In Naples, pizza isn't a meal — it's the local currency. The writer behind this roundup has spent 25 years eating her way around the city, and her shortlist mixes century-old institutions with the new wave of pizzaioli experimenting with longer-fermented dough and standout regional ingredients.
A quick primer before you queue: look for the VPN sign (Verace Pizza Napoletana), which guarantees the pizza follows strict traditional rules. And know your history — the margherita was invented here in 1889 by Raffaele Esposito at Pizzeria Brandi, still trading today, its tomato, mozzarella and basil a nod to the Italian flag. Any pizzeria worth its salt is judged on that one pizza.
The classic option is Da Michele on Via Cesare Sersale, spartan, production-line efficient and now globally franchised, but still turning out margheritas at €6.50 plus a €1 cover charge. Starita, open since 1901 in Materdei and now with a branch as far afield as Bangkok, seats 100 around its famous red wood-fired oven — start with the Montanara, a fried-then-baked mini pizza invented there in the 1980s, and finish with Nutella-topped fried dough sticks. Da Attilio alla Pignasecca, family-run since 1938 beside the Pignasecca market, is where pizzaioli themselves eat; try one of the star-shaped pizzas with a ricotta-stuffed crust, or the Attilio, whose nine slices each carry a different topping.
For the modern movement, head to 50 Kalò in Mergellina, where Ciro Salvo's high-hydration dough is famously light and digestible — the original doesn't take bookings, but the Piazza della Repubblica branch does. Enzo Coccia, the first pizzaiolo to earn Michelin recognition, runs three spots on one Vomero street; La Notizia 53 is the homely original, while number 94 goes gourmet with pizzas like 4 Bufale, featuring four buffalo cheeses. In the atmospheric Rione Sanità, Ciro Oliva's Concettina ai Tre Santi — founded by his great-grandmother in 1951 — draws serious queues for puffy-crusted pizzas best enjoyed on the back terrace with local sparkling wine and fried antipasti. The same neighbourhood is home to Isabella de Cham, an all-female operation specialising in pizza fritta, the deep-fried street classic, plus a Millefritta dessert layered with whipped ricotta, hazelnuts and Vesuvius apricot jam.
Why it matters: central Naples is packed with good pizzerias, so you're unlikely to eat badly anywhere. But picking well — historic ovens, third- and fourth-generation families, Campanian wine lists — turns a cheap dinner into the best-value food experience in Italy. Most of these pizzas cost well under €10.
