Pizzeria L'Operetta

There are more Italian pizzerias in Singapore than you can shake a pizzaiolo pizza paddle at, but few have the, ahem, pizzaz required to make your pie really pop, and fewer still are actually certified by Vera Pizza Napoletana, the regulatory body that ensures that Naples’ most famous culinary export’s reputation and authenticity is maintained. Pizzeria L’Operetta has all of this going for it, making it the pizzeria of choice for Tanjong Pagar locals and avid pizza fans from across the city. Find Pizzeria L’Operetta at Icon Village along Gopeng Street.

Pizzeria L’Operetta’s remit is simple, as simple but as insistent as proper pizza should be: to serve the good pizza-crazed people of Tanjong Pagar and Singapore with the finest pizza pies in the city. Pizza joints are a dime a dozen, but it’s Pizzeria L’Operetta that has the paper to prove that it is the real, authentically Italian deal when it comes to the Neapolitan pie. They’ve received certification from VPN – Vera Pizza Napoletana – the regulatory body (some would say militant outfit) that battle poor imitations of true Neapolitan pizza around the world. Part of the city’s L’Opera group of Italian restaurants – there’s a trattoria, enoteca, and corner bar in the family as well – Pizzeria L’Operetta is a real coup for Italian food fans.

Upon entering Pizzeria L’Operetta’s Gopeng Street restaurant, just an olive pit’s throw from Tanjong Pagar station, you can tell immediately what this pizzeria cherishes the most – its traditional wood-fired, brick pizza oven, whose dome is mosaiced with ceramic tiles spelling out the name of this superlative Singapore pizza parlour. It’s this edifice that produces, with the deft help of the restaurant’s trained and certified pizzaioli, the deceptively simple selection of classic pizzas that have made converts of many an Italian-cuisine shy diner. Just a handful of pies are available, nothing more is necessary: the traditional margherita, the Romana and bufala, the diavola, Bismark, capricciosa and more outre options like the lasagna pizza. Cowabunga this is not – this is an authentic Italian pizzeria head and shoulders above the competition.