Santa Maria

Neapolitan style pizza, thin base and good tomato flavour. The garlic mayo dip paired with the pizza was so good. Toppings were a bit bland and could have more flavour packed into each one, and the toppings were not evenly spread on the pizza but overall nice! I found it a bit too thin which made it floppy and a bit annoying to eat but thats just personal preference! However the tiramisu was absolutely amazing. Best I’ve had (and I’ve had some in Rome) and will go back just for that!

We arrived around 8pm on Easter Monday and the place was packed. It took around 5mins for us to be seated, even though there were a couple in front of us. The whole place was buzzing. We often frequented the old venue down the road in Ealing, and this place has a wonderful ambience as it’s predecessor did. The service was inconsistent. It may have been due to the venue being full. But it seemed that one waitress in particular was not pulling her weight as much. It took a long time before our orders were taken, so much so the lady at the pass, who was plating and packing all the orders, stepped in and took our order. She wasn’t as friendly whilst doing this, and looked to not be paying attention to us ( as she was giving eyes to the other members of the team). But we later realised that she was probably annoyed at the staff at having to step in. She later made up for this initial interaction by being very pleasant, attentive and smiling. Throughout our meal, pizzas were flying out the door, so there must have been an immense pressure on every one at the time. Unfortunately for us, the homemade limonata was not available due to no more lemons being available. So we opted for the branded sodas. The meatballs were very meaty (not much breadcrumbs/fillers) which was a nice surprise. They were dense, but the fresh tomato sauce balanced them out well. The bread accompanying the meatballs was nice and chewy and soaked up the sauce nicely. The salad was large and could be a lunch portion not a side portion. Both pizzas were delicious. The bases had a light chewy texture, the sauces were fresh and light and the toppings were well balanced. I added Parma ham to the rucco, and that probably made my pizza a bit too salty, so I would recommend having it as it comes. The Catalina was just right, spicy, meaty and a smooth tomato sauce. When we left all the other restaurants in Ealing were empty, and Santa Maria was still packed to the brim. I would return. One star deducted due to the poor service we had. There were other tables waiting as well and looking for someone to take their order or get their bill. This was unfortunate, but the lady at the pass packing and plating pizzas made up for the other staff members. I hope this was a one-off and they were short staffed or having a bad day, and they improve the service the next time we come

We went for a couple of starters and a couple of pizzas. For starters, we had the classic meatballs and the aubergine parmigiana. The pizzas were Santa Carmela and Santa Caterina. The meatballs were definitely my favourite starter, very rich and flavourful, the sauce really made the dish. I preferred the Caterina pizza but it’s hard to go wrong with salami and fresh chilli on a pizza. Also, tried the homemade limonata which was really good. Would definitely recommend as a go to spot in Ealing and I will be going back.