Santa Maria

January trudges on, cold, wet, dark – I’m not even sure that the sun rose on this particular office day.

But…pizza!

This week was a trip to Santa Maria for lunch, the Italian pizza place with the Spanish-sounding name. The only other pizza that I’ve had around here is from Bella Italia, so it didn’t have too much to beat.

Apparently Santa Maria’s pizza is award-winning, but also pretty sure every pizza place I’ve been to in London has won an award, probably even Domino’s in Hounslow has an award from someone.

I forgot to take a photo of the menu, but you can check it online. Though also I was sat opposite my boss and I don’t think he knows that I have a blog about how damn unproductive the office is and how stultifyingly energy-sapping the commute is. Photos of food is normal enough.

I went for the Santa Catarina pizza (all these Santa’s probably would have been appropriate the month before) – Tomato Sauce, Mozzarella Fiordilatte, Salame Napoli, Fresh Chilli &
Parmesan. Capital letters because I copied and pasted – and couldn’t be arsed trying to spell Fiordilatte.

Perhaps a bit too much un-covered crust, I’d have liked the sauce and cheese to cover more than zone’s 1 and 2 of the pizza, the chillies added some bite, the tomato sauce seemed fresh – the Salame Napoli (yeah copy pasted again) didn’t quite have the smoky or spicy nature of my preferred pepperoni on a pizza, but it was pleasing.

The base was thin, the dough quite pillowy – I liked the pizza and I suspect I’ll be back at some point. But you can get much better pizza in London. Maybe Santa Maria has the best pizza in Paddington? I don’t yet know of better.

And gosh did I get soaked on the way home.

Rating of 7.30 out of 10.

Also worth noting it was quite affordable – circa £17.00 for a pizza, soft drink and service.