Cambridge Food Guides
My Top 5 Pizza in Cambridge (2026): An Italian's Honest Picks
For a classic Neapolitan margherita, Salento in Marleigh. For pizza and a spritz in the centre after 6pm, Aromi on Bene't Street. In the south of the city, O'Vesuvio in Trumpington. For a family Italian with a real wood oven, La Pergola in Harlton. And for pizza at any time of day, Giovanni's on Burleigh Street.
I grew up in Sorrento, round the bay from Naples, so pizza is not a casual subject in my family. I've lived in Cambridge since 2011 and watched it become a proper pizza city.
This is not a ranking, by Google stars or anything else. These are five places I go back to, in no particular order, and the ones I send friends to when they ask, "where can I get a real pizza here?"
Salento, Marleigh
A family pizzeria that cooks a proper Neapolitan margherita.
By day Salento is a family-run Italian café. In the evening it becomes the pizzeria I'd happily put up against places back home. The pizzas are led by Marco De Simone, who started as a pizzaiolo in Naples and has been making pizza in Cambridge since 2017. You can taste it in the cornicione: soft, puffy, a little leopard-spotted, with a base light enough that you finish the lot.
It's a family business and you feel it, in the welcome and in how much they care about every pizza.
Order this: The Margherita, to judge the dough, and ask about Marco's special.
Booking: Closed Mondays. Evening tables can be booked by phone or online (no lunch bookings).
Unit 4, The Hangar, Jubilee Square, Marleigh, Cambridge, CB5 8BG
Aromi, Bene't Street (evening pizza)
Whole Sicilian sourdough pizzas and a spritz, a minute from King's.
Everyone knows Aromi for slices and gelato. Fewer people know that from 6pm the Bene't Street café becomes a pizzeria, serving whole pizzas made with the same three-day sourdough. It's Sicilian in spirit: generous toppings and bold flavours, from caponata to 'nduja.
Turn up, order a spritz and a pizza, finish with a pistachio cannolo. One of the easiest good dinners in the centre.
Order this: The crudo or the Norma.
Booking: You can book a table on their website, aromi.co.uk.
1 to 2 Bene't Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QN
O'Vesuvio Pizza, Trumpington
A neighbourhood pizzeria for the south of the city.
If you live around Trumpington or Great Kneighton, O'Vesuvio on Hobson Square is your local: a family-friendly pizzeria with pasta, arancini, takeaway and delivery. The base is thin and crisp, in sizes from kids to the very hungry.
My favourite here is the Agrodolce, with goat cheese and caramelised onions.
Order this: The Agrodolce, with goat cheese and caramelised onions.
Booking: Closed Mondays, evenings only on Tuesdays. Call 01223 607414 or order takeaway.
Hobson Square, Trumpington, Cambridge, CB2 9FN
La Pergola, Harlton
A wood-burning clay oven, a family allotment, and the Italy I grew up with.
La Pergola is a short drive out along the A603, past Barton, in an old coaching inn called The Wheatsheaf. A family with roots in Campania opened it in 2007 around a wood-burning clay oven. The dough is made every morning with Caputo flour and the mozzarella is fior di latte. They top their pizzas with lots of seasonal vegetables from their own garden.
The pizza is crisp at the edge and chewy in the middle, the way only a clay oven does it. It's also where I go when I miss my nonna's lasagne, so bring someone and order both.
Order this: A pizza from the wood oven with whatever seasonal vegetables are in from the garden, plus the lasagne to share.
Booking: Book ahead, and expect it to be busy on Saturdays and Sundays.
The Wheatsheaf, Cambridge Road, Harlton, Cambridge, CB23 1HA
Giovanni's Caffè and Pizzeria, Burleigh Street
Wood-fired pizza from breakfast to late, with a Sardinian heart.
Giovanni's is easy to walk past on Burleigh Street. Don't. It opens at 8am every day as a café and serves handmade wood-fired pizza right through to the evening, with a Sardinian owner who brings in wines from home. Light base, a little crisp, proper Italian toppings.
It's my pick when I want pizza without a plan.
Order this: The Dr Johnny: smoked mozzarella, pepperoni, 'nduja, chilli oil, rocket.
Booking: Weekend lunchtimes get busy, so go early or late. 01223 478545.
44 to 45 Burleigh Street, Cambridge, CB1 1DJ
How I choose
Every place in my guides is somewhere I have eaten recently. I go back, and I update the date when something changes.
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