Rosetta
££££│ Pizza, Eat in or Takeaway
Evenings │Directions & Opening Times on Google
Pizzeria Rosetta is about as an authentic a Pizzeria as you can get in Italy. The pizza is cheap, and the quality (for the price you pay) is superb. It’s no wonder that it’s usually absolutely rammed with locals.
There’s no table service here, you have to go inside and order at the cassa (till). The woman that serves you is simultaneously super lovely/smiley and absolutely terrifying, all at the same time. She runs the phone lines and the queue by herself, and knows exactly when everybody has ordered and when. She processes more orders than I’ve ever seen anyone ever process in my life, by hand (and I worked in restaurants for a long time). If only they could fire all the useless men in Rome and put her in charge of the country, they could probably half the Italian public debt whilst making everything run on time.
In kitchen, three of the best pizzaioli I’ve ever seen in my life knock out brilliant Margheritas for 3€, and a wide range of other pizze for very affordable prices. Having spent many years of my life working in pizza kitchens listening to various pizzaioli demand respect (and then crumble when they have to cook more than six pizzas), I can tell you from first hand experience that the guys in Rosetta actually do deserve respect. I dunno how many pizzas they do a night but… it’s a lot.
Rosetta is about a 10 minute walk up Via di Leuca from Porta San Biagio. It’s a simple interior inside, kinda rustic but not fancy or pretentious or anything really…just a nice simple pizzeria. They have rotating wood fired oven which helps them get the pizzas out unbelievably quickly. Even if there’s a big queue, your pizza will usually arrive in 15-20 mins, enough time for you to grab a beer while you wait and sit at one of the plastic tables outside, watching the locals wandering by on Via di Leuca. You can eat your pizza right there if you like, or take it away. For me, this is one of the best ways to spend an hour or two in Lecce, and at this price, you could do worse than repeating it every night of your holiday.