One popular pizza place

The Red Pepper is something of an institution. It may not be the largest restaurant in Maida Vale, it certainly isn't the most elegant, the service hovers on the edge of brusque and, for what is a neighbourhood pizza joint, the prices would be high enough to raise an eyebrow anywhere less sleek than W9. But it's packed. Book now if you want one of the three or four pavement tables any evening in August.

Legend has it that this is the place where Giorgio Locatelli first worked when he arrived in London, back when the Red Pepper's newly installed wood-burning pizza oven was still a novelty.

Over the years, every review of the Red Pepper has started with a complaint that the tiny tables are crammed in too tightly, you share elbow, knee and back space with your neighbours, you can enjoy their conversations and scrutinise their dinner. The tables are packed in so tightly that the waiters must combine an aptitude for slalom skiing with the core skills of a limbo dancer. None of the customers seem concerned.

When you have got a seat, turn your attention to the menu. There are half a dozen starters, a few pasta dishes, some specials and the list of pizzas. The starters are light and fresh, a spiced crab salad with baby spinach leaves is pretty on the plate and good on the fork as well. There is a disc of dressed crab (the white meat) with a quenelle on top (the brown meat), the spinach leaves underneath garnished with slivers of chilli pepper. Very fresh, very good. Or there's pan-fried goats' cheese with green beans and sun-dried tomato dressing, or swordfish carpaccio with chilli salsa, or a bowl of green pea soup with a char-grilled Tiger prawn bobbing in it - a little under-seasoned. Specials range from a rib-eye steak with onion marmalade to square spaghetti with courgettes and a truffle beurre blanc.

But you should turn your attention to the pizzas, which are very good indeed. They are large - you need a good appetite to clean your plate here. They are flat and thin, but not too thin - the balance between chewy and crisp is about right. Toppings are lavish and the mozzarella is top quality (using cheap rubbery mozzarella to save money has doomed many a pizza). As well as the usual suspects - margherita, Napoli, stagioni, - the 'rossi' is worthy of special mention.

The redness comes from tomatoes, red peppers and chilli oil, a decent belt of chilli oil making the gooey top nicely piquant. The 'primavera' is also very good, topped with San Daniele ham, Parmesan and a handful of rocket - seeing something green somehow makes you feel healthier. The all-Italian wine list has some interesting bottles at gentle prices. Check out the Sardinian reds.

The Red Pepper is an impossibly cramped place to eat, but the pizzas are so good that nobody cares.