Pizzería Santa Maria

Neapolitan pizza that respects the Southern tradition.

Santa Maria pizzeria doesn’t take reservations, and it’s so small that waiting for a table would be a true torture if it wasn’t for the pub next door where you can happily wait for them to call you.

Here you’ll find customers of all ages. The background music is always Italian, and it’s not hard to catch a waiter or chef humming along to the songs. The walls are covered in paintings and religious figures (from crosses to virgins) that pay tribute to their name.

They follow traditional Neapolitan guidelines to make their pizzas. There’s no sourdough in this pizza place – as Gianlucca declares, “in Naples we use sourdough to make bread, not pizza”. The pizza makers, Fabio and Bernardo, both from Southern Italy, use Caputo flour to make the fermented dough that rests for 24 hours before being converted into pizza.

The wood oven stays at a constant 480 degrees, and the pizzas are only inside for a maximum of 60 seconds. Before they go into the oven, Bernardo adds a splash of Tarascio oil. The mozzarella is also Neapolitan, from Donzelletta.

The pizzas are delicious because, among other reasons, the ingredients used are of the highest quality. The menu opens with appetizers, which are few but delicious. There’s garlic focaccia (with or without mozzarella), tomato, oregano and basil bruschetta, and eggplant parmegianna.

The house pizza – the Santa Maria – comes with tomato sauce, extra virgin olive oil, fresh basil, garlic and oregano. There are many pizzas that are vegetarian, and the carnivores also have options like ham, Neapolitan salami, sausage and Parma ham, which are all featured a lot in the menu.

If you can only have one dessert, go for the tiramisu. Incredibly, all the desserts are brought directly from Naples, just like many of the ingredients. It’s not the most sustainable, but the palate is grateful.

At Santa Maria they don’t just serve some of the best pizza in London, but also a complete Neapolitan experience. From the music to the people, everything is ready to transport you to the South of Italy. If you don’t want to wait you can get the pizza to go.