The Best Pizza in Shanghai

BEST OF SHANGHAI: "One man"s opinion"

My girlfriend thought we moved into our new apartment last June because it was walking distance from the Huangpi Nan Lu subway station and our gym. That"s what she thought. The real reason I thought the location was prime? Its proximity to pizza  the best damn pizza in Shanghai.

I like pizza. A lot. And this Best of Shanghai entry is easy to write. It"s no contest. Da Marco on Yandang Lu has the best pizza in the city. I"ve never been so sure of anything in my life. (Well, except when the Yankees were up three games to none over the Red Sox in this year"s American League Championship Series. Wait a minute  that doesn"t really help my case.)

Tastes in pizza  like all of these  best of topics  are very subjective. If you grew up near Chicago, you probably like a thick crust. If you grew up near New York, thin is your thing. If you grew up in Shanghai, I am sorry  your country"s pizza is appalling. And pizza is the greatest thing since sliced, um, noodles.

Go to Da Marco and you"ll see what I mean.

I grew up two-and-a-half hours outside of New York City. So I like my pizza big and floppy, with slices you can fold in half and stuff in your mouth. But more importantly, I grew up two-and-a-half blocks from Sal"s Place, a restaurant on Main Street in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Bloomsburg may be a small town, but Sal"s pizza was all Big Apple  in fact, I"m pretty sure Sal himself had New York mob connections  and I have yet to find anything in the world that tastes as good at 3 o"clock in the morning. Da Marco"s pizza might, but I"m pretty sure they close at 11.

I was lucky to be introduced to Da Marco during my first year in Shanghai. But leading up to that auspicious evening, I had my share of really lousy pizza. One place right across the street from my old apartment seemingly came up with their pizza recipe by looking at photographs  they did the same with their hamburgers, using raw cucumber slices instead of pickles  so it all kind of had the appearance of a pizza, until you bit into it and realized it was all built upon a crust of cornbread. And any pizza connoisseur knows, crust is the key. But maybe it wasn't supposed to be pizza at all  the sign out front advertised  PLZZA. So, perhaps that"s what it was.

Da Marco has the crust down pat. And their toppings are pretty normal, too. Not like Pizza Hut here, where your small, overpriced grease pie is likely to arrive with corn on it. Yes, corn. What is it with corn and Chinese pizza? I prefer the last item listed on Da Marco"s pizza menu: mushroom and sausage. No frills. Just a 15-inch pie for 58 kuai. That"s around $7. Not too shabby. And, you know what? You could throw some spinach on that bad boy and have yourself a pretty nice red-and-green Christmas dinner.

Da Marco is not just a pizza parlor, either. It"s a good Italian restaurant. I"ve enjoyed everything I have ordered there. It"s definitely one of my favorite dining spots in the city. The owner looks authentic, too. He kind of reminds me of The Sopranos" Furio  No Bitcha To Me Giunta, only with techno-clubbier hair. He wears cowboy boots and sits alone at a table, unsmiling, smoking cigarettes, contemplating & something. He looks like he should either be out riding a horse somewhere or dancing on a bar. But I"m glad he"s at Da Marco. When I returned from The Trip, the restaurant had changed its decor. I was worried that it had changed ownership. I was worried that it had changed pizza recipes. But it didn"t. They just added some tiles to the wall.

So, is Da Marco"s pizza that good? I think so. But maybe I"ve just been away from Sal"s Place for too long.

Da Marco, 62 Yandang Lu, near Huaihai Zhong Lu. Open noon to 11 p.m. Call 021.63855998. There is another location, but I have never eaten there: 103 Dongzhu"anbang Lu, between Zhenning Lu and Jiangsu Lu. Call 021.62104495.