Locanda Mamma Rita
I absolutely love the vibe of this place, I don't really know why, I think it's because it feels like one of those kitsch Italian restaurants that's been there for 30 or 40 years with the check tablecloths and the cheesy pictures on the walls, and the grumpy staff and the massive menu that's probably never changed forever. But it's also basically in a garage unit with a little forecourt out front so I think it equally appeals to my Hackney Wick/Tottenham warehouse vibe (London basically), even if it couldn't be further away from that in terms of culture.
As for the food, whilst it’s a pizzeria, it’s got a big pasta/main course list too. This is granny cooking, proper nonna plates like you get at a family dinner in Salento just served up in a restaurant format…
Vicé
Deep-fried lasagna.
The first thing you need to know about Vicé (pronounced Vichae) is they do deep-fried lasagna, 5 deep-fried lasagna bites served as a starter portion. It’s every bit as good as it sounds. This is not revolutionary stuff, lasagna is amazing, deep fried things are usually amazing, therefore… obviously… why not go for double amazing?
However, the deep-fried lasagna is just the beginning. The menu at Vicé starts with some simple delicious antipasti/frittura and ranges over several further pages of pizza options. Pizza here is classic Neapolitan style. Super light soft pillowy and chewy dough with plenty of toppings, expertly cooked by quality pizza chefs. If you picked up Vicé and dropped it in the middle of Napoli it wouldn’t look out of place, and I would expect it to quickly be given the seal of approval by the locals.
Bufala & Monzù
Just of the Villa Comunale you’ll find Bufala & Monzù, a reliable Neapolitan pizzeria with a larger menu of simple but well executed menu options. I had a simple white Margherita pizza and distinctly remember being about a third of the way through and thinking ‘damn this pizza is good’. It had freshness to the dough without it being overly gummy or chewy and a good balance of quality ingredients on top. We had some lovely fried fish as well.
Uemé
Uemé burst onto the Lecce pizza scene in mid 2022 and as you walk in you feel like wow this place is buzz as fuck. They've really gone for it. It's like an exhibition space for contemporary twenties lighting (two thousand and twenties that is). There's spacious wooden tables, greenery, a fancy bar, different levels of seating, smooth wooden banquets with USB ports, Gen Z music, the entire playbook of the modern venue has been delivered here and its just impossible to ignore.
The reason it's impossible to ignore is that sat inside Uemé, sipping a cocktail and basking in the perfect level of illumination, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in the meatpacking district, or Chelsea, or the lower east side of New York. But you're not. We’re in Lecce. This is a Lecce pizzeria. And Lecce pizzerias are not like this. Or at least they weren't.
La Perla
La Perla is like a microcosm of everything that is fantastic and problematic about Italy all in one place. If you want to have a real traditional Leccese pizza experience I whole heartedly recommend dropping by. It’s amazing, and in its own way, very unique.
The pizza is properly old school rolling-pin disc pizza, with loads of tomato, the right amount of mozzarella, and oregano rather than basil on the Margherita.
Ciro
Ciro is a no-frills pizza joint: old school, generous, everything served on disposable (still! …woke sigh), and cheap. The pizza is by no means world beating but it's very good, especially for the price you pay. The guys are really friendly and it's got a lovely set of light wood high tables, that sit on the corner of the piazza and are the main eating area. A not-so-little pizza here and a not-so-little bottle of peroni red is a great way to pass an hour or two.
La Gigante
When I walked in La Gigante for the first time I was like ‘wow this is a proper pizzeria’. It feels very newly refurbished, it’s been tiled to mid height in a deep red and then left largely neutral except for some lovely lights and a set of tables and chairs. Absolutely no bullshit whatsoever. It’s so nice to be inside there, top marks to whoever was in charge of the refit.
And it’s backed up by some very serious pizza. This is top end pizza but it’s NOT napoletana, which for me is both brave and very refreshing (…as the whole pizza zeitgiest has been moving towards napoletana for some time now). So if it’s not napoletana what is it? I guess it’s actually what most people, especially from the older generations know as ‘thin and crispy’ Italian pizza, which is much more traditional in most parts of Italy. When you order a pizza here the base is really ‘croccante’ (crispy), they’re definitely using farina semola either on the pizza making table or in the dough (or both) which is more classic for the deep south of Italy. If you hold a slice up it won’t flop over but will stay firm. They have a spectacular array of pizzas from humble options to more fancy-pants top-end choices packed with the very best local ingredients from Salento and Puglia.
400 Gradi
A lot has already been said/written about 400 Gradi online… and with its status as Lecce’s only super-buzz, world-class, neapolitan-pizza-scene pizzeria I won’t lie; it’d be very entertaining to have a go at bursting the bubble. Somehow it feels like the Juve or the Man United or the Real Madrid of Lecce, and lets face it everyone hates those kind of super clubs.
But the thing about 400 Gradi is that unlike Juve/Man United/Real Madrid - it’s actually consistently good. In fact, it’s consistenly excellent.
Rosetta
Pizzeria Rosetta is about as an authentic a pizzeria as you can get in Italy. The pizza is cheap, and the quality (for the price you pay) is superb. It’s no wonder that it’s usually absolutely rammed with locals.
There’s no table service here, you have to go inside and order at the cassa (till). The woman that serves you is simultaneously super lovely/smiley and absolutely terrifying, all at the same time. She runs the phone lines and the queue by herself, and knows exactly when everybody has ordered and when. She’s incredible. She processes more orders than I’ve ever seen anyone ever process in my life, by hand (and I worked in restaurants for a long time). If only they could fire all the useless men in Rome and put her in charge of the country, they could probably half the Italian public debt whilst making everything run on time.
La Succursale
La Succursale (literally ‘the branch’) is the Lecce outpost of Barrueco in Santa Caterina. This younger sibling is not quite as picture perfect a location as the original for a pizza, but still without a doubt one on of my favourite places (possibly my favourite place) to go in Lecce.
The pizza here isn’t the cheapest in town but it’s well made with good quality ingredients. I’m struggling to write why the pizza is so good because it’s quite hard to explain succinctly without decending into pizza dough obsession.
Pizzeria La Città Di Pulcinella
You can find La Citta Di Pulcinella at the top end of Via di Leuca, almost as far as Castromediano but still only a 15/20 minute walk from Porta San Biagio.
It's a rock solid Neapolitan pizzeria complete with fake interior Napoli balconies (with clothes hanging from them), check table clothes, and Moretti on tap.