Latteria restaurant review: Pizza worth travelling for

Emma Henderson finds her new Friday night favourite meal in Islington

With exposed brick, white tiles and red booth style seating, the interior is a mixture of American diner and Italian cafe

After a near-apocalyptic incident with my favourite local curry house a few months ago, I’ve had to swap my much-loved Friday curry nights for another treat dinner.

Now at the end of the working week I wake up and look forward to eating either a boujee burger or pizza. Is that sad? I don’t think so. The latter had mostly been a Saturday night treat – shop-bought usually. Yes, weekends – apart from an essential bacon breakfast and Sunday-afternoon batch cook – are mostly void of cooking, and rarely have anything “healthy” in sight. But weekends are all about eating and drinking. Aren’t they?

Now we vary our pizza outings between a few local Italians: some more authentic than others, but all of them mostly look a bit crap on the outside. I find it endearing. And I think it's a pretty good sign that they care more about the food than what is on the outside.

The absolute giveaway of how good it is though, is that everyone who works there is Italian and everyone who comes in, is also… Italian.

There also Franco Manca (that blue cheese dip is pretty much crack to me) and another sourdough pizza place that’s a keen cyclist hang out – I think you get a discount if you wear lycra, or something odd like that.

They’re all pretty close to us, as who really travels too far (or needs to) for a decent Italian pizza and beer (or a cracking glass of Montepulciano – that’s harder to come by) in London?

Now I am willing to travel pretty far from both my office and home to Islington (yes ok, it’s not that far, but after a few years living in London, the mere thought of travelling makes you tired – and hungry). And that’s to Latteria. It’s been open since March, but only started opening for dinner from June. And thank goodness it is, as I can’t make it there for lunch.

Devon crab spaghetti with thin strips of courgette is one of the signature dishes

Behind it is the same team who set up Il Baretto in Marylebone – a more refined, but still authentic Italian restaurant. Here, it’s more like an American diner that’s been collided with an Italian cafe, with exposed bricks, white tiles and chunky red booth seating. Think flamboyant Italian staff, a laid back feel, homemade everything and Italian imported ingredients. And last two are key.

No-matter where I go for pizza, nine times out of 10 it's going to be a diavolo. I plan to rate the diavolos around London. It’s a serious roundup, y’know.

Although, here it’s actually pinsa, technically not pizza. The difference is in the method: an ancient and traditional recipe from the Romans. The dough is made with rice, wheat and soy flours, with less salt and always cold water. It’s much lighter and comes with a beautifully crisp base. And the toppings are serious too: chopped green chilli, oodles of mozzarella, plenty of nudja and chopped fresh coriander. It’s an absolute winner.

Pinsa, with it's super thin and crispy base came long before pizza

It goes straight to the top of my best-diavolos-in-London list that’s currently only in my head – apart from just writing the winner down here, that is. Although you might not think it, since all I’ve talked about so far is pizzas, sorry pinsas, there are other things on the menu.

Go for the crab spaghetti with courgette and lemon oil, it’s super fresh and summery nad perfectly creamy, while the slow cooked beef ragu (another favourite of mine) is hearty with a depth to the flavour that can only come from a good glug of decent wine and leaves you wishing there was more in your empty bowl.

There’s tiramisu on the desert list to round off the list of classics, but we’re so full even I can’t manage anything. But, we aren’t allowed to leave without trying something, so like your mum packing up snacks for your journey home, we’re sent off with freshly-baked cookies.

Now it looks like I'll be travelling a little further for my Friday pizza. Sorry, pinsa.

Latteria, 56 - 58 Essex Rd, Islington, London N1 8LR; open Sun-Tues: 020 3883 1370; latteria.co