I’m not going to post about every pizza I eat, because that would get boring pretty fast (what’s that? It’s already boring? Tough but fair!).
However, just in case you think that every pizza in Naples is a mind-blowing, life-changing experience, it’s probably good to know that mediocre pizzas exist here too (though to be fair, mediocre for Naples would still be pretty damn good back home).
The pizza in question was from Pizzeria I Decumani, which is quite well-regarded — maybe they were having an off day? I ordered the margherita pizza, because I figure if I order a margherita everywhere I go, it’ll be easier to compare the various pizzas (also because they’re crazy delicious).
The biggest issue was the crust. There wasn’t as much char as the previous pizzas I’ve had, and it was much more crispy — borderline crunchy. I’m not exactly a pizza expert, so I might be wrong, but I suspect the oven wasn’t as hot as it should have been.
So it was a bit boring, texture-wise; just crunchy and slightly chewy, but without the depth that makes the better pizzas here so magical.
The cheese distribution was also a bit off — you can’t really tell from the picture, but the areas of the pizza that had cheese had a lot of cheese, which threw off the pizza’s balance.
Still, it was good — I ate the whole thing, and I’d eat another if you put it in front of me — it just wasn’t great. The little ball of uncooked fresh mozzarella was a nice touch.
But here in Naples, a pizza that’s just good actually kind of sucks. That’s what you get when the bar is so high.