Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana

Reviews

• Matt A.

  star star star star star 7 June 2026

  Believe me when I say I'm a pizza lover - I would happily eat it multiple times a day for the rest of my life. And I am also a very adventurous eater; I have been to hundreds of pizza places all around the world. So I type the following sentence with no levity. This restaurant has the best pizza I have ever tasted in my life.
  
  Every component is stunning in its simplicity- the cheese so creamy, the sauce so rich, the dough so flavorful - and all of it is perfectly cooked. The chef pays incredible attention to detail and changes his menu routinely to keep up with local produce. There are always stunning new foods to try at Inferno.
  
  If you enjoy pizza, consider it your life's mission to eat here.

• Aarti B.

  star star star star star_border 2 June 2026

  Authentic Neapolitan wood-fired pizza - get the Margherita! The dollops of fresh mozzarella cheese and savory San Marzano tomato sauce and morsel of basil pairs well together with the perfect amount of premium toppings without overpowering the flavor of the Margherita pizza. The pizza was cooked all the way through with a nice charred pillowy soft crust which was a bit thicker with more burnt edges than traditional Neapolitan pizza.
  
  While we enjoyed the pizza, the dessert was a bummer and the Apple Butter Cake was disappointing. I wanted to love the dessert so badly! The cake tasted like plain angle cake without any chunks of apples infused and topped with caramelized apple slices and butterscotch sauce. The underwhelming dessert didn't match the waiter's appetizing description or the menu. It was too bland and sweet, sadly we thew in the towel half way and left much to be desired! I honestly could have made a better dessert at home. As no one had posted any reviews on this particular dessert, I can see why. Save your appetite for the pizza!
  
  Go early around opening time at 5pm or be prepared to wait! We got there at 5:30pm and there were only a handful of open tables. By 6, there were people waiting outside. The restaurant is quite cozy with no outdoor seating, so I wouldn't recommend big groups or large strollers.
  
  Like other fellow Yelpers, I second that the staff is quite junior and needs a bit more work and training.
  
  Fun to try if you're in the area, but wouldn't make the trek up from DC or NOVA. Don't quite agree with Washingtonian that it's the best pizza place in the Greater DC area - go to Pupatella or Assaggi in Falls Church and McLean. Better Neapolitan pizza with a more tenured staff, and best of all no wait!

• Edward L.

  star star star star star 31 May 2026

  I was previously a regular at Pizza CS on Rockville Pike but am now officially and strictly an Inferno convert. I have been coming to Inferno every few weeks for over a year now. Their location, tucked in the corner of a quiet shopping center, is proof that if you have great food, people will come find you (hence, why so many terrible restaurants in Rockville Town Square don't survive despite their prime location).
  
  Inferno offers probably the closest thing to real Neapolitan pizza here in the D.C. Metropolitan area. They use only the highest quality ingredients, which makes a big difference. I love that the menu regularly changes depending on what is in season and available to the chef. Pizza-wise, I typically stick with the classic Margherita, often with finely sliced prosciutto and arugula.
  
  The staff are always a delight and genuinely happy to see you return. It would be good to see some Italian beers added to the drink selection. Besides that, the interior strikes a good balance between family-friendly and a bit more posh than your average neighborhood pizza place.
  
  - As you were.

• Nora J.

  star star star star_border star_border 30 May 2026

  So the Washingtonian named this the best pizza place in the Greater DC area. Hands down they serve pizza with high end ingredients (i.e. San Marzano tomatoes, 00 flour, premium meats, etc).
  
  However, be prepared for dining...it's much like Black Friday, where there's a line out front before it opens. Can't blame them since it's truly great pizza! Not the best in the WMA, but definitely great pizza!
  
  However, the front house staff definitely needs some work. I've been here a few times...first time, the waiter took forever and forgot to place our order, thus allowing us to sit there for a solid hour before he realized his mistake. Today, I ordered to go, and was asking the hostess which dessert to go with and she recommended the ice cream. Well, come to pick up my order and the ice cream was half melted, no spoon offered (not given when asked) and served in a VERY used plastic container, where the plastic is peeling off. Please tell me what dessert like that deserves to be charged at $12?!? WTH! And the chef use to be a five star chef? Hats off to your food, but come on, the presentation on the desserts were awful! The plastic container was disappointing... Please tell your staff to not offer certain desserts to go if you cannot adequately serve them.

• John B.

  star star star star star 17 May 2026

  I have spent plenty of time in the area around here, and it is not a food destination. It's soullessly suburban, and the memories I have from doing sports and working around here are unimpressive; I can't imagine why anyone would want to be here. And yet, for some reason, this critical darling which produces quality Neapolitan pizzas has set up in a banal strip mall across from a high school. It's tiny and the atmosphere could never match up to what you'd get in a nice urban neighborhood (or a pretty rustic area), but having tasted their pizza, I can confirm that this is indeed a food destination now.
  
  The pizza arrives quickly and is crusty, with a large portion of the outer rim left without cheese or sauce so as to bubble and char most deliciously. It had a richness to it; I wonder if it's whole wheat, which I like, but one way or another, it is a top-notch crust. Even though the cheese takes up less space, it is highly rich. I added Calabrian chili peppers to my margherita. I've actually had these elsewhere and been unimpressed, but here they were both sweet and spicy and provided another layer of contrast to the standard margherita flavors. So many food writers have deemed it the best margherita in the greater DC, and I struggle to disagree with them (and I've tried some good ones).
  
  I also ordered a soda, which was a reasonably interesting bottled cola, and split a dessert, a piece of cake over hazelnut mousse not pictured due to it being destroyed too quickly.
  
  The drawbacks are a tiny dining area prone to lines, a small menu without a lot of options for anyone who is not up for a standard pizza, and the fact that they apparently sometimes run out of dough well before the wee hours. Their service was a bit pushy and impersonal to me; perhaps a side effect of the crowds. The upside is that the taste of every individual ingredient is ecstatic, and they combine perfectly. I shudder to think that I used to drive up this street for lunch buffets at Pizza Hut.