MAMMA MIA! One of London’s oldest pizzerias, Pizza Metro Pizza, comes to the city with authentic Italian cooking, and its speciality — the metre-long pizza

A SLICE
OF HEAVEN

MAMMA MIA! One of London’s oldest pizzerias, Pizza Metro Pizza, comes to the city with authentic Italian cooking, and its speciality — the metre-long pizza

Pizzerias are usually happy places; everyone is cheese-seduced and, after a point, immobile and usually thrilled with their meal. It is with this excitement that four of us made our way on a sunny Wednesday afternoon to a shiny new pizzeria in Khar, Pizza Metro Pizza, the first Indian outpost of a British chain. Thankfully, the restaurant’s friendly staff, its chatty owner, lively and casual décor; goodlooking Italian chefs serving up freshly made pizza from the wood-fired oven in front of our table and charming Italian music matched our enthusiasm.
(Top) A metre-long pizza in a wood-fired oven; (above) PMP’s fuss-free interiors The word ‘metro’ is Italian for ‘metre’ and that’s where the name comes from, as Pizza Metro Pizza is known for its metre-long pizza, which is about 39 inches in length. The menu is the same as the ones at its two London outlets with only one or two additions, such as the pasta dish, Tagliolini Bombay “For Two” and the Club 9 pizza, as a tribute to a pub that used to occupy the same spot for years. The pizzeria serves authentic recipes of appetisers, salads, pizza and pasta from the city of Naples, the birthplace of pizza and a region known for its spectacular home-style, simple Italian cooking that uses fresh ingredients.

We warmed up to the fuss-free living room-style interiors — wooden tables and chairs, little bits of green wood, Italian movie posters, and copper pots and pans hanging from the walls — instantly. Much like the décor, the staff is not overbearing, the menu is simple with unambiguous descriptors and plenty of choice even for vegetarians. The only bone we had to pick with the menu was the lack of chicken toppings in the non-vegetarian pizza list.
We started off with the Insalata Pomodorini Rucola E Parmigiano, a summery salad of rocket, cherry tomatoes and parmesan cheese shavings – a beautiful, well-balanced melangé of flavours. Next, we tried the Parmigiana Di Melanzane “The Most Popular” – oven-baked aubergines with tomato sauce, parmesan, mozzarella and basil. It was a delicious appetiser with lots of flavour and perfectly cooked aubergines. The metre-long pizza (that can be ordered with four different toppings) would have been a bad decision for four diners, so we opted for the halfmetre pizza with two toppings, served on a mini-wooden stand on the table.
The Quattro Formaggi, with toppings of mozzarella, gorgonzola, scamorza, grana padano and a dollop of ricotta, was heavenly. The other half, Ciro’s topped with mozzarella, aubergines, goat cheese, crispy pancetta and cherry tomatoes, confirmed that these were probably that best-cooked pizzas we had eaten in a long time thanks to their fresh crusts and immaculate flavouring. On a whim, a curious friend ordered the rather expensive Tagliolini Bombay “For Two” — where the server came to our table with a parmesan wheel and whipped up a cognac flambé, added to the tagliolini pasta with cream and sage. Both desserts, the Vanilla Panacotta with Strawberry Sauce and the traditional Italian Ricotta Cheesecake wowed us with their simple taste as well as their light and decadent flavours.