pizzologist, Edinburgh – Guest Reviewer Miranda Heggie

The winner of the Tom Eats! Be A Restaurant Reviewer competition is a long time friend to this column, Miranda Heggie. Her prize is a meal for two at Tapa, the Tom Eats! Restaurant of the Year 2023. Thanks to everyone who entered, and special thanks to Dan Shearon and his team at Tapa for judging and sponsoring the contest. This is the winning entry.

Perhaps these cycle lanes the council insist on putting everywhere despite barely anyone using them are good for something. A few months back, while my usual bus stop was out of action due to roadworks, I’d get off the bus a stop early and pass a small café style Italian claiming to serve the ‘best pizza in Edinburgh’. Now that is a bold claim. We’re fortunate in this city to have a plethora of fantastic independent pizzerias: 1926 in Dalry, Oregano on Leith Walk, Matto in Morningside and Abbeyhill to name but a few. Could this relative newcomer, ever so slightly off the beaten track just west of Haymarket station, stand up there with the best of them? Well, one Sunday evening after getting off the train from a weekend away my partner Iain and I went to find out.

Pizzologist is BYOB which scores them a big tick in my book. We’d picked up a nice Barolo from the train station M&S for more than what we’d normally spend on a bottle of plonk for in the house, but far less than we would usually spend on a bottle in a restaurant. Winning from the get go.  The menu – like the décor – is simple but with a homely vibe. There’s nothing in the starter selection that would be out of place on a pizza, from bruschetta made with pizza bread, a plate of cured meats, caprese salad to a simple bowl of olives. We bypassed starters on this occasion to go straight in for the main event. Despite Iain’s insistence that I ‘get something good’ – i.e. meaty – I picked the Ortolano, which came topped with aubergine, courgette, pepper and basil. It was everything a pizza should be: a thin base, crispy crust, a rich tomato sugo and tasty, well-cooked toppings. Iain told me if I ordered a vegetarian pizza he wouldn’t give me a slice of his Maialina – ham, Calabrian salami, nduja and Tuscan sausage – but I knew he didn’t really mean it, and I can say with some authority that his was excellent too.

The restaurant itself is rustic, and charmingly so, with unadorned wooden tables, tumblers for the wine, and a graffiti style mural of its name on the wall. It’s also centred around the pizza oven, so you can watch in anticipation as your dough begins to bubble and the cheese slowly melts.

Now, the closest I’ve ever been to Naples is reading Elena Ferrante novels, but I’m pretty sure this is the real deal. Making their dough with only four ingredients – water, yeast, flour and salt – it rises for 48 hours before being used for pizzas. Fior di latte mozzarella and EVOO olive oil plus top quality toppings and ingredients make for unfussy but delicious food. The pizza theme continues into the dessert menu; a Nutella pizza is 100% not my vibe, but if it’s yours I imagine you’ll love it. Cannoli feature too, as does the staple of any self-respecting Italian dessert menu, tiramisu.

Is this the best pizza in Edinburgh? I am not sure, but I certainly can’t think of anywhere that outright trumps it. And I look forward to going back to double check.