Anto Ranked S’pore’s Best Pizzeria In 50 Top Pizza’s Asia-Pacific 2026 List

“Solid technical skills guarantee a dough, clearly inspired by Neapolitan tradition, well leavened, light, digestible, and fragrant, with a high and well-developed crust. The cooking is precise,” declares the 50 Top Pizza website.

Coming in at No 31 is La Bottega Enoteca, which also bagged the Best Dessert List 2026 award; and, at No 33, Fortuna.  

And, topping the list as No 1 in Asia-Pacific is Tokyo's Ristopizza by Napoli sta ca.

If you’re inspired to head to Anto, now is as good a time as any, as the restaurant has just launched three new pizzas — one of which is inspired in part by chef-owner Brancato’s favourite local dish of duck rice.

Called the Anatra Quasi all’Arancia, it’s a pizza “in teglia”, a Roman-style pie baked in a pan to produce a crispy crust. Atop buffalo mozzarella and fresh fennel sit succulent slices of duck as an homage to the duck rice from the hawker stall down the street from the restaurant that Brancato has almost every day. Flavour-wise, it’s a take on Italian-style duck a l’orange — it’s drizzled with a sweet, tangy Vermouth reduction that adds a slightly acidic contrast to the meat.

Then there’s the Bottarga alla Scapece, a visually striking pizza with a vibrant green base made from fava beans. This is a pizza for connoisseurs: On top, you’ll find crispy zucchini, toasted almonds and shavings of tuna bottarga from Cetara on the Amalfi coast.

Also new is the Lucana Ritrovata with a focus on fresh Italian vegetables. It’s a tribute to one of the iconic dishes from Brancato’s native Basilicata in southern Italy: The traditional famers’ breakfast of ciaudedda. The pizza features endive, artichoke and fave bean, along with pancetta and a sprinkling of peperone crusco, a dried pepper that is a specialty of the region. You can also have this pizza in vegetarian and vegan versions.

If you’re a first-timer to Anto, though, you might want to start off with their bestselling pizzas, which Brancato says are the Rustica, his signature sausage and rosemary radicchio pizza which he created 12 years ago and is “always on the menu wherever I go”; the Tonno & Cipolla featuring Japanese tuna, seaweed, Shishito peppers and soy; and the Rocco, which has fior di latte and thinly-sliced, crispy potatoes – it’s named after his father, as it’s his regular order.

You can pair your pizzas with some of the interesting cocktails, including the “Classico” negroni from a clay amphora; and end off with an incarnation of Sgroppino for dessert: A sorbet of Prosecco and limoncello folded by hand until stiff.

“There is no secret” to making good pizza, Brancato said. “People think it’s about a recipe. But really, the secret is letting passion be the reason you do your job. When you make the dough, you need to feel the dough.” 

The 38-year-old, who has worked in Milan, Dubai and Riyadh and spent two years working with Franco Pepe of Chef’s Table fame, is in the kitchen at 5am daily, making each pizza himself. “Our customers say, ‘When we eat your pizza, we can feel your passion’.”

In his eyes, the perfect pizza is about “simple ingredients and simple flavours, but you can feel everything – salt, sweetness, sometimes bitterness. It’s a balance of good quality ingredients and good quality dough. And, when you finish eating it, you still feel the ‘wow’ in your mouth even after several minutes.”

Meanwhile, Brancato is gearing up to travel to Naples in September for the global 50 Top Pizza awards.

“When I left (my hometown of) Pignola 15 years ago, I didn't have a plan. I had a way of making pizza that my land gave me,” he said. “Being confirmed number one in Singapore and 15th in Asia means the city trusts what we do.”

Anto is located at 2 Jiak Chuan Rd, S089260. Open daily 12pm to 3pm, 5.30pm to 11pm. More info via website.

Source: CNA/my

The original version of this story first appeared in CNA Lifestyle.

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