Alley Cats, Marylebone: Have the influencers got it wrong about this NYC-style pizza?

There are certain things I’d queue outside in the rain for — a lifetime’s supply of Connaught Martinis, the secret to eternal youth, Beyoncé’s cowboy hat — but pizza? Pizza isn’t one of them. Evidently I’m the outlier, however, because on this drizzly Tuesday evening, the population of a small country is huddled on the pavement waiting for a taste of what many are touting as London’s best, most ‘authentic’, New York-style pie.

Traditionally large and pliable with a slither of crust and a trademark sheen of Trump-tinged grease, it’s one of the city’s many calling cards and famously lacking here in London. Dreamt up by the folks who run Ochre and Angus Steakhouse, Alley Cats doesn’t necessarily scream, ‘Like my mamma used to make!’ Nor does the on-the-nose loop of The Sopranos projected on to the bare brick wall. Still, with its red chequered tablecloths and green glazed bricks, it certainly oozes a certain charm.

Made with a mix of beef and pork, plump squidge-and-they’ll-scream meatballs in a luscious tomato and basil sauce make up for slabs of undercooked, salt-deprived garlic bread. Meanwhile, at chef Francesco’s recommendation, we pimp our pizzas with a daring mix of vodka sauce with mozzarella, smoked pepperoni, habanero and honey, and jazz up a Margarita with a scattering of fattened Ortiz anchovies. Thin and blistered with bottoms so crisp they’d make Mary Berry weep, these slices cut from 14-inch, five-day fermented rounds are anything but a flop; in fact they might even be a touch too crunchy.

Overall, when topped with rich sauces and admirably chosen ingredients, the flavours leave little to the imagination and the result is a pleasant one. But is it queue in the rain worthy? For me, not a meatball’s chance in Little Italy.

22 Paddington St, London W1U 5QY, alleycatspizza.co.uk