Blistered, Chewy Neapolitan Pizzas Will Arrive in East London’s Leytonstone Pronto

A new Neapolitan pizzeria called Bocca Bocca will open in Leytonstone, the north east London neighbourhood this week with an ex-Pizza Pilgrims pizzaiolo in charge of the kitchen. It will open at 781 Leytonstone High Street on 6 August.

Gianluca Colini, owner of Cafe Unity, a coffee shop and deli, which opened in Leytonstone early in 2021 is behind the restaurant, first reported by Hot Dinners. It will offer a slim selection of starters and desserts, with pizzas being split into red, green, and white bases. While some might see this as gimmicky tricolouring, the format sees the kitchen serving a would-be signature pizza, the “Bocca Bocca,” which combines a pistachio paste, fior di latte, buffalo mozzarella, and mortadella.

The full menu can be viewed below, while some pre-opening shots of the pizzas — cooked in an oven which reaches 450°c — suggest that former head chef at the Pizza Pilgrims academy in Camden, chef “Biago”, according to Hot Dinners, has brought a bit of form to E11.

Before chef Sirichai Kularbwong’s Singburi firmly registered itself as the best Thai restaurant in London, Leytonstone was perhaps most known as the birthplace of both the ex-footballer and entrepreneur David Beckham and the late film director Alfred Hitchcock.

Not that the area is short on places eat and drink, with plenty more points of interest having been plotted on Leytonstone High Road, the long thoroughfare which cuts through the neighbourhood, in recent years: Panda Dim Sum, Theatre of Wine, Red Camel, Delico Patisserie (langos), Blancos, Yard Sale, and the Bell (Guinness), to name but a few.

Bocca Bocca will open Monday to Thursday, 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday to Sunday from 12 p.m. to 11.30 p.m. It will offer indoor dining, click-and-collect, and delivery.