L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele In Naples

L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele isn’t just old. It’s very old. The Condurro family starting making pizzas in 1870 and opened the current Naples location in 1930. Today, after five generations, the family is still cranking out pizzas the same way – big, value-priced and without fancy ingredients.

While eating Marinara and Margherita pizzas is nothing new for Neapolitan natives, moviegoers like us learned about the famous pizzeria while watching Julia Roberts chow down on pizza in the 2010 film Eat, Pray, Love. We got our first taste while living in Naples for a month. More on that below…

Discover our picks for the best Naples pizzerias and our favorite Naples pizza tour.

We avoided the 150-year-old pizza stalwart as a tourist trap during our initial visit in 2014. We were unwilling to wait over an hour to eat at the famous Naples pizzeria and doubted L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele was really that good.

Fast forward to our second Naples pizza tour of duty in 2017 when we were lucky to live just a five-minute walk from L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele for four weeks. Yes, L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele was our local Naples pizza joint and we ate lunch there at least 10 times during our month long stay in Napoli.

A few years passed and we started hearing rumors that L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele had declined. A few people opined that the pizzas weren’t the same. After returning to L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele in Naples, we can report that the shop’s excellent pizzas remain unchanged. And, despite the pizzeria’s move into franchising, the pizzas are still made the way that we fondly remember.

In fact, during our post-pandemic return visit, we encountered the same sage-like pizzaiolo working the restaurant’s wood fired red brick oven, carefully coaxing each pie into melty, lightly charred bliss. The only difference we noticed was a one euro price increase.

Is this the best pizza in Naples? In our opinion, it is not. However, we believe that eating pizza at L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele is an integral part of any Naples pizza tour and one of the best way to experience the city’s ancient pizza traditions. It’s also a lot of fun.

Discover our picks for the best Naples pizzerias and our favorite pizza tour.

Think pizzas should be perfectly round? You won’t be disappointed with L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele’s round-ish pies.

Want to order a pie with lots of toppings? The Naples pizza menu at L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele has two basic options – classic Margherita topped with fiore di latte cheese (think mozzarella), tomato sauce and a single basil leaf or two and cheese free Marinara topped with a traditional tomato sauce flavored with garlic and oregano.

These pies provide a connection to Mediterranean flatbreads like pita and laffa. They also have a heavenly, pillow-like dough that supports the kind of zesty tomato sauce that you can only eat in Naples.

Did we mention that L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele currently charges 5€ for each pie? In our opinion, the combination of price and quality makes Da Michele a necessary stop for travelers looking for cheap eats in Naples. As always, prices are subject to change at any time without notice.

Naples pizza prices are the best bargain in town and they’re especially low at L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele. If this isn’t the best place to eat pizza in Naples, it’s certainly high on the list. Whether or not it’s your favorite, this is the pizza to which you’ll want to compare all other pies.

L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele has gone global with locations in cities like Barcelona, London, Los Angeles and Tokyo. We still recommend eating at the original Napoli location even if you live in one of these cities. Located on the edge of Centro Storico, the pizzeria is just a 15-minute walk from the city’s Garibaldi train station.

We recommend arriving before the pizzeria opens to avoid inevitable hordes of hungry tourists who want to visit the spot where Julia Roberts famously scarfed down her pizza. Immediately request a number when you arrive and patiently wait for your number to be called. Once it’s called, it’s pizza time!

Grab a table and order one pie per person. Yes, they’re big but they’re also cheap. And you’ll probably be surprised by how much you eat. If you’re eating with a friend, you may want to order one Margherita pie and one Marinara pie and share them. That’s what we often do though we sometimes order two Margherita pies instead.

One last tip – eat your pizza with utensils. Locals cut their pies into manageable wedges. Once cut, they use a rolling or folding method to deliver the soft-centered pizza slices from their hands to their mouths. You’ll want to do the same.

L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele is located at Via Cesare Sersale, 1, 80139 Napoli, Italy.

Check out our guide to eating in Italy as well as our picks for the best Italian foods and the best Italian desserts before your trip so that you don’t miss a delicious bite.

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