For some time now I've known that Top Joe's turns out extraordinarily tasty pizzas from either its Tenby or Narberth restaurants in Pembrokeshire. But maybe I'd got complacent or taken for granted just how good they were because even I was surprised to hear that Giovanni Recchia, the pizza chef at Top Joe's in Narberth, was recently recognised as one of the best in the world at the Pizza World Championships in Rimini, Italy - otherwise known as Campionato del Mondo di Pizza.
Full disclosure here: I live in Narberth and am a regular at Top Joe's because it has a rather decent wine list. Or rather, I enjoy the selection of reds on offer, particularly when I bag a comfy armchair in the window next to the log fire. It's a fun place to sit and people watch as pizzas are brought out with a flourish from the kitchen at the back, a hint of garlic and charcoal in the air, and people of all ages tuck in. I love my home town, which as it happens is one of the trendiest places to live in Wales. I could wax lyrical about the pretty high street, the independent gift, jewellery, antique, and butcher shops, the quirky cafes and the unchained bars, but my colleague has beaten me to it.
Instead I am here to effuse about Top Joe's. Offering relaxed and informal dining, it somehow manages to make you feel like you're somewhere more posh than a pizzeria, perhaps in part because of the generously proportioned restaurant and its dark colours and low-level lighting.
Chef Giovanni entered the category of 'Mystery Box' to win his recent accolade, where he whipped up a pizza in the style of a 'classica' or 'napoletana' using a dough of his choice and the mystery box of ingredients provided on competition day. I'm no pizza connoisseur but I do know that not all pizzas are created equal. And I do know that no amount of tomato sauce nor melted cheese can save a soggy, doughy or floppy base.
But I've jumped ahead of myself: before pizza there was wine. I started off my Friday evening savouring a medium glass of bold and fruity Crescendo Merlot from Switzerland (£4.80), soaking up the convivial atmosphere from the aforementioned armchair. I had time to kill before my dining companion joined me and so I perused the menu at leisure. Hardly surprising that it's almost entirely pizzas on the menu - three pasta options notwithstanding - all reasonably priced between £10 and £15.
Top Joe's installed a wood-fired Neapolitan pizza oven back in 2021 which the menu informs me cooks each pizza in 60 seconds at a temperature of 450 degrees. "Our dough is matured for a minimum of 24 hours, giving it a wonderfully light and pillowy crust, then topped with the finest ingredients we can muster," it continues. Pizzas are topped with freshly-made buffalo mozzarella in accordance with the Naples tradition.
It's not a particularly adventurous menu but when the ingredients are this good, it's best to keep things simple and let them do the talking. I'm a big fan of goat's cheese and I was almost tempted by the Le Capre (San Marzano tomatoes, fior de latte, red onions, goat's cheese, pine nuts). Instead I plumped for the Zucchini - courgette, pesto and ricotta - while my fellow diner went for the Piccante - a spicy little number with n'duja, spianata and jalapeno.
Within 10 minutes our pizzas were ready, blasted in the oven fired by locally-sourced kiln dried ash wood. Our server asked if we'd prefer a table - which we did - and she led us to it while we eagerly followed the delicious smell of warm dough and basil. If the mark of a world class pizza can be found in the dough then Top Joe's is indeed up there with the best. The edges of the crust were puffed up tantalisingly, with blotches of just the right amount of smoky char.
The signature dough was deeply flavoured with just a hint of sourness from the maturation process and was cooked perfectly to be light and crisp enough to defy gravity. It was both complex and deeply satisfying, offering the perfect vehicle to carry the intensely flavoured San Marzano tomato sauce.
My Zucchini version came with ribbons of bright green courgette laid into the sauce with blobs of creamy, salty whipped ricotta piped into the gaps and a drizzle of pesto spooned over the top. I don't know it there's a special etiquette for eating pizza but I dispensed with the pizza wheel and instead tore bits of the crust off and scooped up the basil-scented ricotta. As I worked my way inwards, I used the classic 'tear and fold' technique, making sure I had both tomato and courgette in each bite. It was sublime.
My companion was somewhat more civilised than I and used her knife to cut the pizza into manageable pieces. She's from Cardiff, which has its own fair share of quality pizzerias, but Top Joe's more than holds its own against these cosmopolitan establishments. There were nods of approval from her over the thin base and "soft fluffy crust" with a "perfect dough to filling ratio".
Her Piccante pizza came with extra tomato intensity thanks to the sun dried tomatoes while the spicy sausage added some meaty bite and the jalapenos added an extra mouth-tingling punch. Zingy but not over-powering, it was "spot-on", she declared.
For supplements of £2 and £1 pizzas can be made gluten free or vegan respectively. And for another couple of quid you can add 'crust dippers' including garlic aioli, pesto or n'duja and honey.
We skipped over the dessert menu - which offered cannoli Siciliani, affogato or chocolate brownie as well as a homemade tiramisu - and opted for a cappuccino instead. It was the perfect end to a perfect meal that felt far more than "just" pizza. Service was swift and efficient even while the kitchen sent out takeaway orders being picked up at the bar at the same time.
Good food, good wine, good company - what's not to love? For less than £20 and for the briefest of moments, it's the closest thing I will get to Naples this year. And when I can get world-class pizza in my home town, there's no need to travel at all.
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