NàRoma Pizza Bar, 901 Brant Street, Burlington, Ontario

I love artisan pizzas! If you’ve read my other pizza posts you’d already know that a thin crust pizza margherita is my most favourite! I love simple, fresh toppings and pizza dough made with love.

I was thrilled to hear NàRoma Pizza Bar from Locke Street in Hamilton had added a second location in Burlington. The more pizza places in Burlington, the better! Actually, the more good restaurants in Burlington the better and Hamilton has some great restaurants that I would encourage second locations added in Burlington.

I appreciated the friendly greetings and smiles when I visited, but what I was most impressed with was all the free pizza samples available. Three big platters, each with a different sample: pizza margherita, Brie and prosciutto, and yes, their Nutella pizza! I may have had a couple samples of that one as my appetizer.

This Brant and Fairview Street location offers a bonus of plenty of free parking. Their dinning room, featuring beautiful rustic wood table tops and ample comfy benches, is a good size with seating for about 42 people. The one wall covered with photos; “The ode to Burlington” gallery wall is a heart warming touch.

If you are familiar with their Locke Street location then you’ll be pleased that the menu here is the same. For $11 you get a slice and a salad.

I ordered the arugula salad, which surprised me by not only coming out first, but as a pretty big portion size. I’d expected a smaller side salad with the pizza. It was great to have something to nibble on while I waited for my slice. The crispy prosciutto along with the toasted pine nuts added great texture and flavour to the bitter earthy arugula, but I really loved the side salty garlic slice made from their 72 hour slow rise pizza dough.

The pizza was delivered to me well presented on a wooden paddle board. The pizza actually looks quite similar to Pane Fresco’s square Brie and Proscutio pizza (from both their Locust location and Fortinos). After my first couple of bites, I can attest that if you like Pane Fresco’s version you’ll love this one as well. The sweet caramelized onions warmed my taste buds, while the salty crispy prosciutto welcomingly lingered in my mouth long after the bite.

I was curious about their four dipping sauces: creamy pesto, marinara, truffled mayo and spicy Caesar. I chose the truffled mayo which added a nice smoky flavour to the bites I chose to dip. They are $.96 extra and in my opinion the portion size (especially for the heaviness of mayo) felt like more of a shareable add-on, as it was too much for my slice. The portion size of my pizza slice, however was perfect. Shannon assured me that any pizza you take home is great as either a cold leftover or reheated in the oven. If you wanted to order a take-home family size pizza they can slightly under-cook it so that you can finish it off in your oven at home.

I’m also a huge Cannoli fan and when I saw they were made in house I couldn’t resist. The shell was light, crunchy and fell apart as soon as I bit into the center. The sweet ricotta middle hit the spot, without overwhelming my tummy with too much sugar.

I look forward to coming back to NàRoma Pizza Bar with some friends next time so I can try a bunch of different pizza toppings as well as their 4 different types of organic quinoa; Dolce, Toscana, Caprese and Giardino (vegan).