l'Oro di Napoli

L’Oro di Napoli (“Naples Gold”) is a family-run pizzeria in the somewhat unlikely location of South Ealing, just north of Gunnersbury, open since mid 2014. For those that live locally, it is handily located just next to the E3 bus stop, on the corner of a junction of Little Ealing Road and the B4491 by a set of traffic lights - I give these details since some of the electronic maps (I’m looking at you, Uber) seem baffled by the address as provided.

The pizza oven here is wood-fired and they offer a wide range of Naples style pizzas as well as calzone, fried pizza and a few starters and salads. There is a very small all-Italian wine list ranging in price from £15 to £30, with for example Villa Raiano Aglianico Irpinia of a mystery vintage at £30 compared to its retail price of £14. The dining room is fairly basic and the chairs are not designed for lingering.

The rocket salad was generous, with peppery rocket and decent dressing, topped with Parmesan (12/20). But the point of this place is the pizza itself, and this was a thing of beauty. The ones we tried had a soft, pliable, stretchy base and generous toppings, arriving piping hot. There were the tell-tale little bubbles in the crust, so the oven was hot enough, but it was in no way over-cooked. We tried two different pizzas (called Dante and Caruso), and both were very well made (easily 13/20). For the purists, there was margherita and marinara on offer too. These pizzas were as good as anything that I have tried in London.

Tiramisu here is made from scratch in the kitchen and was quite good; the coffee flavour could have been more intense but the sponge fingers had pleasant texture and this was an entirely competent tiramisu (just about 13/20). Coffee was from a brand called Bian Caffe in Salerno, which has been running since 1932. It was decent enough, but there are better coffees to be found in London than this.

Service was functional, the bill coming to £21 a head for pizza, salad, dessert, soft drinks and coffee. If you had wine then it would be a touch more, perhaps £28 a head. I liked Oro di Napoli a lot, the quality of the pizza belying the fairly unpromising location. It seems to me to be the exact opposite of the wildly hyped restaurant openings occurring these days in central London. This place just opened quietly and caters to its customers, with I suspect not a single penny spent on PR. I only found out about it when it was recommended to me by an Italian restaurant owner (entirely unconnected to the owners here) who was surprised by the quality of the pizza; a good tip indeed. L”Oro di Naoli even take reservations – what is the world coming to?

Further reviews: 02nd Jun 2024 | 04th Jun 2019 | 23rd Mar 2017