La Pizzeria Italiana
Italian
3 Eros House, Brownhill Rd, SE6 2EF
£
Hidden gem La Pizzeria has been attracting crowds in Catford since 1986. Located in a dark corner underneath a block of flats, it is easily missed and therefore likely only to be frequented by those who have either read about it, or had it recommended by a nifty local.
Upon entering La Pizzeria, you are greeted with an overwhelmingly comforting smell of garlic butter - how every good Italian should be. The smell you soon find out is from the complimentary dough balls - perfectly crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside and dripping in the good stuff. The restaurant manages to seat 48 diners - impressive, given that it's not the biggest space. Despite this, the restaurant didn't for one moment seem cramped, although it did get rather hot, given it was 27 degrees outside.
The menu has anything from pizza and pasta to steak and fresh fish. The appetiser list is rather on the short side, with nothing which stood out to me, that is with the exception of the prawn and calamari bruschetta (£5.95). This was served with tomato, capers, an essence of rocket and a generous helping of that sacred garlic and parsley butter. Whilst Tom was unconvinced with his, I thought the bruschetta had the perfect combination of flavours, which all complimented each other so well. Whatsmore, the crunchy bread worked fantastically with the somewhat rubbery texture of the shellfish.
For mains I unashamedly ordered a pizza - however I branched out to a Caprina (tomato, basil, mozarella, goats cheese, olives, red onion and basil) to mix it up from my usual La Reine. Tom went for the Calabrese (£9.90) - a mistake he so often makes. My Caprina (£9.95) was nice, the flavours were balanced and it tasted very fresh. The calabrese on the other hand wasn't as good - the sausage could have been much more flavourful, and appeared to just be whacked on top, making the pizza feel a bit stodgy overall. Both the pizzas were far from the best I've had, but that's probably my bad for ordering the basics in a family-run, traditional Italian.
The service was decidedly Italian: when we asked for two more minutes to choose the wine, the waiter flounced off sassily, and when we asked for a few slices of pizza to be boxed up - merely because we wanted to save room for desert, he looked at us as if we had just insulted his mother. However, this is expected - even wanted in a place like this. You can't go to a real salt of the earth Italian and expect American customer service.
Despite the main courses not being the best, the rest of the experience was great. We shared a carafe of white wine for something like £12, and shared a chocolatey desert for under a fiver. All in all, the bill came to a fantastic £25.00 each, for three courses and wine - can't really get much better than that in London. La Pizzeria is unpretentious, reasonably priced, honest and smells delicious: go there for your next Italian, but maybe branch out from the Pizza.
OVERALL RATING: ****
http://www.lapizzaitalia.com/
