l'Oro di Napoli Hanwell

This is the second branch of this pizzeria, the original being in South Ealing. The restaurant in on the busy Uxbridge Road, just opposite the Viaduct pub. It opened at the end of March 2017. As with the original branch, the emphasis is on authentic Neapolitan pizza, the wood-fired oven hand built and visible from the small dining room. The oven operates at 485C, which is the recommended temperature for Naples style pizzas according to the Associazone Verace Pizza Napoletana, and the pizzas take around a minute to cook.

The owner Izabela Szypulska is actually Polish but her boyfriend is from Naples, and brings with him experience as a pizzaiolo there. The person in charge of making the pizzas here has twenty years experience; his father and grandfather were both pizzaiolos in Naples. The dough used here is rested for 48-72 hours and is made using red Caputo OO flour, Neapolitan yeast, sea salt and water. The buffalo mozzarella is from Lazio. 

The dining room has just a few tables without tablecloths, the oven at the back of the room. This is an impressive looking beast, made by a company called Grimaldi. Unlike some pizzerias there is nothing purist about the menu here, with plenty of choices and the ability to add custom toppings. 

Focaccia had excellent, soft texture, plenty of garlic and was very generous in size for a starter (13/20). We tried two pizzas, one custom made with artichokes, mushrooms and olives, and the other a Sarracino, with pancetta, red onions, chilli, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and basil. The cured meats used are imported from Campania and Calabria. Both pizzas had the thin, soft, pliable base that is the ideal of a Naples pizza. The toppings were good, with for example the cherry tomatoes (apparently imported from Italy) having plenty of flavour (13/20). A side salad was pleasant but nothing special.

Service was functional and friendly enough, and the bill for two people with soft drinks was just £20 a head. Certain London pizzerias are good at PR and create a lot of hype in social media. L’Oro di Napoli just gets on with the job of making top class pizza. The ones here and at the original branch are right up there with the best in London.