Oxted, Pizza Restaurant Guide

This Streatham fixture punches way above its weight, having drawn pizza-hounds from across London for more than a decade. The Head pizza chef is Ferdinando Cirillo.

“A fabulous neighbourhood restaurant”… even more so given that the neighbourhood in question is Lee. “Kitchen competence far outweighs the modest location”, delivering high quality home-made pasta and wood-fired pizza. The Luciano in question is owner Enzo Masiello’s father.

There’s “a lot to like and not much to dislike” at this duo of “basic neighbourhood Italians” in South Ken and Dulwich Village – even harsher critics (who say the food is “generic” or “just about passable”) find them “pleasant”; and they’re often “full of families” because the “excellent staff make kids very welcome”.

“Reliably excellent pizza” – “better than the other high street chains” – is what you’ll find at this growing Clapton-based operation, now with 12 sites from Balham and Crystal Palace in the south to Tufnell Park (which, as of summer 2024, is the latest to open). They’re perhaps “not smart as places to eat”, but that hardly matters – and the “toppings are interesting without being off-puttingly un-pizza-ish”.

This seven-year-old independent a couple of doors along from Chez Bruce on the edge of Wandsworth Common is reckoned by fans to offer among the “best pizza in town”. “I only discovered it recently but it has become a favourite”.

This “good, reliable Italian local” in Wimbledon Village majors in home-made pasta and thin-crust pizza, while “other items like calves’ liver are lovely”. “The midweek offers are not as good as they used to be”, however, while “the menu rarely changes”.

Peckish for pizza down Peckham way? Andrea Asciuti’s popular pitstop is a pint-sized, 20-cover premises (a lot of the business is for delivery) and punches well above its weight, with a superb selection of funky Neapolitan pizzas (from 72-hour fermented dough), panuozzo (Neapolitan street-food sarnies), tapas (e.g. arancina, deep fried aubergine balls, lobster croquettes) and puds (including Nutella pizza, natch).

“Top-notch pizzas” that are chewy, light and charred at the requisite 500 degrees have won a loyal following for this Neapolitan pie joint, which started life as a food truck at Redhill Market in 2017 and gained this standalone restaurant two years later. While brothers Luca & Paolo Malavasi, who run it, recently ended their collaboration with Pilgrim Brewery at the Hatch (the latter is transitioning to its own food offering), their mini-empire still includes a much bigger, 85-cover sibling in Horsham – and, in November 2024, they were due to open a third branch in Farnham, Surrey, one building over from Reel Cinema.

“Reliably excellent pizza” – “better than the other high street chains” – is what you’ll find at this growing Clapton-based operation, now with 12 sites from Balham and Crystal Palace in the south to Tufnell Park (which, as of summer 2024, is the latest to open). They’re perhaps “not smart as places to eat”, but that hardly matters – and the “toppings are interesting without being off-puttingly un-pizza-ish”.

“Reliably excellent pizza” – “better than the other high street chains” – is what you’ll find at this growing Clapton-based operation, now with 12 sites from Balham and Crystal Palace in the south to Tufnell Park (which, as of summer 2024, is the latest to open). They’re perhaps “not smart as places to eat”, but that hardly matters – and the “toppings are interesting without being off-puttingly un-pizza-ish”.

“Reliably excellent pizza” – “better than the other high street chains” – is what you’ll find at this growing Clapton-based operation, now with 12 sites from Balham and Crystal Palace in the south to Tufnell Park (which, as of summer 2024, is the latest to open). They’re perhaps “not smart as places to eat”, but that hardly matters – and the “toppings are interesting without being off-puttingly un-pizza-ish”.

“Lush pizza” that’s reliably “top-quality” has driven the expansion of this Islington-based group that has developed four different 48-hour ferment bases – including gluten-free and ‘black vegetable charcoal’ versions to reduce stomach gas; so “everyone’s happy”. The eight-year-old group now has nine sites in the capital (including a new one labelled as ‘Chelsea’ but on Fulham Broadway) and one in Reading.

“Top pizza and panuozzo with nice drinks” (from wines or slushy cocktails to pints for a fiver) put the crowd in a fun and easygoing frame of mind at this “relaxed and funky” little bar in Nunhead. (Their pizza is also a feature in The Perseverance pub in Bloomsbury).