1R 4QL (7812 1488). Farringdon tube/rail.
Santoré’s not that old, but it does a good job of looking and acting like an old-school Italian. The service can be a bit gruff, but the wood-fired pizzas are the best in Clerkenwell. Our 12-inch pizza base came out of the oven nicely scorched with a few burnt blisters (which is a good thing), and was pleasingly firm but elastic. On this most recent visit, we found previous sloppiness when applying the toppings had been remedied: these were even, the tomato was tasty, and the cheese evenly mottled. Most of the pizza variations here are the classics: capricciosa, quattro formaggi, etc, but you can also order ‘pizza by the metre’ – half a metre is enough to feed two or three people, and you can pick different toppings per quarter metre, ie about every ten inches. Margherita £7.45; Quatro staggioni £9.45. Read more
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Rocket
Mayfair, 4-6 Lancashire Court, off New Bond St, W1S 1EY (7629 2889 / www.rocketrestaurants.co.uk). Bond St or Oxford Circus tube.
Rocket’s pizza menu will raise one or two eyebrows thanks to its interesting flavour combinations (smoked black pudding with prawns and pancetta; chorizo with pumpkin and mozzarella), but they do simpler options, too. A margherita could have been saucier though, and a measly two basil leaves floating on top would have made a Neapolitan weep in despair. We much preferred the daily special – an intensely flavoured pizza adorned with a surprisingly good bacon ‘dressing’ (cubes of meaty bacon soused in vinegar), torn oyster mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and a bright sprinkling of ricotta. While the base was thin enough, the cornicione remained rather flat and dry, without the appealing golden-brown hue and slightly blistered surface characteristic of a pizza fresh from a very hot oven. Service is upbeat and friendly despite the slightly corporate Mayfair vibe and the prices are quite reasonable. But don’t expect an authentic Italian job. Margherita £8; Mushroom, ricotta, cherry tomato and bacon pizza £10. Read more
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Serpentine Bar & Kitchen
Knightsbridge, Serpentine Rd, Hyde Park, W2 2UH (7706 8114 / www.serpentinebarandkitchen.com). Hyde Park Corner tube.
This Benugo-run café’s prime spot next to the shimmering Serpentine lake proves to be both a virtue and a vice. On the plus side, we couldn’t have enjoyed the setting more on a rare sunny day – but its honeypot location means the kitchen and service quickly descends into chaos once it gets busy (and it’s almost always busy). The pizzas from the brickwork wood-fired oven didn’t have the nicely blistered cornicione expected from a quick blast in extreme heat. We didn’t rate our tomato, mozzarella and oregano pizza – the thinnest slick of passata graced the top, resulting in a very dry slice unhelped by tiny puddles of mozzarella and dried herbs. At £8.50 for this simplest of pizzas, it was very poor value indeed. Better was a version with vibrant spinach, anchovy and a baked egg, which retained a soft and rich yolk that mellowed out the salty fish. A decent effort, but there’s a lot of improvement to be had to compete with other places offering pizza, but not necessarily a distractingly stunning view. Tomato, mozzarella and oregano pizza £8.50; Spinach, anchovy and baked egg pizza £9. Read more
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119 comments
The best pizza reviews I've found are at: pizzandevelopment.wordpress.com/category/pizza/. There's a lot of pretty average pizza listed in TimeOut's article, but all the pizza recommended by this blog is superb. You should check out its 'generations theory of pizza'.
I think that the pizza`s in those places that you say are fantastic are actually disgusting and none of those places make a real good pizza`s and if you think that they make good pizza it means that you do not understand nothing about it and you can never be called a pizza critic ,come on wake up
Santa Maria is the definitely the best pizza in uk. Only for the real conoisseurs, this is the real thing! Grazie di esistere, la vostra pizza mi fa sentire a casa!
Trattoria Sapori know how to make pizza, trust me, their mozz is Frior di latte and thats telling you something.. give them a try...
MADE IN ITALY GROUP RESTAURANTS ARE THE BEST .... I ESPECIALLY LOVE THE KINGS' ROAD BRACH, PERFECT FOR EVERY OCCASION AND DEFINETLY THE BEST PIZZA YOU CAN EAT IN LONDON.
Fair point Pizzalover :) I think i'm perhaps getting too bogged down in the semantics. I suppose the inclusion (or lack thereof) of the term "authentic" is important. Point in case, i lived in NY for a while, and a NY pizza is an entirely different beast to traditional neapolitan pizza, but on occasion i had cravings for a NY pizza rather than a neapolitan one.
One point on which i agree with you 100% is that taste should axiomatically be the most important of the criteria.
I'm not however, sure that i agree that my objectivity remark is as tenuous as you would purport me to believe. While tastes are by their very nature subjective, in order to evaluate objectively the prowess of a pizza, i would think that some sort of authority on the subject should be involved in the decision process, akin to an expert witness at a trial. All i was saying was that in furtherance to this, there are few people who can attest to the merits of a pizza better than someone who grew up surrounded by it :)
Tommaso - I think the reviewers were off in feeling the need to use the word authentic throughout the reviews. However, authentic does not a good pizza make. Creativity, taste, etc. should be the higher bar, so no, I don't think a British person would be best placed to judge the best fish and chips in New York, nor should a Neapolitan with all their local baggage be the best person to judge pizza in London. And your point on objectivity and Neapolitans is a stretch AT BEST!
That said, La Donna Margherita is a yummy, beautiful treat.
Gary, plz shut up. you have no clue and best for you is to do your pub food with the least quality. i ve been there and you pizza is all over the place. dough, tomato sauce, etc were the worst
fix up yourself, then start with other prople
haha, Gary no offence taken mate. i'm guessing your tongue is a little bit in your cheek there re the right-wing comments about london jobs for londoners. For the record, i didnt come to London, i'm a londer born and bread, my parents chose to come here. I had little choice as to where I was born.
As for the "understanding" of pizze being for everyone, i agree 100%, and the promulgation of pizza across the world is something that neapolitans are very proud of. However when it comes to judging whether and item is "authentic", surely logic would dictate that those responsible for having created that item should be the authority, no? For instance a native italian speaker would be in a better position to decide what was correct usage of the italian language than a frenchman who learned italian at school. Would u not agree? The same can be said about many cultural products. To put it another way, would an Englishman in New York not be in a better position to judge what is "authentic" british fish 'n chips, than an American? Or an Indian curry etc...?
PS - they also have awesome pizza in Tokyo, they send all their pizzaioli to Naples to learn from the master pizze makers.
not to be controversial, but i find it nigh on offensive to have a cohort of judges charged with rating the best pizzeria in london, none of whom is italian, let alone neapolitan. Surely the people who gifted the world with the creation of pizze deserve a voice in the matter, particularly if it is to be done with a degree of objectivity!
On behalf of myself and many fellow neapolitans in london, one of the few authentic (if not the only) verace pizza napuletan' is La Donna Margherita, lavendar hill, clapham junction. This place does honest to god neapolitan cuisine, with a veritable cornucopia of dishes, but topping the menu is pizza as good as any street vendor in naples. It's hard not to view the judges nominations as derisible when they fail to mention a place like donna margherita and instead nominate some fancy schmancy, mickey mouse pizzeria like Rocket.
Has any of you tried that small place in Crouch End called Tomo restaurant. For me the best pizza ever! Highly recommended!
Best pizza in london at Franco Manca!
Brixton or Chiswick is the same!
Very nice service!!! Now with out service charge!!!! And amazing pizza. Thatz it.
Rays is dam good as well.
try Trattoria Sapori in newington green, its the north of london, but they do some really good pizza' and they do it the old fashion way.
Try the silver dollar in Rayners lane, been there over 50 years very very unpretentious cafe, visited by Sinatra, jagger et al, has stacks of history, and very good pizzas, a proper time warp .