Rossopomodoro’s Notting Hill branch has relaunched with a bigger capacity and a new lease of life.

The Venue
Kensington Park Road in Notting Hill is an area of London that is dripping with cash; some of the houses are jaw-droppingly beautiful, flash cars vroom past at regular intervals, and it’s suitably upmarket enough for the Ukrainian Embassy to have their HQ amongst the designer shops and local brassieres.

Popular Italian pizza specialists Rossopomodoro can also be found on this stretch. With two other sites in Covent Garden and Chelsea, this one feels like a pizzeria that’s dedicated to serving the local neighbourhood. The thing you immediately see on entry are the affable pizza chefs, who work their magic with the pizza dough and the custom built wood fired oven. This is shaped like a large turtle shell and is decorated in Gaudi-style ceramics. The main restaurant area is a mezzanine, with the first floor accessed by a small spiral staircase. The first floor has seating for about thirty people, and it is set out mainly for tables of two or four people. Grabbing a seat up here means you can observe the frenetic action going on below as the pizza chefs go to work.

There’s another dining space on the ground level through a small archway and this has given the restaurant more covers (up to 150 in total). The decor is a mix of reds, naturally, (the venue name literally means red tomato), brightly coloured paintings of Italian settings, wooden textured walls and clear glass panels. There’s also a large red tomato shaped motif cut out of Perspex and hung from the ceiling.

The Atmosphere
Local residents are the regulars here, and with Portobello Market just around the corner hungry shoppers will be dropping in for lunch, coffee and a nourishing pizza or pasta dish. With its proud Italian connections, you will more than likely hear the sound of Italian conversation drifting through the air.

Staff are welcoming and do their upmost to make your visit a memorable one. From the management to the waiting staff to the chefs, the staff are all Italian, and a mere exchange of small pleasantries, like using grazie, will endear you to them.

The Food
Naples has a reputation as the birthplace of pizza and, as the venue takes its inspiration from the city, of course, this is one of their specialities. La Verache (£10.20) is a simple but classic pizza consisting of a tomato base, basil, mozzarella and a sprinkling of olive oil (from Sorrento). All of the ingredients are of very good quality. The chefs take seconds to get the dough in shape, spread the rich tomato sauce, arrange the basil, cheese and drizzle with oil, before shunting into the oven. Couple of minutes later, it’s done. The whole process is slick, professional and means you shouldn’t wait long for your pizza to arrive. When it does, it's best folded (to avoid dripping it on yourself), and eaten with your hands. This is genuinely unfussy feel-good food. There’s over 20 pizzas in total, coming in all different styles and containing a myriad of different toppings, they start from as little as £5.60 and go upto £11. If you fancy a change from the norm, the Principessa (£9) comes pannini style so the toppings, Provolo cheese, Neapolitan sausage and friarelli (flat broccoli), are inside.

Elsewhere, there are several options in each of the following: starters, salads, pasta, meat and fish dishes, daily specials, and desserts.

The Drink
Good Italian wine can hold its own against any nation in the world. The list here selects some respectable varieties. If you are of the school of thought that a house wine speaks volumes about the rest of the list, then you will be reassured by the sight of the Sangiovese as the house red (£14.80 a bottle). Vibrant, bold, and easy to drink, this is a great match for pizza or pasta. Other white and red wine, by the bottle, ranges from £18-£37. Beer is completely the preserve of Peroni, and there are traditional Italian after dinner options like Limoncello (£3.50) and Espresso (£2).

The Last Word
For good quality Neapolitan pizza and pasta, Rossopomodoro delivers.

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