Don Mimi, Pizza and pasta, Monkstown.

An truly authentic pizzeria in Monkstown, C. Dublin. Don Mimi's also do great lasagne and canneloni, daily specials at only €6 and a mean banoffi. You owe it to yourself to try it.

Don Mimi, beside the Purty Kitchen in Monkstown has been packing them in since it opened. There has been a change of management recently, and Sicilian Antonio Lentini is the new chef, while his wife Barbera, from North Carolina is in charge front of house. They have brought a new enthusiasm to the place, and Antonio has worked in some of the best pizza restaurants in New York, and brings his own recipes and secret dough making skill with him. The upstairs has been opened up, and while the spaces are still small they are intimate and great fun.

The menu has 13 pizzas all priced between €8 and €12, as well as meat lasagne, vegetarian cannelloni and daily specials.

I went along with Deirdre and Abigail. Between three of us we had a wonderful plate of antipasto, which consisted of three or four Italian cheeses, Parma ham, garlic salami, rocket and olives. I am not doing it justice; you really need to just try one. We also got a plate of crostini topped with Parma ham and delicious mozzarella. Then we tried three pizzas - total pigs I know, but Antonio’s dough is so light you just about get away with it – one spicy salami and chilli, a Don Mimi special, rocket, parmesan and Parma ham and a Caprese, Buffalo mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and basil. All excellent.

Everything about Don Mimi reminded me of Italy. It had the feel of what Italians call a 'pizzeria al taglio', normally small outlets that sell pizzas by the slice, a sort of Italian fast food for takeaway. An endless line of people were coming in to take pizzas away and why wouldn't they? All the pizzas here are 12 inches and the majority of them are €10 or less.
The pizzas here are as good as you're going to get in Ireland and I'm delighted that so simple a dish can now be found, made as it should be.
They do delivery, to order phone 01 230 0992.