I have been lucky enough to be invited to a fair few restaurant openings over the years.
They tend to be sedate affairs. The format rarely varies: invited guests, small plates or canapés showcasing a few highlights from the new menu, a glass of something fizzy, and a great deal of polite conversation. Occasionally you strike lucky and are treated to a proper sit-down meal. All very civilised. All very restrained.
Pizza Pilgrims did not get that memo.
I was invited along to the opening of their new Wimbledon pizzeria and, on a sultry evening at the end of yet another stifling day, we made our way over to SW19.
A New Kid in Town
To say they have a prime pitch is something of an understatement. You walk out of Wimbledon station and you are hit almost immediately by that green and white Pizza Pilgrims sign, sitting on the corner of Wimbledon Hill Road. Subtle it is not. Effective it very much is.
Inside, the canapés had been replaced by slices of freshly baked pizza carried round on boards, and the polite glass of fizz had brought reinforcements — wine, beer, cocktails, spritzes and, at a certain point in the evening, shots. A DJ set the tone. Party was very much the operative word.
This was a celebration, and the message to Wimbledon was fairly unambiguous: there is a new kid in town. Then again, they have had plenty of practice. Wimbledon takes Pizza Pilgrims past the thirty-site mark, so opening nights are hardly uncharted territory for them.
Needless to say, we had fun. And I would be lying if I said I was anything other than distinctly slow off the blocks the following morning. Entirely worth it.
Who Are Pizza Pilgrims?
For the uninitiated, the origin story is a good one, and it is worth a minute of your time.
In 2011, brothers Thom and James Elliot did the thing most of us only talk about doing in the pub. They quit their jobs, flew to the toe of Italy, collected a three-wheeled Piaggio Ape van and drove it 4,500km back to London, stopping at as many of the great pizzerias as they could find along the way and learning the craft as they went. That journey became the pilgrimage, and the pilgrimage became the name.
They came home and started selling pizza at Berwick Street Market, and in 2013 they opened their first permanent site in Soho. From a market stall to more than thirty pizzerias across the UK in a little over a decade is not a bad return on a van and a bit of nerve.
What Makes Pizza Pilgrims Different?
The pizza itself is properly Neapolitan, and they are not casual about it. The dough is double-fermented over 72 hours and made fresh daily, the flour is Caputo from Naples, and the ingredients lean heavily on DOP produce imported from Italy. Each pizza goes into the oven at 500°C, which is what gives you that light, puffed, blistered crust — the bit any Neapolitan will tell you actually matters.
But if you asked me to name their real USP, I do not think it is the dough. Plenty of places in London do good Neapolitan pizza now. What Pizza Pilgrims have is a tone of voice, and they have held onto it at a scale where most brands lose theirs entirely.
This is a company whose slogan is “In Crust We Trust”, which runs pizza masterclasses and DJ nights and posts frying-pan pizza kits through your letterbox. They have never once claimed to be the best, and that restraint is precisely why people like them. They take the pizza seriously and themselves not very seriously at all, which — and I appreciate I am biased here — is more or less the ideal arrangement.
For what it is worth, they also picked up B Corp certification in 2024 (i have worked for a B Corp and it’s an accreditation that has to be earned and continue to be earned) and were named Restaurateur of the Year (Group) at the 2025 Cateys, so the fun is evidently not coming at the expense of the running of the business.
Pizza Pilgrims Wimbledon
The Wimbledon site is spread over two floors, seating 104 inside and another 18 out, and it has created twenty-five new jobs locally. It is led by Elena Gentili, a long-standing Pilgrim rather than an outside hire, which tells you something about how they staff an opening.
Downstairs is the busier of the two rooms — an open kitchen, the noise and the smell of the oven, and a sun-bleached Neapolitan streetscape look that puts you in the middle of the action. Upstairs is the one to angle for. The first-floor garden terrace is done out to evoke the Bay of Naples, with a pagoda, a hand-painted mural, a large olive tree, lemons scattered about and wisteria running across the walls. It is planted to bloom year-round, which is a sensible bit of forward thinking in a city where the weather cannot be relied upon.
On the menu you will find the Pilgrims regulars: the Margherita, the Salsiccia e Friarielli, and the Double Pepperoni with Spicy Honey, which is the sweet-and-salty one people get evangelical about. If you are in a less restrained mood, there is the 8 Cheese, or the Carbonara, which arrives topped with crispy strands of al dente spaghetti and is exactly as ridiculous as it sounds.
The Verdict — For Now
This is not a review. I ate standing up, holding a drink, with a DJ spinning some tunes, which is no way to judge anyone’s pizzas and I am not about to pretend otherwise.
What I can tell you is that Pizza Pilgrims have taken one of the best positions in Wimbledon, put a rather lovely terrace on the first floor of it, and arrived with the sort of noise that suggests they intend to be part of the neighbourhood rather than just trading off the postcode. Wimbledon is not short of places to eat, but it has been light on genuinely good pizza for a while, and that gap has now been filled.
The pizzeria opened properly on Tuesday 18th August, so by the time you read this the DJ has packed up and the business of actually feeding Wimbledon is well underway. I will be going back for a proper sit-down and a proper verdict some time soon— upstairs on the terrace, and with rather fewer shots,I promise.
Where to Find Pizza Pilgrims Wimbledon
Pizza Pilgrims Wimbledon
1-9 Wimbledon Hill Road, London SW19 7NF
Open daily for lunch and dinner. Reservations taken, with space kept back for walk-ins.
Website: pizzapilgrims.co.uk/pizzerias/wimbledon
Nearest Station
Wimbledon — District line, National Rail and Tramlink. Roughly a one-minute walk.
I attended the launch party as a guest of Pizza Pilgrims.
