Il Leone — Restaurant in Portland

Outstanding Neapolitan pizza and gelato-probably top-5 of all pizza places I've ever been to within the style.

We got the Diavola, the Buffalina, the Margherita, and the lobster special. All were excellent, although I would probably not order the lobster regularly, as it is very expensive ($34 the day we went). My favorite was the Diavola, (uncured salami, cheese, tomato sauce and ) which has an excellent balance of spicy, herbaceous, and cheese flavors. Both the Buffalina and Margherita were excellent takes on a classic formula: great balance of cheese, acid from tomato sauce, and char on the crust.

Finally, dessert was excellent gelato from Gelato Fiasco: we tried the whole menu: intense Chocolate Noir, vanilla, mango sorbet, and the delightful Netflix 'n chill.

I ate all that yesterday and will come back today to get my second helpings, and try the Funghi that I...

Was excited to try this place! We got there at 11:45 and stood in line until they opened at Noon. We were about 10-15 people back in a line. We waited about 30 minutes to order after they opened. After ordering and after we already paid they told us our wait for the food was 1 hour and 20 minutes! That is insane!! They had a huge pizza oven and were cooking 1 pizza at a time?? Why wouldn’t you advise people before they pay $140 for a few pizzas and 2 coke cans (almost $300 for our families of 8 to eat lunch) that the wait was an hour and 20 minutes before you would get your food. For that to be how you run your business is wild anyone ever eats here. After an hour and with multiple hungry kids we told them we wanted our money back. We were wasting the time we had on the island waiting for pizza for 2 hours. I wish we were...

A pizza run to Il Leone is a peak Portland experience. Catch the ferry on a summer evening, amble down to the Lion’s Club green. What you find there is pretty perfect: the pizza oven roaring behind a cluster of petite picnic tables, the cafe lights twinkling above, the glow of the sun and the water just beyond the tree-line.

All the pizzas that I’ve tried have been superb, thanks in no small part to the deliciously charred naturally leavened dough that gives them their base. I do have some favorites: I love adding burrata to the Diavola, the mellow creaminess of the cheese against the peppery salami calabrese. The L’Estate is a glorious celebration of our fleeting tomato harvest. And when I’m feeling fanciful and fancy, the Aragosta is hard to resist: lobster, lemon, basil, just a hint of chili - it’s a...