NYCReview
photo credit: Emily Schindler
Una Pizza Napoletana
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People walk into Una Pizza Napoletana and immediately tell the host that they’re “so excited to be here” as if those are the passwords required to get seated. And we get it. This LES restaurant is serving the best Neapolitan pies in NYC—and possibly the rest of the world, the Twittersphere, the Metaverse, and any other vaguely habitable place.
This is the sixth version of this restaurant (with locations in New Jersey and San Francisco along the way), and it’s now in a remodeled, candlelit room that prominently features a domed oven in the back. Only open Thursday to Saturday, Una Pizza has a menu that’s a lot shorter than in the past. Now, there are just two appetizers, a handful of pizzas, and a couple of desserts.
photo credit: Emily Schindler
You should always have at least one margherita on your table. When it arrives, dive in right away, starting from the middle where the mix of San Marzano tomatoes, slightly gooey buffalo mozzarella, and wet dough will remind you of a simple but perfect bite of pasta. If you’re in the mood for something without sauce, try the bianca with some anchovies on top. We love tearing little pieces of crust and dipping them in the fishy and salty pool of EVOO that forms in the middle of this pie.
Words alone won’t give you a full idea of how this poofy, wood-fired crust tastes, but we still have to try (because it’s our job). Adjectives like airy, soft, fluffy, chewy, and pillowy come to mind, but we’re going to go with “supernatural” for now. The dough is naturally leavened, never refrigerated, and made with very high hydration, and it rises for almost 48 hours before it’s ready. Owner Anthony Mangieri never stops messing around with the mixtures of flour to try and make the crust lighter. He should just sit back and take the win. It’s hard to imagine the crust getting any better.
You probably know some people who think they make certain dishes better than any restaurants can. (We hear this about steak all the time.) And maybe they’re right in certain cases. But we don’t care if you have irrational confidence and own a $5,000 oven that reaches over 1,000 degrees—you’re never going to produce anything at home like what you can get at Una Pizza Napoletana.
photo credit: Emily Schindler