South Kensington, Pizza Restaurant Guide

There’s “a lot to like and not much to dislike” at this duo of “basic neighbourhood Italians” in South Ken and Dulwich Village – even harsher critics (who say the food is “generic” or “just about passable”) find them “pleasant”; and they’re often “full of families” because the “excellent staff make kids very welcome”.

Near the Albert Hall, on a quirky site built in the Venetian Gothic style to please Queen Victoria, this “typically bustling family-run Italian” opened in 1967, and offers a “standard menu, with properly cooked pasta” and dependable pizza. “Kids are really well looked after, just like being in Italy” – as Princess Diana found, when she used to take Wills and Harry out for a treat from nearby Kensington Palace.

2021 Review: “Neapolitan influences are evident in the choice of ingredients, and the wood-burning oven makes for good, chewy, charred crusts, unlike most high-street pizzas” – so say fans of this global chain, whose HQ is indeed in Naples. Not everyone is impressed, though, and ratings are dragged down by those who feel it’s merely an “everyday” choice: “OK for a bog-standard group, but not great”.