This is Brisbane’s most expensive pizza - but is it worth it?

It’s an upscale offering with premium ingredients, a top wine list, linen napkins, chandeliers and heritage surrounds but it comes at a cost. VOTE NOW

Is this Brisbane’s most expensive pizza? With two of newcomer Etna’s 12-strong repertoire costing $35 each and four at $34, stepping down through various varieties to the margherita at $25, it would seem so.

Etna, from the restaurateurs behind Rosmarino, the pricey rather adventurous modern Italian which opened in Fortitude Valley last year, is a 40-something seater in the same freshly made-over heritage-listed building.

A small dining room and bar at the front (concrete floors, dainty chandeliers, white cloth napkins, bentwood chairs and large, plate-glass windows) narrows to a banquette-lined long room, with diners at the back taking in the theatre of the chefs toiling away before a large, black, Moretti Forni electric pizza oven. Doors open on to a courtyard, which is shared by Etna and Rosmarino.

Etna restaurant, Fortitude Valley Photograph: David Kelly

Etna’s menu kicks off with a clutch of deli items such as burrata with truffle honey or sliced salami or speck and three versions of schiacciata flatbread or “pizza bread” as it’s described here or perhaps fried stuffed olives.

Seafood lovers could opt for a bowl of thick rings of calamarata pasta strewn with mussels, prawns, calamari and clams in a tomato sauce vamped up with garlic and chilli ($36) or fritto misto ($24), a very good version with the school prawns, calamari and sardines only barely brushed with a batter before being fried to crunchy perfection and served with a lemon wedge and a generous amount of aioli for dipping.

Beyond those and a main course option of breadcrumbed Maremma free-range duck leg fried in duck fat with fried potatoes ($48) or a rocket salad with balsamic dressing and parmigiano ($14), it’s all about pizza.

Etna restaurant’s Opera burrata with truffle abbamele. Photograph: David Kelly

One is enough for two people unless they’ve been involved in a hard day’s manual labour but in order to explore the menu we took up our waitress’s suggestion of trying two and taking the leftovers home for later. Boxes are to hand as Etna also offers takeaway.

We choose the mortadella ($30) from the classics list – there’s also the anchovy and caper-adorned Napoli and the margherita – and the pizza base, shaped from a six-year-old sourdough starter and wholemeal flour, is chewy and appealing.

It’s topped with folded slices of the large Italian pork sausage, which are, in turn, draped with shreds of the fresh cow’s milk cheese, stracciatella, and then sprinkled with a sparse rain of crushed pistachio and basil leaves. It’s disconcerting to begin with that the mortadella and cheese are chilled, added after the base is removed from the oven.

The mortadella pizza at Etna

We also order the Biarnca ($34) from the “moderne” selection and the fior di latte base is topped with a couple of pieces of pumpkin, the Spanish sheeps’ milk cheese manchego, cherry tomatoes, a good smattering of rocket and thinly sliced black angus bresaola and parmesan. While the toppings are a harmonious mix, the base is rather soggy in the middle.

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Things go a little out there with the four “speciali” pizzas: One features Hokkaido scallops with guanciale (cured pork cheek), cherry tomatoes and chilli flakes ($35), another Riverine buffalo blue, goat cheese, sliced duck leg, mustard fruits and parmesan ($35).

Etna’s Napoli pizza. Photograph: David Kelly

The wine list is up there in the price stakes too, with 150ml by-the-glass, all-Italian offerings starting at $17.

The bottle list is a strong offering for a small pizza restaurant, but like Rosmarino with its extensive selection, wine is a priority and the list roams around Italy, including a lineup of 14 from namesake Mt Etna in Sicily, and several French choices.

Beers are Peroni leggera and Menabrea non filtrata and drinks include spritzs and a negroni.

Service is very good, as it should be if this project to elevate a pizzeria into an upmarket realm with premium toppings and a hefty wine list is to realise its ambitions and make the humble pie almost a special occasion dish.

ETNA

5/15 Marshall St, Fortitude Valleyetnabrisbane.com.au

Open
Wed-Sun from 5pm

Must try

Mortadella pizza

Verdict

Food 3.5 stars

Ambience 3.5 stars

Service 4 stars

Value 3.5 stars

Overall 3.5/5 stars

For more reviews

visit delicious.com.au/eatout