NONA

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

Italian Cooking, Organic Belgian Ingredients

NONA is a family of Italian restaurants spread across Brussels — three pizzerias, two fresh pasta restaurants, and a booth in Antwerp — all built on a single founding principle: Do Good. The original address on Rue Sainte-Catherine sits at the heart of it, and the ethos that drives it is as straightforward as the food: proper Italian cooking, seasonal organic ingredients, and a genuine connection to the people who grow and make them.

Gambero Rosso recognised NONA with one of its coveted slices, a mark that speaks to the authenticity of what comes out of these kitchens.

Naples as the North Star

The inspiration is Naples — its pace, its colours, its unshakeable conviction that simplicity done well is enough. NONA's pizzas are authentic Neapolitan, with the characteristic soft, blistered crust that defines the style. The pasta is made fresh in the NONA atelier, shaped with bronze tools that echo the very techniques Neapolitan pasta-makers pioneered in the 18th and 19th centuries to give each piece a rough texture that holds sauce.

Signature dishes pay direct tribute to the city: a classic margherita, a ragù Genovese, and seasonal specials that shift with what Belgian farms are producing. In autumn, that means a Zucca pizza with cream of pumpkin, fior di latte, smoky scamorza affumicata, pancetta, and rosemary. On the pasta side, a Roman-style Gricia uses organic guanciale from the Savigni family in Pavana, Italy — rendered down with black pepper, Parmigiano Reggiano, and Pecorino Romano into a sauce that is, by any honest measure, remarkable.

Good Food Means Good Sourcing

The supplier relationships at NONA are not decorative. Organic mozzarella comes from Buffl'Ardenne in Neufchâteau. Parmigiano Reggiano arrives from IRIS Agricola in Emilia-Romagna. The guanciale is sourced from Savigni in Pavana. Kitchen and front-of-house teams visit the Belgian farms as part of their training — so the person serving you genuinely knows the food on the plate.

Menus change with the seasons, which means what you eat in October bears little resemblance to what was on offer in June. That is entirely the point.