Da Moreno Pizzeria

Da Moreno is a Neapolitan style pizzeria in west Ealing that opened in May 2017.  It is in a parade of shops and has quite simple décor, with a handful of tables and bright lighting. At its heart is a wood burning oven, apparently made by an Italian artisan, that gets up to between 470C and 500C, cooking a pizza in barely a minute or so. The bread and pizzas here are prepared with Italian flour and use mostly ingredients imported directly from Italy. Their sourdough is left to rise for at least 48 hours for pizzas and focaccia and 72 hours for bread, then cooked in the wood burning oven. The menu offers a range of pizzas, garlic bread and nothing else. No salads, desserts or pasta here: the focus is on the pizza. There was no wine list as such, but there was a choice of two beers (Moretti and Peroni) or soft drinks.

Garlic bread had plenty of garlic and bread with pleasant texture, though it was a touch drier than ideal (12/20). The Diavola pizza had the usual toppings of tomato sauce, mozzarella, ndujia red onion, black olives, parmesan and a garnish of basil leaf. The base was quite good, with a soft, pliable texture, with spots blackened by the heat of the oven. The red onions were nicely sweetened by the heat (13/20). Capricciosa pizza is a variety that has varied toppings as the name means literally “clear the fridge”. The version here had tomato sauce, mozzarella, cooked ham, black olives, mushroom and artichokes, all dressed with a Parmesan, basil leaf and extra virgin olive oil. This was again pleasant, though the toppings were perhaps not of the very highest quality (13/20).

Service was pleasant enough, though the solitary waitress tended to disappear out the back for extended intervals, making ordering extra drinks a somewhat haphazard process. A lot of people come here for takeaways, many of them regulars greeted by name by the chef and waitress. The bill came to £23 per person with beer to drink. Overall, this pizzeria for me is not quite in the league of nearby L’Oro di Napoli or Santa Maria, but was certainly very pleasant.