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The concrete island of Old Street roundabout doesn’t have many noteworthy dining destinations which makes even a decent pizzeria worthy of special note. Only a few metres from tube exit five (City Road south, west side), it’s no surprise Meter is drawing in the pre-clubbing crowd with its Neapolitan pizza. The vast interior is the expected Shoreditch industrial chic: bare lightbulbs dangling above the bar, brown leather sofas and vintage wooden furniture. Owned by a DJ, the premises also double as a bar, with Italian aperitivi and cocktails.
The menu reflects chef Valentino Fontana’s Neapolitan roots. A starter of pizzelle pomodore – deep-fried discs of pizza dough – is typical to Naples. The crisp pizza doughnuts came topped with an untypically spicy tomato sauce, and were dusted with parmesan. Equally delicious were the crocchette: crispy breadcrumbs gave way to a soft potato mash filling, dotted with ham and a molten, smoky scamorza cheese centre. A classic main of melanzane parmigiana – melting aubergines in a relatively bland tomato sauce – was good, but no showstopper.
The real draw are the pizzas. Meter’s use of proper Neapolitan ingredients is exemplary, as a pizza topping of friarielli e salciccia demonstrated. The ‘wild broccoli’, known as friarielli or rapini, was topped with smoky mozarella and salciccia sausage that tasted of fennel. The pizza was a winner: slow-risen sourdough, crusty on the outside but chewy at the same time – these are the textures that a proper Neapolitan pizza should have.