Antica Pizzeria & Ristorante

The wood-burning oven is the first thing the kitchen at Antica answers to. It runs hot enough to blister a Neapolitan crust in a minute or two, char-spotted and pillowy at the edge, and the Margherita that comes off it — San Marzano tomato, fior di latte, fresh basil, a thread of extra virgin olive oil — is the plate the rest of the menu is built around. Antica Pizzeria & Ristorante sits on Victoria Avenue in Niagara Falls, a short walk from Clifton Hill but a clear step away from the chain restaurants crowded around it. Inside, the register stays unapologetically old-school Italian, and that oven is the centre of everything the kitchen does.

The pizzas run well past the Margherita into a full Neapolitan roster: a Diavola hot with spicy salami and chili, prosciutto cotto and mushroom, a four-cheese build of mozzarella, gorgonzola, fontina, and parmigiano, the loaded Capricciosa with artichokes, ham, mushrooms, and olives. The pasta list is just as long and just as traditional. Spaghetti carbonara is bound with guanciale, egg, and pecorino rather than cream; linguine alle vongole arrives with fresh clams in white wine and garlic; there is potato gnocchi in tomato and basil, mushroom risotto finished with parmigiano, and a lasagna al forno layered with beef ragu and bechamel.