by MARK SLUTSKY

Pizzeria Napoletana claims to be the oldest pizzeria in Montreal, dating back to 1948. Fifty-three years doesn't sound that old for a pizza place, but unless anyone's got evidence to the contrary, we'll take their word for it. In a city where gross 99-cent-slice places dominate the landscape, and where Pizza Hut comes in first for Best Pizza in this paper's recent Best of Montreal poll, Napoletana is a rare oasis of quality pie.

It's also one of those places that seems to be constantly crowded, especially on warm nights when lucky customers who've arrived early can sit out on the terrasse. Inside, the tables are long and generally crammed with pizza-lovers - if your party is small, you might be asked to share a table.

There's one thing you should be careful about at Napoletana, and that's the bread. A basket or two of big, soft rolls are generally placed on your table while you consider your menu options, and the stuff is really tasty, especially if you go the extra mile and pour a little hot oil on a plate, and mix it with parmesan. It's such a good combo that you might just fill yourself up completely before the food even arrives. Beware!

Meals here generally begin with a lot of deliberating and debate, as the menu contains 29 varieties of pizza and 27 choices of pasta. I almost always order one of each and go splitsies with a friend.

After much consideration we decided to go for the Genovese and Campagnola pizzas, and for the pasta, the pennine Romana and the fettucine Montecarlo. The Genovese pizza ($14.50) was the first to arrive, and it was a thing of beauty - easily the dish of the night. The Genovese forgoes tomato sauce for pesto, and is topped with smoked turkey, hot peppers, sliced tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and lots of parmesan. From the first bite I was in love. Turkey isn't something you find too often on a pizza, and I must admit I was a little dubious, but the deeply smoky flavour mingled perfectly with the two cheeses and the sharp pesto.

Next was the Campagnola pizza ($13.25), which was a little less out-there than the Genovese. It was a traditional tomato sauce-and-mozzarella deal, topped as well with sausage, green peppers, mushrooms, and onions. Though it was tasty and filling, we agreed that the sausage (sliced like pepperoni) didn't play enough of a role, buried beneath the other toppings. They were also very liberal with the basil, which might appeal to you if you're a huge fan of the stuff, though I myself found the strong taste overwhelmed the other flavours.

We got an approving comment from the waiter when we chose the fettucine Montecarlo ($13.25), as it's apparently not ordered too often. We were intrigued, though, as the ingredients listed only bacon, eggs and asparagus, and sounded akin to a carbonara. The creamless dish was frankly a little more pasty and bland than we'd hoped. The asparagus pieces were quite small and they seemed drained of flavour; the bacon I hardly noticed.

The pennine Romana ($14) was better, though not incredibly memorable. The little tubes of pasta were covered in a cream and tomato sauce, which also contained mushrooms and chunks of prosciutto. Though there were a lot of appealing tastes in this dish, none of them ever really combined into one lip-smacking super-flavour.

The pasta was certainly not a highlight of this specific trip, though it has been better on other occasions (the gnocchi is particularly excellent). Then again, you go to Napoletana for pizza, and there you can rarely go wrong.

Pizzeria Napoletana
Address: 189 Dante (at de Gaspé)
Phone: 495-0079
Hours: Mon–Tue 11am–11pm, Wed–Thu, Sun 11am-midnight, Fri–Sat 11am–1am
Best features: The many varieties of delicious pizza
Alcohol: Bring your own wine
Vegetarian friendly: Yes
Credit cards: No
Wheelchair access: Yes (may have to take a step)
Separate non-smoking section: Yes
Price: $9–$15 per person before tip
Rating: *** out of ****