Inside of me there is a small boy still trying to recreate his first pizza hit. I was about 10, and had been cooped up in the back of my parents’ car for 2 or 3 years on a driving trip down to the Amalfi Coast. Quite possibly my grandmother was squeezed into the middle seat between my sister and myself. There were no DVD players, no mobile phones, nothing apart from a tatty I Spy book of planes, which was pretty useless on the Autostrada.

As was common, we were a bit lost and a bit late.

I have fragmented recollections of what happened. I think we were driving around the industrial outskirts of Turin, but it could have been Milan, or even Middlesboro’ for all it matters. We walked into a restaurant, and all I remember is the heat of the wood-fired oven, and the smell, that pizza smell that you don’t get anywhere but Italy. The creation that appeared was puffy, charred, just a bit cripsy and tasted like heaven. Whether this was the pizza or the fact I hadn’t eaten in 12 hours is hard to recollect, but ever since, I have been chasing this elusive high.

Being of a mildly obsessive nature, I have done my research over the years, looking for places that use San Marzano tomatoes, and who use vine prunings to add the smoky taste. I know that the oven should be 500 degrees C at its hottest point. And yet, I have never found one place that manages to recreate the whole experience. I came dangerously close in Rome a few years ago, but that was cheating a bit as the base was the classic Roman Pinsa which has rice and soy flour in the base as well as wheat. Casale Franco in Islington (now long gone, and famous as much for insisting that you had a starter if you ordered a pizza, even though you could have a cheaper main course without one), was probably the closest I have ever got in London.

I was quite excited about the influx of Neopolitan pizza to London, with branches of real Italian pizzerias opening right here! Except they all seem to have forgotten how to make pizza, with Da Michele and 50 Kalo only having learned how to charge London prices for London quality pizza. Zia Lucia gets an honourable mention for taste (and also managing to serve hundreds of pizza in what seemed like minutes to hungry Arsenal fans on their way to the Emirates). But I may have actually found somewhere in London where you get a crispy base with puffy edges.

I have not yet delved into why this place is not called Pizza Bow: Had I been traveling based solely on the name alone, I would have been stuck on the arse end of the Victoria Line… However, it is conveniently located (if you have a relative living nearby) next to the entrance to Roman Road Market.

It was not amazingly busy (apart from a steady stream of Deliveroo drivers), and I felt a little out of place as I had neither shorts, a baseball cap nor neatly cropped beard. However, I hid in a group of on the Gen Z /millenial borders, so I think I got away with it.

Service was pretty good. The highlight was an impromptu dance recital from a young lady we presumed to be the owner’s daughter. Absolutely delightful!

As you can see, the drinks were a good price, with pretty much everyone opting for some sort of Spritz (the Sbagliato being the most popular).

However, the pizza really was good, at least the bottom half. The base was crispy but not dry, and the crust was nicely puffy and blackened. My only real criticism is that it didn’t have “the taste”. I am seriously thinking that a meeting of the families is on order, with the East End doing the bases, and North London dealing with the toppings (If they drop the honey! People, seriously. Honey has no place near any cheese, hot or cold…)

Worth a visit? Probably: Pizza should be super simple, but we just haven’t mastered it here in the UK yet. Most pizza we get is terrible, and, God forbid I ever get into a position of power, apart from insisting all adult males wear a hat, I shall be instituting a policy of pizza oven building the likes of which this country has never seen. Screw all of this AI nonsense: We don’t need data centres, we need pizza centres.

Conclusion

Overall Rating: 4/5

• Food: 4.5/5
• Drinks: 4/5
• Ambiance: 3.5/5
• Service:3.5/5
• Dancing: 5/5
• Value: 4.5/5

Pizza Brixton: https://www.pizzabrixton.co.uk/