Portobello Ristorante Pizzeria

I called the Portobello Ristorante Pizzeria early on Sunday to ensure I got table, all booked up all day... But being bloody minded and only marginally irritated I went down there anyway and was offered the best table for two on the amazing covered deck out front. Surrounded by Nottinghill billies, extremely well maintained Italians and a smattering of well behaved children with the sun beating down one could easily be excused for forgetting that this was early October in west London.

This Place feels more like a relatively up-market Italian restaurant given the location and the clientele, the kitchen also pumps out amazing smelling Spaghetti Vongole , sead food linguine and popular classics while still maintinaing that Pizza is their central theme.

They serve "Pizzametro, literally meaning ‘pizza-metre’, [that] was born in Vico Equense, a small town on the Sorrentinian Coast, 40 years ago, as a way for the whole family to share a pizza. Since then it became a symbol of conviviality, a way of bringing people together. It has to be shared. Cooked in a wood burning oven and served on a wooden chopping board, the pizza is covered with strips of different ingredients to meet everyone’s taste. [They] can make pizzas from ½ a metre to 1 whole metre pizzas.'

Excellent to the last, a thin and crisp base with a puffy chewy crust cooked in a stately forno oven at blistering temperatures given the char on the top. Great balls of mozzarella with a brownish tinge to their outsides had been imported from Italy to be used sparing on our rectangular slices. The mininal toppings let the bases do the dancing, the Romana (Mozzarella tomato sauce, anchovies, oregano, chilli, black olives, garlic, and capers at £9.50) and the Margherita at £7.95 did absolute justice to their Neapolitan heritage.

Not only does the Portobello Ristorante Pizzeria serve some of the most delicious Pizza I have had in London you can sit in gorgeous surroundings (helped by fine weather) with slick service sipping cold Falanghina in a reataurant that feels slighly out of ones comfort zone price-wise all for £15. I would go back tomorrow if I had the day off and it was sunny....

Portobello Ristorante Pizzeria


7 Ladbroke Road
, London, 
W11 3PA

0207 2211373