Douglas Williams/Shanghai Daily news

To talk about the "Last Supper," either the painting or the event, in a restaurant review would be trite and hackneyed but that hasn't stopped many a reviewer before and it's not going to stop me.
Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece captures one of the defining moments in the life of Jesus Christ when he takes his last meal surrounded by the 12 disciples and it inadvertently poses a question that has bothered mankind thence forth: If told the next meal would be your last but it can be whatever you choose, what would it be? In the blink of an eye, my answer would always be pizza.
That's proper pizza as eaten in Italy where pizza was invented as opposed to the vague approximation served the world over. Not some doughy, floppy, stodgy mess swamped in mozzarella thrown together by a minimum wage student. No, no, no spare us. I was that soldier and apologies to anyone unfortunate enough to have eaten one of mine. Not that an apology is ever likely from the main global purveyors of that gastronomic fiasco. Severino Bassani, executive chef of Jimix Seve Pizzeria Gelateria Cafetteria Ristorante at 607 Beijing Road W., says: "I think many so-called pizzas bare as much resemblance to what I consider pizza to be as Chinese food bares to Italian." Bassani comes from a small village near the Italian capital Rome and clearly knows and loves pizza: "I eat pizza just about every day," he says.

Severino Bassani, pizza maestro at Jimix Seve. — DW

It's something of a shame that what I consider the best pizza in Shanghai is served in a place that's rather tricky to find so let's get that straight before we proceed. Go east about 500 meters along the south side of Beijing Road W. from the junction with No. 2 Shimen Road. Out back is a large peaceful courtyard, decking, a dozen tables and a large verdant tree in one corner. The covered portico along one wall where 30 guests can dine under cover should the weather dictate can be heated. There's also a private room available.
Not that Jimix is exclusively a pizza restaurant. Three lunch menus - 48 yuan (US$5.93), 58 yuan and 78 yuan - offer salad and pasta; salad, soup and pasta; and salad, soup, pasta and desert. Whilst the salads are good, and judging by my freshly made asparagus soup so are the soups, it's the pizzas that rule the roost.
"When we started out at the end of last year we had suggestions for toppings like pineapple, green peppers and chicken but I can't compromise," says Bassani. "We don't have pineapple as a pizza topping in Italy and when we use peppers we use red or yellow ones. All our toppings are genuine traditional Italian."
So the need for black pepper and perhaps Parmesan upon serving hasn't quite filtered through to the staff yet, ironic given the shop part sells whizzo pepper mills and cheese graters but that's easily remedied.
"Black pepper signor/signorina?" These pizzas don't arrive neatly cut into six slices (they will if you ask). There's something distinctly Freudian about how a person actually goes about eating a pizza and it's interesting to watch. That's if you can focus on anything other than getting as much pizza into your mouth as quickly as possible. Having had the good fortune to eat pizza in Italy in the not so distant I am happy to report that Bassani's are the very same.
Pizza prices range from around 50 to 100 yuan, meaning the pizzas at Jimix are cheaper than those abominations served in a well-known chain.
Delivery can be arranged with an hour's notice, call 6253-3399.