PALOMA KUBIAK eats at Santa Maria Pizzeria, 15 St Mary's Road, Ealing Tel: 020 8579 1462
PIZZA is not my first choice when it comes to dining out, as I often find them dry, stodgy and overpriced. Rather shallowly, I felt that once you've tried one, you've tried them all.
But, after tasting Santa Maria pizza, you can tell the difference between the freshly prepared ingredients used here and the pizzas available from the well-known chains.
The owners of this cosy restaurant, conveniently located next door to a pub in South Ealing Road (I'll come to that later) pride themselves on offering authentic Neapolitan pizza blasted for only a couple of minutes in their scorchingly hot wood fired oven.
Joined by two friends, we browsed the non-fussy menu and ordered a bruschetta and a special (my friend had seen other diners order this) of aubergine parmigiana - layers of sliced aubergine with mozzarella, Parmesan, peppers with a hint of garlic in a tomato sauce.
The starters came in at just over £7 and were flavoursome and a welcome start to our Italian evening.
Moments after our empty plates had been whipped off the table, our generous pizza mains were placed before us.
I had ordered the San Daniele, with mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, Parma ham, wild rocket, shavings of parmesan and fresh basil, costing £7.75.
What was surprising was the moistness of the pizza base. It was light with a chewy texture, and bursting with freshness.
The salty Parma ham and cheese were balanced by the sweet cherry tomatoes, while the rocket added an extra tang to the palette.
As an avid meat-eater in this seemingly very vegetarian-friendly pizzeria, I was glad to see the ham was generously speckled over my dish.
My friend ordered the Calzone San Salvatore, a folded pizza at £7.95 with mozzarella, ricotta cheese, salami, parmesan and basil and topped it off with extra mushrooms (£1.50).
He said he could taste the effect of the wood fire with every mouthful and lapped up the fresh ingredients with a cool sip of Peroni beer.
My other companion wanted to spice up his pizza, and ordered the Santa Caterina (£6.95) with salami, and extra chilli.
Again, he confirmed the dough was chewy, with a crisp outer base and thick-cut meat.
Our bill came to £38, which included two starters, three pizzas and three beers - very reasonable and wine drinkers can also get a bargain Pinot for only £1.75 for a 125ml glass.
Then back to the conveniently located pub - right next door.
As the pizzeria has been voted number one in London, queues do form, reservations can't be made and you'll need a sit-down and a drink before being found a table.
As we were one of the last tables to order, the other diners had left before I had got through a few mouthfuls. I felt like a fish in a tank, being observed by the staff who could finally take a breather before closing down the kitchen. Feeling too self-conscious to finish would be my only quibble.
