La Vera Italia

Authentic Italian in Putney, near the station. Actually very authentic, even down to the old men sitting in the corner and TV playing europop.
The food is good, and reasonably priced. The whole experience, however, I found to be slightly lacking. It could have been the fact the place was empty on a Friday night or maybe the aforementioned europop, I don’t know.
Anyway, I think this is a location crying out for a celebrity chef to give them some pointers and maybe a makeover. It should be packed every night…

The staff at La Vera Italia are super friendly, stopping to chat about the food, the weather, our Australian accents, the Australian weather… All great stuff.
The table and food service are both quick, without feeling rushed.
The pizza is simple and delicious, thin based, lots of cheese and toppings — although to be fair when I say toppings I mean lots of pepperoni because why would you need anything else…
My first visit was for takeaway and the quality is the same either way.

I was very satisfied with my experience at La Vera Italia.
First, it’s open late. Later than the other pizza-​selling joints nearby. Thus despite me being the only customer they were very happy to serve me.
Secondly, the food. My margherita pizza was much better than I was expecting: the base was thin and floppy, the tomato and mozzarella decent quality and the fresh basil leaves a welcome touch. I followed it with a generous portion of tiramisu. This was very light, fluffy and creamy, though not with huge amounts of coffee or Marsala.
Thirdly, the prices, which were all competitive: £6.30 for the pizza, approx £4 for the tiramisu and £4 for a pint of Peroni. In other words, cheaper than a chain pizzeria but at comparable levels of quality if not better.
I’ll be returning.

Me and my better half are still on the hunt for the best place in Putney for an impromptu date, but it’s nice to be able to say that if we don’t find anywhere better than La Vera Italia we wouldn’t have much to moan about.
Without dragging this out into one of those ‘blah blah blah we would go back again’ reviews I just wanted to say that the food was excellent (I had the linguine with mussels and clams, the missus had gnocci with king prawns) and the service was top notch with actual Italian waiters who spoke mostly to you in Italian where the words weren’t important but authenticity was, and cranked out perfect English at the more crucial parts of the evening! (A great skill for sure)
I’ve been told that this place is entirely family run, and that is definitely the feel that it had about it. The only draw back was the slightly strange 2 TVs that were on during the hour that we stopped by, but it’s a stone in the ocean for a place that otherwise excelled in all other departments.
We paid about £35.00 for 2 starters (albeit the cheaper starters on the menu) with 2 main courses and a crisp pint of Peroni as well as a large glass of rose.
We will be going back again ;)