Rudy’s Neapolitan Pizza: Sheffield's newest Italian restaurant goes big on authenticity - and the pizzas are flippin' great - review

They all give boastful promises about ‘authenticity’ and how they will be using ‘authentic’ ingredients.

The idea being to reassure customers that they are indeed the real deal and not chain-restaurant imitators.

Rudy’s Neapolitan Pizza – which opened on Division Street in the city centre in June – was no different of course.

In promotional materials ahead of the opening, we were told how Rudy’s promises to follow the authentic Neapolitan tradition of pizza making, serving classic recipes such as Marinara, Margherita and Calabrese – all originating from Naples, the birthplace of pizza.

The owners also said the restaurant’s dough is made fresh daily using Caputo ‘00’ flour which ferments for at least 24 hours and will be cooked in wood fired ovens for just 60 seconds, all in accordance with Neapolitan pizza tradition, leaving it soft and floppy with a leopard patterned crust.

In addition, quality ingredients will be imported twice a week from Naples, including San Marzano tomatoes grown on fields next to Mount Vesuvius, and Fior di Latte mozzarella.

As someone who has visited Naples personally – and indulged in many pizzas while I was there – I was eager to try out the restaurant and test out those promises of authenticity.

A good sign that a place serves fine food is if it’s busy – and I was happy to see a queue of people outside waiting to get in the place on this Thursday evening.

Inside the decor is minimalist with unpainted wooden seating, all part of the venue’s charm as a ‘relaxed neighbourhood pizzeria’.

To start, we went for the Campana to share featuring Bufala mozzarella, prosciutto crudo, cured ham, Finocchiona salame, salame picante & wild boar salame, wild rocket, semi-dried tomato and house bread.

We were pleased to see this was a generously sized portion, which we washed down with two glasses each of Aperol Spritz and Palazzo Del Mare Rosso – a Sicilian red wine bursting with rich and rustic flavours.

For the mains I went for a a margarita, always the gold standard test of a good pizzeria, while my partner ordered Porchetta – a white pizza with roast porchetta, sage roasted potatoes, smoked mozzarella, caramelised white onions and rosemary oil.

We shared them, and both were an absolute delight. What sets Rudy’s pizzas aside from the others is undoubtedly the dough, which was cooked to perfection.

The little pots of garlic and nduja aioli to go with our pizzas were also a nice touch.

To round things off we indulged in a traditional tiramasu – a coffee-flavoured Italian dessert – and a tartufo, a ball of gelato with a chocolatey surprise in the middle.

Both were sublime and a perfect way to round off the meal.

The pricing was reasonable too. Two drinks each, a large shared starter, two mains and two desserts came to about £70.

All in all Rudy’s does offer a truly authentic Neapolitan pizza experience.

Highly recommended.