The article reviews "Napoli on the Road," a highly acclaimed pizza restaurant in London that has been named Europe's best pizzeria for three consecutive years up to 2026 and recently became the world’s best pizzeria. Owner Michele Pascarella, who started making pizza at age 11 in Naples, runs an unconventional dining experience in a futuristic Soho space. The review highlights the restaurant's dedication to authentic Neapolitan pizza-making techniques, emphasizing craftsmanship over fast food stereotypes.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-17,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
This pizza grand tour is a once-in-a-lifetime journey
Course number three and I’m roundly befuddled: why hasn’t this menu “popped off” on Instagram?
asserted
menu → ’m → Instagram
Well, they’re not really doing press bookings for one thing.
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they → do → thing
And this is a pizza tasting menu, so I can’t imagine many influencers are enticed by the prospect of liberal dough, however light and leopard-spotted it might be; of olive oil and luscious cheese and then, after an indelicate Campanian journey, the boundless sugar of Italian confectionery.
uncertain
it → imagine → confectionery
Yet this is something everybody should do at least once.
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everybody → do → ?
Especially those who think pizza is “just pizza”.
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pizza → think → ?
Before unconventional cooking in a two-storey, futuristic pizzeria in Soho with its curved windows, Berghain-esque concrete and neon, Michele Pascarella was squeezing tomatoes and stretching mozzarella in his native Napoli, where he started making pizza aged 11.
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he → squeeze → 11
Years later, he opened his first Napoli on the Road in Chiswick.
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he → open → Chiswick
It was named Europe’s best pizzeria by Italy’s prestigious 50 Top Pizza awards for three consecutive years up to 2026 - and has now claimed the title of the world’s best pizzeria.
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It → name → pizzeria
He’s 34 now and “still learning”.
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He → ’ → ?
Neapolitan pizzaiolos treat pizza as the Japanese do sushi: a highly skilled craft where ingredients are all and technique long-honed.
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ingredients → treat → sushi
The undoing of decades of Domino’s in Britain will take time.
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undoing → take → time
“Too many people still think of pizza as junk food in Britain,” Pascarella says.
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Pascarella → think → Britain
But it’s happening.
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it → happen → ?
London is a fully-fledged pizza city today.
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London → fledge → ?
You can have a soupy Neapolitan pie on Tuesday and a New York-style slice on Wednesday.
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You → have → Wednesday
Craig David aside and I’m sitting in front of a busy kitchen watching a Dolmio advert unfurl in real time.
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advert → sit → time
Inexplicably svelte Italian men are drizzling olive oil on margheritas, ladling tomato sauce onto springy dough and plucking basil leaves from fragrant bushes.
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men → drizzle → bushes
The warmth of two arched pizza ovens billows through the crowded dining room.
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warmth → billow → room
Tanned solo diners are practising a libretto, the method by which you fold a slice in half and then turn the nose in on itself; families are sharing plates of parmigiana di melanzane, luxurious and stunning in red.
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families → practise → red
Our first course is san marzano tomatoes four ways: raw and then cooked for two, six, and 10 hours.
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course → cook → hours
It enlivens the palate.
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It → enliven → palate
Then come three street food snacks born out of a deep-rooted respect for leftovers.
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snacks → come → leftovers
A cube of polenta is topped with stracciatella and caper dust; there’s a classic crocché, or potato croquette; and a sphere of frittatina, or fried macaroni, imbued with courgettes and spritzed with Amalfi lemon.
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cube → top → lemon
It’s deceptively light; we’re immediately rapturous.
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we → ’ → ?
Pascarella and team don’t just dish out slice after slice.
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Pascarella → dish → slice
Methods are tweaked at each course.
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Methods → tweak → course
A traditional Neapolitan dough calls for 00 flour and only a two-minute whoosh in the oven at 400C, but the next slice is a world away, with a crispy base of barley and rye that requires far more water and is harder still to sculpt and deliver.
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that → call → water
This pizza is steamed, then baked, then fried before arriving topped with a hockey puck of mozzarella di bufala and dotted with wild garlic pesto and tomato jam (and dried oregano).
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pizza → steam → pesto
It’s messy, gladiatorial food.
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It → ’ → ?
One brings a green, zingy soup of barattiere, a Puglian melon harvested unripe so it’s extra refreshing and mouth-puckering.
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it → bring → barattiere
Later comes a cleanser in the form of sgroppino: Venetian lemon sorbet with prosecco and vodka.
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cleanser → come → prosecco
And we’re taken elsewhere in Italy, to Torino, for a folded focaccia-like pizza sandwich filled with slices of veal — breast, not loin, so more tender — and a heady tuna sauce amped up with anchovies.
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we → take → anchovies
It’s umami-maxxing stuff, bagna cauda on a memory foam mattress.
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It → ’ → mattress
Whatevs, find me someone capable of declining the savoury finale — a riff on Pascarella’s signature ragu, deep with cuts of beef and pork and painted with a spiral of parmesan fondue — and I’ll find you a chill Italian.
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I → find → Italian
More so given Pascarella’s dessert trio includes a mini-Magnum.
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trio → give → Magnum
I cannot chef’s kiss enough.
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I → kiss → ?
Read More
What you say
Wiktoria Tupta
“Without a doubt, the best pizza place I’ve ever been to.
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I → read → doubt
The dough was absolutely incredible: perfectly crispy on the outside while staying soft and airy inside.”
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dough → stay → outside
“Probably one of the best Neapolitan-style pizzas we have had.
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we → have → pizzas
“I used to think there would be no better place for pizza in London than L’antica da Michele, but this place surpassed expectations!
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place → use → expectations
…and 1 more, not listed.
The Aporia
