nNea Pizza Amsterdam – Bending the rules of Neapolitan pizza

As a self-proclaimed pizza connoisseur, I’ve tried ‘pies’ all over the world. Fun fact: I even have a slice tattooed on my arm. So, of course, I visited the motherland of pizza: Naples, Italy. With the soft and charred crust, fresh tomato sauce and basil leaves, nothing will ever come close to that pizza. I thought. Well, then I got to know nNea Pizza in Amsterdam.

This narrow restaurant in Amsterdam-West doesn’t look anything like the traditional pizzerias in Naples, with its royal blue façade, yellow pizza oven, and minimalistic Scandinavian interior.

But most of all, the pizzas look different too. Pizza-chef Vincenzo Onnebo is one of the new generation dough masters. He bends the traditional rules and experiments with dough, its fermentation, and ingredients, to create a unique type of pizza. He lets the dough rise for over 36 hours which makes the crust stand up like a soft fluffed-up pillow, while making it easily digestible. To maintain this fluffiness, the pizza is cut with scissors. Topped off with unconventional – but extremely amazing – toppings, this is the best pizza I’ve ever had.

My fav? The Cheese ‘n Cactus with blue di bufala, fior di latte and a sweet cactus confiture. Or, if you’re in luck, Vincenzo serves his award-winning Partenope with oven-roasted octopus, all served with handpicked Campanian wines and local specialty beers.

Since its opening in early 2019, nNea landed a #13 spot on the top 50 pizza list, making it the best pizza of the country. And I couldn’t agree more.