The Best Pizza in Sydney
In the 1950s, you would have been hard-pressed to find pizza in Sydney outside of Leichhardt’s Norton Street. And Pizza Hut, which preceded Domino’s and Eagle Boys by more than 15 years, didn’t open its first Sydney shop til the early ’70s.
But we’ve made up for lost time. Since the noughties we’ve had a constant stream of pizzerias serving true Neapolitan-style pies, including some of the best you'll find outside Italy. But we’ve also started firing out enormous rounds like you’d find in New York, chunky Roman-style squares sold by weight, and others new-wave creations you can only get in Sydney. Here’s where to find them.
Restaurant
Bella Brutta
Not quite Neapolitan, not quite New Yorker – the pizza at Bella Brutta is a style all of its own. Expect a puffy, blistered crust, a sag-proof base and a raft of creative toppings (a slice of the white clam pie with fermented chilli is a must). From the teams behind LP’s Quality Meats and Porteno.
Restaurant
Westwood Pizza
This tiny pizzeria by two ex-Bella Brutta chefs makes around 150 pizzas a day, so order your fermented-garlic honey number early – this one tends to sell out fast. There are a few seats inside, but we say grab your pizza to go and head to Camperdown park for an al fresco feast.
Restaurant
City Oltra
Two gun pizzaiolos have teamed up with inner-west distillery Poor Toms to create the ultimate inner-city hangout – with not-quite-New York pizzas, chunky square pies, plates of gabagool and a riff on a legendary Perth sandwich. But it’s here for a good time, not a long time.
Restaurant
Da Orazio
At this pretty corner spot just back from Bondi Beach, one of the city’s best Italian chefs is serving perfectly puffy woodfired pizzas and a Sydney-famous porchetta roll. Plus pastas, carafes of wine and tiramisu.
Restaurant
Bsp’eria
A retro hole in the wall bringing Brooklyn energy and neapolitan pizzas to South Sydney. Claim a milk crate and tuck into an Uncle Charlie – a 48-hour fermented sourdough base topped with spicy ’nduja, mozzarella, ricotta and honey – while watching the chefs in action.
Restaurant
Ta Ta Ta
Like in Rome, the pizza at this Bondi takeaway joint is sold by weight. The bases are crisp with puffy interiors and toppings like earthy mushrooms on parmesan cream; and salami, fior di latte and mozzarella. Go for the chef's selection box – it includes three to six slices of the day's favourites.
Restaurant
Cicerone Cucina Romana
The best of the eternal city inspires this graffiti-covered pasta cave. Enter for classic Roman pastas including carbonara and cacio e pepe. Plus, blistered slabs of Roman pizza recognised by a prestigious Italian food authority.
Restaurant
My Mother’s Cousin
A big wallop of nostalgia informs this retro-tinged pizza-and-wings parlour. It’s doing New York-style pizzas, wings drenched in hot sauce and a riff on a famous fast-food apple pie. Proudly pineapple-free since ‘83.
Restaurant
Dimitri's Pizzeria
Dimitri’s first started as a pint-sized pizzeria on Crown street in 2019. It’s since moved over to Oxford Street, and now has a much bigger dining room downstairs and a dedicated small bar upstairs. But Dimitri’s lo-fi aesthetic remains, as does its flavour-over-tradition approach to woodfired pizza. Prefer natural vino with your slice? Right this way.
Restaurant
Pizza al Taglio
Crowned in 2023 as one of the best pizzerias in Australia by prestigious Italian guide, 50 Top Pizza. While the proof is well and truly in the dough here, it’s Al Taglio’s genre-bending toppings that truly stand out. Your pizza might come loaded with anything from pureed pea to smoked turkey.
Restaurant
Pocket Pizza
The best way to experience this beachside pizzeria is from a table on the street, beneath a pastel umbrella with a spritz in hand. Pizzas are topped with high-quality ingredients, and you can expect anything from figs and pork crackling to gorgonzola and honey.
Restaurant
The Dolphin Hotel
This inner-city pub bucks a fews trends. It looks and feels more like a high-concept wine bar for a start. But in the pizza department, it eschews all-Italian ingredients in favour of fresher local alternatives. And the results speak for themselves.
Restaurant
Via Napoli
Lane Cove’s answer to true Neapolitan pizza. And it’s the got the accreditation from the highest authority of Neapolitan pizza-making to prove it. The metre-long, triple-topped pizzas here are a showstopper.
Restaurant
Lucio Pizzeria
Lucio De Falco is one of Sydney’s best pizziaolos. Whether you catch him at his Darlinghurst or Zetland restaurants, expect super-traditional Neapolitan pizzas with a few welcome twists. Also, homemade pastas, do-it-yourself antipasto and buffalo cheese imported all the way from Campania, Italy.
Restaurant
Matteo
The southern Italian vibe has been nailed at this breezy fave, which is no surprise given the hospitality guns running the show. But it’s all about the Roman-style pizza here – perfectly light, elastic dough that won’t leave you bloated and lethargic. Its the same story at Matteo's fast-casual CBD sibling.
Restaurant
Rosso Pomodoro
The golden rule at this neighbourhood pizzeria? No half-and-half. It’s the same story at its Bondi sibling, where you’ll find a similar selection of red, white and vegan pizzas made in true Napoli style. There’s also a big focus on antipasti, and Negroni served nine different ways.
Restaurant
Gigi Pizzeria
The first pizzeria in Sydney to go completely vegan. And if anything, the lines to get in are bigger than ever. Umami-rich, plant-based toppings here go above and beyond mere substitute status. You won’t miss the meat and cheese, that’s for sure.
Restaurant
Pizza Madre
Madre’s seasonal menu changes weekly, with vegetarian toppings you’ve probably never tried on a slice of pizza. Carrot puree? Harissa eggplant? Pistachio cream? They’ve all done their time in the woodfired oven here. And – busy intersection be damned – a meal on the footpath outside is a quintessential Marrickville experience.
Restaurant
DOC Pizza
The Sydney outpost for the popular Victorian pizza institution. Bases here are proved for four days so they’re light and easy to digest, then topped with only a couple of ingredients, including buffalo mozzarella imported from Italy and a carefully chosen truffle oil from the Chianti hills.
Restaurant
La Bufala
The pizzaiolos at La Bufala employ stone ground, type-one flour in their dough, which isn’t as refined as the favoured 00-type flour. The result is a slice with more bite and less “flop” once cooked. And they’re healthier for it, too, as far as pizza goes.
Restaurant
Vacanza Surry Hills
Vacanza embodies the Italian “less is more” approach to pizza. There’s a neat list of pies, a calzone for good measure, plus a dedicated mozzarella bar brimming with imported Italian cheeses. It also has a second location in Bronte.
Restaurant
Rosso Antico
The finest pizza on Emore Road is by a veteran of Sydney’s Italian food scene. Neapolitan tradition is well and truly on show here, along with a tight edit of pastas and a longer list of antipasti. Find it all in an exposed brick space beneath the Urban Hotel in Newtown.
Restaurant
La Coppola
Sicilian-style pies made to a secret recipe. Not as thick as a Roman pizza, but not as thin and sloppy as Neapolitan either. La Coppola’s has a crisp base with a satisfyingly puffy and blistered edge. A small joint with big Italian heart.
Restaurant
Ullo Pizza & Wine
Neapolitan pizza, good wine and cracking ocean views – this Italian-ish bar and diner is the answer to Dee Why’s evening prayers. Come for all of the above in a neon-lit space, plus DJs towards the end of the week.
Restaurant
MMC Slice Shoppe
After an extensive research trip to New York, the team behind My Mother’s Cousin have opened a nostalgic pizzeria firing out round pies and squares by the slice like they do in the Big Apple.
Restaurant
Regina La Pizzeria
There are three styles here: one that’s both criminally crisp and impossibly fluffy, a deep-dish beaut, and one that comes out of Sydney’s only Fazzone oven.
More Options
La Disfida, Haberfield
Even in an Italian stronghold like Haberfield, there can only be one pizza to rule them all. We think it's served here, at this dimly lit trattoria on the main drag. There's usually a different red- or white-based special each week, plus a line-up of classic pastas, snacks and salads. The fast-paced energy on weekends only adds to the experience of dining here.
Love Supreme, Paddington
Top-quality organic produce is the star of the show at this unpretentious spot – and the pizza’s all the better for it. Woodfired bases are topped with creative flavour combinations that honour the Italian tradition of seasonal eating, on a menu that changes daily. No two visits here will be the same.
-4b1dc07045.webp)
-d9ac90c5f1.webp)
