Let’s be honest, even bad pizza is pretty good - but what makes good pizza great?
Authentic. Italian. Crust.
The Real Italian Pizza Company in Bath opened in 2007 with this ideal in mind. Owner Francesca knew Bath had plenty of pizza options, but she wanted to show off the proper pizza from her childhood in Italy.
Combine this pizza with a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, then place it next door to their sweet partner The Real Italian Ice Cream Company, and you have a winning combination.
It’s clearly been a hit, as they have since opened two further restaurants in Bath (Italian restaurant Joya and steak restaurant The Herd) as well as a further pizza location in Cardiff!
We visited their Bath restaurant between Lockdown 1 & 2, and it was a delight to be back in a restaurant - especially with such a friendly atmosphere!
We sat downstairs, so we could watch the pizzaiolo forming and wood-firing their delicious creations. As someone who loves to make pizza at home, I was suitably in awe watching the masters at work.
During our meal, some home delivery orders came in totalling over 40 pizzas! The team got to work like a well oiled pizza machine, and it was absolutely masterful.
Firstly we decided to pregame our wood-fired dough with some wood-fired dough… We ordered some Panelli All’aglio, which was strips of plain pizza/flatbread served with garlic butter. As expected, it was garlicy, butter goodness!
Then onto the actual pizza. The pizzas are personal sized, so logically, we split two pizzas between the two of us.
Pizza #1 was a Quattro Stagioni – aka the “I can’t decide pizza”. A classic combination of tomato, mozzarella, anchovies and capers, with the remaining toppings split into quarters of pepperoni, mushrooms, artichoke hearts and black olives.
For pizza #2 we went for the Emiliana. A tomato and mozzarella pizza, finished once out of the oven with freshly sliced parma ham, grana cheese and balsamic vinegar.
Both pizzas crusts were perfectly thin and crispy, with some good leopard-spotting on the cornicione – fancy pizza terms for the delicious charred bubbles on the edge crust!
The toppings were very good quality, super flavourful and had a good amount of saltiness to balance and compliment the mild mozzarella cheese and crust.
We rounded off the meal with some creamy homemade gelato from their sister-company The Real Italian Ice Cream Company next door.
The experience was fantastic. The pizza was even better.
