Naples, October 9th, 2026 (The Berlin Spectator) – Forget everything you know about pizza. You will be enlightened the minute you enter this restaurant in Naples. The choice is limited, the atmosphere is comparable to that at this city’s central station and you need to take a number and wait, because of the crowds waiting outside. Still, the experience that “L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele” at Via Cesare Sersale provides will be cherished by everyone.
Outside, an employee in kitchen attire, who sits on a high stool, is your best friend. You need him a lot more than he needs the 500th customer today. He is the guy who will give you a number that determines when you can finally enter. Our number is 37 while it is number 16’s turn to get a table at that moment. So, we decide to take a walk around the block, since we expect to be waiting for an hour or two. But the moment we get back there twelve minutes later, our turn has already come.
So, we squeeze by the long line of people who just want to get a takeout pizza they can eat on the street and sit down at table no. 12 next to the entrance. It is located close to the Paul Allen table and the Diego Maradona table. The late Microsoft co-founder ate at “Da Michele” just before the new millennium dawned, judging from the photo displayed there, and the late Argentine soccer star probably came around 1990. He looks very young in his photo above the table he chose.
Four Choices
Once you sit at the table, look at the menu on the wall. It gives you four choices only: the Cosacca, the Margherita, the Marinara and the Marita. We pick the Cosacca and the Marinara. While we wait, we look at what’s going on around us. This is a well-organized pizza parlor. The manager sits there at the cash register next to the exit, while several of his employees make those pizzas from scratch.
First they form the dough with practiced hands. Then they add the few ingredients. The official philosophy: “Simplicity and a love for tradition”. In other words: You don’t have to put an entire supermarket on top of your pizza. Just pick the right ingredients and make sure they are of high quality. Michele Condurrohe opened his first pizza restaurant in 1906. Since 1930, “Da Michele” has been at today’s location. His family started selling pizzas in 1870. So, yes, this qualifies as tradition. Let’s behave accordingly while we are there.
Countless fellow tourists from Colombia, other Latin American countries, the U.S. and all over Europe are here, eating. Their satisfaction shows in their smiles and expressions.
Divine Revelation
After a few minutes, one of the many waiters brings our pizzas to our table, while one of his colleagues overtakes him carrying 20 filled pizza cartons for part of the waiting crowd outside, including the Mexican tourist from Veracruz. Earlier, he had asked us about the restaurant and was surprised to hear me explain his own country to him in Spanish with a Mexican accent.
Once we bite into our pizzas, we understand why this is the best pizza parlor in the world: The ingredients make eating them something like a divine revelation. Since when is tomato sauce so delicious? Well, since they use actual tomatoes, ripened in southern Italy, to make it. The dough, the garlic and the overall package are too good to be real.
Once we are done eating, we turn into two more satisfied customers. I talk to the manager at the register. He says they sell a thousand pizzas a day at this location in Naples, which consists of two restaurants located next to each other. According to him, “Da Michele” is also a franchise with a total of 80 restaurants in Italy, Europe and all over the world. There are two branches in California.
Berlin Branch
The manager says the “Da Michele” in Berlin will not come back, at least for now. Since the branch in the Schöneberg neighborhood of the German capital had to move out of its location when the building was renovated, “the relationship with the franchisee has been terminated”, he states. What a pity.
Not only is the quality of those pizzas surprising, but also their price. At this stage, it’s 6.50 Euro at this main location in Naples. You can get far worse food here for twice the price, or in Berlin, for three times the amount they charge.
We leave “Da Michele” knowing this experience is one that will last. The best pizza parlor in the world might not be suitable for candlelight dinners or long conversations in quiet surroundings. Well, if you want a romantic atmosphere, go to some piano bar after enjoying your pizza.
