In tandem with our guide to Melbourne’s best pizza restaurants, we’re turning our attention toward all things delicious and doughy in the harbour city.
For over a decade, Sydney has had a range of authentic Neapolitan-style pizzerias, but beyond purveyors of the margherita or quattro formaggi, there’s a decent chunk of eateries who are reimagining the ubiquitous Italian pie with scrummy creativity.
From established favourites like Via Napoli to the more modern and playful fare of Westwood Pizza, there are a lot of options worth sinking one’s teeth into when you’re hankering after the best pizza in Sydney. Browse through our favourites below.
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Jump To:
- The Best Pizza Restaurants In Sydney
- Pizza Madre, Marrickville (Best Vegetarian)
- Da Mario, Rosebery
- Bella Brutta, Newtown
- Via Napoli, Lane Cove (Best Classic)
- The Dolphin Hotel, Surry Hills
- Dimitri’s Pizzeria, Darlinghurst
- Westwood Pizza, Newtown (Best Modern)
- Verace Pizzeria, Macquarie Park
- Vacanza, Waverley
- 170 Grammi, Surry Hills (Best Value)
- Lucio Pizzeria, Darlinghurst
- DeVita Manly
- Mario Brothers, Crows Nest
- DOC Gastronomia, Surry Hills
- Gigi’s Pizzeria, Newtown
The Best Pizza Restaurants In Sydney
Pizza Madre, Marrickville (Best Vegetarian)
A pizza joint without so much as a single meat-based menu option would have been unthinkable 10 years ago; and yet this is precisely what Pizza Madre in Marrickville has staked its reputation on.
There isn’t a single Diavola or Meat Lovers in sight here: just plenty of delicious and inventive flavours that are jampacked with vegan cheese and seasonal vegetables. Think a perfectly blistered pie, topped with cabbage, pumpkin, and roasted pepitas; or a suitably truffly option, layered with charred leek and onsen egg — new for this winter.
Pizza Madre’s dough bases are equally worth talking about: made with a sourdough ferment, these possess a tang and glutinous texture that works really well with all of the venue’s homemade relishes, chilli oils, and similarly preserved goodies.
Offering a (relatively) light and modern riff on pizza napoletana, we’d wager even diehard traditionalists will be impressed with the creativity on display here. Be sure to pop your head back in once every couple of months, as the Madre team make it their business to rotate the 6-7 pizzas on menu regularly.
Address: 2/205 Victoria Road, Marrickville NSW 2204
Contact: 0417 849 419
Opening Hours: Saturday to Thursday (4:30 PM — 9 PM); Friday (4:30 PM — 9 PM)
Da Mario, Rosebery
A spiritual successor to the beloved (and now sadly closed) Pizza Mario in Surry Hills, Da Mario comes to Sydneysiders courtesy of veteran pizzaiolo David Cowdrill.
Often cited as one of Sydney’s best traditional pizzerias, the pie to get here — above all else — is the ‘Salamino’: Cowdrill’s signature combination of mozzarella, crispy salami, with generous lashings of ricotta. For something markedly less meaty, the gorgonzola con radicchio comes highly recommended from multiple staffers in our office.
Finally, it’s also worth mentioning that (by the standards of 2024) Da Mario’s menu is positively encyclopedic: offering a whopping 22 varieties of calzone, red-based, and white-based pizzas.
Address: Shop 1/36 Morley Ave, Rosebery NSWÂ
Contact: (02) 9669 2242
Opening Hours: Friday to Sunday (5 PM — 8:30 PM)
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Bella Brutta, Newtown
Originally a team-up between Luke Powell (of LP Quality Meats) and the team behind Porteno, Bella Brutta has played a pivotal role in Newtown’s emergence as an alt-pizza hotspot since it opened in 2018.
The venue’s unassuming, tile-heavy aesthetic is typical of King Street: but so much the better to appreciate its roaring, custom-made oven that puts out hundreds of pies daily.
Powell and his crew favour pizza that is essentially Neapolitan in architecture: thin-sliced and with puffed, bubbly crusts that are ideal for dipping into the venue’s chilli oil.
Toppings ride a fine line between tradition and novelty: for instance, the shop is offering a potato and guanciale number this winter; with familiar Italo-inflected recipes like that sitting comfortably alongside ‘Cavolo Nero’ or a white-based pie speckled with surf clams.
Address: 135 King Street, Newtown NSW 2042
Contact: (02) 9922 5941
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday (4 PM — 9 PM); Saturday to Sunday (12 PM — 9 PM)
Via Napoli, Lane Cove (Best Classic)
Among gourmands, Lane Cove’s reputation at-large is that of a Japanese food suburb; but the North Shore neighbourhood is also home to Via Napoli — one of the earliest forerunners in Sydney’s trend toward Neapolitan-style pizza.
Assuming the name wasn’t already enough of a giveaway, a quick consult of Via Napoli’s menu lets one know that the specialty is everything traditional. And why mess with a good thing, when the iconic Margherita, or ink-black ‘Amalfi Way’ seafood pie, provide such consistent and universal enjoyment?
Toppings may all run toward the classic end of the spectrum, but what’s less conventional is the amount of flexibility the venue gives to hungry patrons. All pies are available in a trio of sizes (‘traditional’; ’50cm’; ‘1m’) and, if you’re liable to sampling than one flavour, may be mixed and matched across the same price point.
Via Napoli operates additional outposts in Surry Hills and Hunters Hill, but — if we had to pick one — the Lane Cove location, notable for its lengthy al fresco area, is our clear favourite.
Address: 141 Longueville Road, Lane Cove NSW 2066 (also in Hunters Hill and Surry Hills)
Contact: (02) 9428 3724
Opening Hours: Tuesday (5 PM — 10 PM); Wednesday to Sunday (12 PM — 10 PM)
The Dolphin Hotel, Surry Hills
While The Dolphin Hotel — a perpetual Surry Hills favourite — isn’t a pizzeria in the strictest sense of the word, the wood-fired oven there is an integral part of the venue’s appeal.
No matter whether you’re pulling up chairs in the Wine Room, Public Bar, or the venue’s large downstairs dining area, the ‘Delfino Pizzeria’ menu is widely accessible.
Following Monty Koludrovic’s departure back in 2020, the pizzeria program at The Dolphin is overseen by Sasha Smiljanic. The latter’s experiences at Bella Brutta are suffused throughout the menu: with Antipodean twists on classic combinations, like the ‘Salsiccia’ or XO-seasoned ‘Mare E Monti’, drawing hungry crowds all-week-round.
In collaboration with Executive Chef Danny Corbett, Koludrovic must be credited for bringing “an almost scientific precision” to pizza at The Dolphin. The kitchen’s dough recipe, by way of example, now employs three different flours and a base of Biga preferment: lending each finished pie a markedly lighter and clean-tasting mouthfeel. Moreish stuff.
Address: 412 Crown Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
Contact: (02) 9331 4800
Opening Hours: Monday to Saturday (11:30 AM — 12 AM); Sunday (12 PM — 10 PM)
Dimitri’s Pizzeria, Darlinghurst
In the unceasing debate about where to find the best pizza in Sydney, Dimitri’s occasionally flies under the radar, but this pint-sized eatery on Oxford Street (which even sports its own rooftop space) is capable of tangling with the best of them.
With a strong affinity for untraditional flavours and intuitive lo-fi wine pairings, owners Drew Huston and Ken Williams have garnered a robust fanbase across the Inner City. They’re also not above the occasional collab: having teamed up with everybody, from Chez Crix (of Cricketers Arms fame) to Borachio, for a slew of block party-esque Sunday sessions.
All pizzas here are built, naturally, on a base of woodfired sourdough. There are a handful of classic toppings — namely, Marinara and Margherita — to choose from, but the recipe to plumb for (especially if it’s your first visit) is the ‘Brussel Crow’. A hilariously named signature, loaded with onion jam, mozz, pancetta, and enough Brussel sprouts to tide one over till Christmas Eve.
Address: 215 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst NSW 2010
Contact: (02) 8068 4247
Opening Hours: Thursday to Saturday (5 PM — 9 PM)
Westwood Pizza, Newtown (Best Modern)
Almost every Sydneysider will have a preferred candidate for the mantle of ‘best pizza in town’, but of late, a conspicuous number — particularly those residing in central Sydney and the Inner West — have been namedropping ‘Westwood’. This blink-and-you’ll-miss-it eatery on Newtown’s Australia Street is packed around the clock: with queues out the door and, come the weekend, a persistent gaggle of curbside activity.
A quick appraisal of Westwood’s website (and its patently laidback social media presence) indicate that the team here has its priorities straight. In short: everything on-menu is delicious, approachable, vibrantly flavoured, and insofar as possible, wood-fired.
The venue’s ‘Garlic & Honey’ has made short work of almost every other equivalent recipe in Sydney; and even supporting morsels, like the salsa-covered grilled greens, manage to eclipse their humble trappings as “just a salad/side.”
Unsurprisingly, the compact kitchen means that there’s always a ceiling on how many pies Westwood can sling at any given time (i.e. 150 per night). On Fridays and Saturdays, it’s advisable to text your order as soon as the phone lines open and pickup at 5pm. Good luck resisting the urge to chow down before making it back to your car.
Address: 245 Australia Street, Newtown NSW
Contact: 0466 181 266
Opening Hours: Wednesday to Monday (5 PM — 10 PM)
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Verace Pizzeria, Macquarie Park
A favourite in Macquarie Park and North Ryde, Verace Pizzeria is famous among Northsiders for its selection of one-metre-wide pies: just what the doctor ordered, when you’re in the mood for a reliably comforting meal.
Influenced by the rules for pizza-making overseen by the ‘True Neapolitan Pizza Association’ (AVPN), the Margherita at Verace encapsulates, in a nutshell, what diners can expect at this traditional pizza specialist. Made with Fior di Latte, basil, and San Marzano tomatoes, it’s straightforwardly delicious — playing well with just about every antipasti or pasta course served in the restaurant.
Just a 13-minute drive from Via Napoli, this is another solid offering for pizza in the North Shore.
Address: 7 Khartoum Road, Macquarie Park NSW 2113
Contact: (02) 9888 2929
Opening Hours: Monday to Wednesday (5 PM — 9 PM); Thursday to Sunday (11:30 AM — 2:30 PM, 5 PM — 9 PM)
Vacanza, Waverley
Bronte’s favourite pizza parlour, with a second smaller location in Surry Hills, is another solid entry on our list of the best pizzerias in Sydney.
While both venues share a very similar kitchen layout, it’s better to make the journey to Bronte if you’re hungry for additional space. There’s also a dedicated private dining room at the latter: perfect for hosting small-to-medium-sized pizza parties.
Like a lot of the best neighbourhood pizzerias, Vacanza cleaves to a “less is more” philosophy for its menu. To that end, there are 11 pizza options (including two weekly specials) to choose from. We’re pretty impartial on toppings, but regulars at the Surry Hills location swear by the ‘Da Franco’: a slightly non-traditional red-base recipe in which salumeria produce is swapped for triple-smoked ham.
Address: 261 Bronte Road, Waverley NSW 2024
Contact: (02) 9090 2089
Opening Hours: Wednesday to Thursday (5 PM — 8:30 PM); Friday to Saturday (5 PM — 9 PM); Sunday (5 PM — 8:30 PM)
170 Grammi, Surry Hills (Best Value)
Taking up residence in the storefront formerly occupied by Pizza Fritta, 170 Grammi instantly blipped on foodies’ radars when it opened earlier this year — owing to its connection with beloved North Shore institution, Via Napoli. Intended by Chef-Owner Luigi Esposito as a love letter to the street food of Rome (where his wife hails from), the pizzas slung out of the venue’s oven are suitably distinct from what you’ll find at a Neapolitan pizzeria.
In the Romanesco dialect, there’s an adjective to describe the glass-like crunch and texture that typifies this style of dough: scrocchiarella. This is achieved via a recipe that utilises less water and a fixed flour quantity of 170g per pizza (thus the restaurant’s name).
Fittingly, many of 170 Grammi’s signature toppings crib from the canon of classical Roman pasta dishes: the ‘Porchetta di Ariccia’ is easily one of the most delicious white-base slices we’ve sampled this year, succeeding on all fronts with its razor-thin potato slices, smoked scamorza, and satisfyingly crunchy pork crackling.
Diners weary of comically small +$100 tasting menus should also make it their mission to secure a booking. Individual pizzas hover, almost without exception, around the $25 mark and are sized at a very shareable 13 inches. On the vinous front, the punchiest bottle (a Montepulciano from Italy’s southerly region of Abruzzo) will set you back… $65. Suffice to say: this is delicious pizza at its most popolare.
Address: 428 Crown Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
Contact: (02) 9161 7773
Opening Hours: Wednesday to Thursday (5 PM — 10 PM); Friday to Sunday (12 PM — 10 PM)
Lucio Pizzeria, Darlinghurst
Despite a rash of competition from more upstart, unconventional pizza restaurants over the past few years, Lucio Pizzeria (headed up by the eponymous Lucio De Falco) is still going strong: now with locations in Darlinghurst and Zetland.
For the quality and consistency of his product, De Falco’s venues have been awarded distinctions by the AVPN: as close as overseas pizzaiolos can come to a Certification of Authenticity. That’s unsurprising once you try any of the 21 recipes on offer at Lucio: right down to the theoretically humdrum calzone con spinaci.
Admittedly, diners aren’t going to find any left-field experiments involving dukkah and saltbush or thrice-fermented veggies; but the ‘Pizze Gourmet’ section of the menu does dial up the quantity of premium ingredients. We enjoy the ‘Zucchine’: laden with cherry tomatoes, prawns, and straciatella.
Address: Shop 1/248 Palmer Street, Darlinghurst NSW 2010 (also in Zetland)
Contact: (02) 9332 3766
Opening Hours: Wednesday to Sunday (6 PM — 9:30 PM)
DeVita Manly
While your Manly-based mate is prone to rave reviews of Pocket Pizza, we’re of the view that DeVita is the suburb’s first (and frankly quintessential) pizzeria.
Again, in a fashion not dissimilar to numerous other inclusions on our list, the foundation of the menu here is pizza napoletana. All up there are around 18 toppings to choose from, with fairly conventional crowd favourites (like sausage and friarielli) supported by ‘gourmet’ options — many of which involve premium cooked fare. (For ‘Fiocco’, for instance, is loaded with pork belly and a fondue-esque cheese sauce.)
As for the dough? We’d all but insist you upgrade to the version (for a princely surcharge of $3) using stone-ground flour. Grains milled in this method are not exposed to high, industrial temperatures. The end-result? A lighter, fluffier pizza base that also happens to be more nutritious than the typical ’00’ flour option.
Address: Shop 1B/4-8 Darley Road, Manly NSW 2095
Contact: (02) 8068 6751
Opening Hours: Monday to Sunday (12 PM — 10 PM)
Mario Brothers, Crows Nest
Glorietta and Via Napoli may get the lion’s share of spotlight when Sydneysiders talk of high-quality pizza ‘across the bridge’, but for Crow’s Nest residents, Mario Brothers offers a straightforward alternative.
At first brush, there’s nothing that sets this venue apart from your garden-variety family eatery, but Mario Brothers’ no-frills menu and comely dining room have been enticing locals for well over a decade. It’s also notable that, for such a small operation, there are so many specials on offer: ranging from vaguely Mediterranean options to full-on fusion.
Throw in reasonable pricing and a convenient delivery radius, and it’s no wonder that the venue remains a favourite among Northsiders looking for a casual, but satisfying pizza fix.
Address: 314 Pacific Highway, Crows Nest NSW 2065
Contact: (02) 9966 5551
Opening Hours: Monday to Thursday (5 PM — 10 PM); Friday to Saturday (5 PM — 11 PM); Sunday (5 PM — 9 PM)
DOC Gastronomia, Surry Hills
Prolific presence on the Melbourne pizza scene that it is, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that DOC Gastronomia has established an outpost here in Sydney: right in the heart of Surry Hills.
Inside what we’ve informally dubbed the ‘Golden Triangle’ of Surry Hills F&B (i.e. equal distances to The Gidley and Pellegrino 2000), DOC’s industrial-chic space largely defers to its food menu to do all the impressing.
As in Melbourne, the fundamentals are rock-solid: think stone-ground flour, a baseline sauce of San Marzano tomato, and organic extra virgin olive oil. The popularity of the ‘Speck’ and ‘Boscaiola’ pies is a matter of public record, but (for a change of pace) dispense with dough altogether and work your way through the restaurant’s ‘Mozzarella Bar’ menu.
Address: 78 Campbell Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
Contact: (02) 9211 1507
Opening Hours: Wednesday to Saturday (5 PM — 9 PM)
Gigi’s Pizzeria, Newtown
Look, we know it’s a touch bizarre to recommend a pizza restaurant in Sydney that utilises no cheese, but at Gigi’s in Newtown, the results have been spectacular — for 17 years, no less.
As with Madre’s dedication to all things vegan, this little joint on King Street focuses on plant-based alternatives to the usual litany of guanciale, buffalo mozzarella and other traditional pizza toppings.
Owner and pizzaiolo Marco Mattino is still committed to making pizza with a method that is AVPN-certified, but the toppings are a good deal more sustainable than what you’ll encounter at your local trattoria. For Gigi’s newbies, the ‘Diavola’ (made with plant-based sausage meat) and ‘Capriccio’ both come highly recommended.
Address: 379 King Street, Newtown NSW 2042
Contact: (02) 9557 2224
Opening Hours: Monday to Sunday (6 PM — 10:30 PM)
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