Longstanding Italian pizza joint L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele was thrust into the global spotlight when the restaurant and its traditional wood-fired pizzas appeared in the hands of film star Julia Roberts in 2010’s Eat, Pray, Love.
The over 150-year-old brand has gone on a globetrotting journey of its own since then, establishing outposts in over 19 countries – the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Japan and now, Singapore.
The outpost here plants the L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele flag in Southeast Asia for the first time, in equally new digs within the newly opened Mercure Icon Singapore City Centre hotel on Club Street.
Expect authentic Italian tradition through-and-through, both in terms of adherence to founder Michele Condurro’s time-honoured recipes, and high-quality, seasonal ingredients imported from the motherland itself.
We’re talking premium Caputo flour, Agerola Fior di Latte cheese and Armatore Cetara anchovies off the coast of Amalfi, meticulously prepared and slung into a custom Italian-made brick oven in service of time-worn pizza a ruota di carro.
Meaning wagon wheel pizza in Italian, these traditional Neapolitan-style creations are so huge that their charred crusts extend over the edge of the serving platter. They are also floppy. Unlike their bready cousins, the thin base requires two hands to hold and eat or the slice will fall apart. Some diners we observed would roll it up like a burrito before taking a bite.
Flavours available at the Singapore outpost include traditional favourites like Margherita, laden with tomato sauce, Agerola Fior di Latte (a cheese similar to mozzarella but made with cow’s milk) and Pecorino Romano DOP (a sharp and salty hard cheese); and the Marinara, also loaded with tomato sauce alongside garlic and oregano.
There are of course a range of wider options, divided into red (tomato sauce-based) and white (Agerola Fior di Latte-based) pizzas. The selection of reds include a Cetara anchovy pie paired off with Leccino olives and capers; and the Diavola – a devilishly fiery pizza that spotlights aged Calabrian salami made from pork, red pepper and local chillies.
Otherwise, you can always search for alluring alternatives in the white base pizzas – think Friarielli & Salsiccia, a trio of pecorino Romano DOP, Italian sausage, and friarelli napoletani (broccoli rabe) or the Pugliese, melding Leccino olives, sun-dried tomatoes, capocollo di Martina Franca (smoked ham from Puglia), more Pecorino Romano DOP, and a creamy dollop of Burrata cheese.
Though handcrafted pizzas naturally take pride of place at L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele, diners can also opt for a range of homemade pastas and starters to augment their taste of la dolce vita.
Libations, of course, are also available, with plenty of labels sourced from – where else? – but the best of Italian wine country.
L’antica Pizzeria da Michele is at #01-08, Mercure Icon Singapore City Centre 8 Club Street, Singapore 06947.
