The most important thing to remember about pizza in Naples? Wherever you go, it’ll be phenomenal. Baked bread topped with condiments is an age-old Mediterranean concept but it was in 18th-century Naples that pizza really emerged: first, slathered in pork fat and topped with cheese; then, once tomatoes arrived in 1760, today’s pizza. In 1889 Queen Margherita was keen to try the famous street food on a visit and a star was born. Her choice of tomato, basil and mozzarella, aping the Italian flag, was the topping that launched a million pizzerias.
If you haven’t tried true Neapolitan pizza, it may surprise you. The dough is softer, somehow wetter; the pillowy crust reaches higher, the tomato is almost soupy in the middle. Where Roman pizza is crisp, with the toppings running to the edge, Neapolitans celebrate the dough as much as what’s on it. Those toppings are usually rigorously local: hand-squashed San Marzano tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella from nearby Cilento, Naples’s favourite vegetable, escarole… I could go on but I’d get hungry.
There are dozens of world-famous Naples pizzerias. Bill Clinton picked Dal Presidente; Julia Roberts Antica Pizzeria da Michele. Pope Francis blessed the margherita Gino Sorbillo thrust at him; discerning diners flock to Da Attilio. But there are hundreds of unsung heroes too. I pass through Naples every month, tackle somewhere new each time and have never been disappointed. Having said that, here are some of my favourites.
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1. Isabella De Cham, Via Arena della Sanita 27
In Naples men have usually been the pizzaioli — stretching and spinning dough is physical work — while women have been the queens of pizza fritta: little pillows of deep-fried, deep-filled dough. Pizza fritta has a long, proud history as street food (one immortalised by Sophia Loren in L’Oro di Napoli) and this, in the boisterous Sanita district, is the place to try it. Isabella De Cham and her all-female team do excellent baked pizzas but there’s special attention paid to pizza fritta. There are traditional stuffed ones but I love the lighter “open” ones: small discs of crisp, duvet-fluffy dough, topped in the usual way. I’m not usually a fried food fan but her feather-light, non-greasy pizza fritta with octopus, escarole and stilton (really) made me a disciple. Her headliner is the Donna Isabella, with rocket, provola and caciocavallo cheeses, lemon zest and basil. Her half-size portions are a brilliant idea too.
Details Pizza from £6.50 (sanita.isabelladecham.com)
2. 50 Kalo, Piazza Sannazaro 201/b
50 Kalo is a Michelin-recommended restaurant
One of my most shameful secrets is that until 2019 I’d never visited Naples. Since then it’s become my favourite Italian city (tied with Genoa), and it all started with a buffalo mozzarella margherita at 50 Kalo. At the foot of the Mergellina hill (though he now has a second branch here, plus one in London), the third-generation pizzaiolo Ciro Salvo has created a classy, Michelin-recommended restaurant. His dough contains more water than others, making it markedly softer — hence his “master of the dough” prize from the Italian food bible Gambero Rosso.
Details Pizza from £5 (50kalo.it)
3. Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba, Via Port’Alba 18
Serving pizza at one of the gateways to the centro storico since 1738, this is the real deal. The Mastu Nicola has been baked here since its opening: topped with pork lard, ricotta mousse, pecorino and basil, then sprinkled with pepper. Your hosts are the genial Luciano family. At the helm is Gennaro who, alongside the historic recipes, creates fantastic modern combos of the finest local ingredients, from Cetara anchovies to black olives from Gaeta. This is perhaps Naples’s friendliest pizzeria. Every time I’ve been they’ve managed to squeeze me in, either inside or on the cobbles under the 17th-century city gate.
Details Pizza from £5 (anticapizzeriaportalba.com)
4. Franco Gallifuoco, Corso Arnaldo Lucci 195
Franco Gallifuoco is one of Italy’s leading pizzaioliinstagram / francogallifuoco
Dining near the station is rarely a good idea but Franco Gallifuoco, who in the past has been rated one of Italy’s best pizzaioli, is the exception to the rule. If you’re heading to the station then this, three minutes’ walk from the platforms of Napoli Centrale, is your best use of transit time. Gallifuoco is famous for his grotte (caves): pizzas with an air pocket in the dough which he fills, then adds regular toppings to. Think of it as a lighter calzone — less dough, more crunch and more toppings. (The meatballs one is particularly popular.) Among the regular pizzas, his signature is the Napulitana: a homemade puree of Campanian papaccelle peppers with sausage, provola and creamy cheese.
Details Pizza from £4 (instagram.com/francogallifuoco)
5. Gaetano Genovesi, Via Alessandro Manzoni 26
Gaetano Genovesi is worth getting off the tourist track for@pizzeriagaetanogenovesi
His father, Antonio, was a legendary pizzaiolo and one bite of the high, fluffy crust here is enough to see that Gaetano Genovesi has inherited that talent. It’s a little off the tourist track, up in residential Posillipo, but worth the pilgrimage — you’ll often find Genovesi himself working the tables to ask if everything is OK. (It always is.) The signature pizza is the Racchetta: racquet-shaped, topped with mini tomatoes, provola, parmesan and buffalo mozzarella, with its dough “handle” stuffed with provola, buffalo mozzarella and porcini mushrooms.
Details Pizza from £6.50 (pizzeriagaetanogenovesi.it)
6. Gino Sorbillo, Via dei Tribunali 32
Gino Sorbillo has 18 branches across the countryAlamy
You may have heard of Gino Sorbillo, the chef who risked a public shaming in 2024 when he added pineapple pizza to his menu. Sorbillo’s social media notoriety hasn’t harmed him — he now has 18 outlets across Italy, and remains Michelin-recommended. Of his three Naples branches the original on Via dei Tribunali is the most atmospheric but for an extra topping of sea views pick the waterfront branch beside the Castel dell’Ovo. I’m allergic to pineapple so haven’t tried his rage-bait pizza but am assured by those who have that the white pizza with smoked provola, twice-cooked pineapple and shavings of goat cheese and smoked buffalo mozzarella is bizarrely moreish.
Details Pizza from £6 (sorbillo.it)
7. Concettina ai Tre Santi, Via Arena della Sanita 7
Concettina ai Tre Santi is in the city’s exciting neighbourhood of SanitaRoberto Salomone
Sanita is Naples’s most Neapolitan district, a gloriously chaotic mix of greengrocer stalls, tooting Vespas and street art amid stately Renaissance palazzos. Ciro Oliva is part of the resurgence making Sanita also Naples’s coolest neighbourhood. The 33-year-old has transformed his parents’ hole-in-the-wall into a full-on restaurant featuring salads and desserts as well as his superb pizzas. Its peaceful back garden is beloved by politicians and tourists alike, and while such refinement means a higher bill, there’s no need to go all out — his margherita is divine.
Details Pizza from £9 (concettinaaitresanti.com)
Have we missed your favourite Naples pizzeria? Let us know in the comments below
Dining and Cooking