Illawarra’s best pizza: Figtree Gourmet Kitchen wins reader poll

The votes are in! Our readers have declared the best pizza joint in the Illawarra.

The Illawarra Star’s readers have voted – and now we can reveal the best pizza place in the region.

Family-owned Figtree Gourmet Kitchen took out the title after readers voted for the region’s best pizza in our online poll with Delicious magazine.

The much-loved pizza restaurant opened almost 19 years ago on April 1, 2002, making it the longest-running woodfire pizza restaurant in Wollongong.

Owner Andrew Ferri said it was “exciting” to receive the winning title, thanking his long-time customers.

Figtree Gourmet Kitchen’s Bellevue pizza.

“When you get the outside recognition it’s good because it means you’re valuable to someone and we see it sometimes because we do a lot of functions or occasions, christenings and birthdays,” he said.

“For them to pick you, you know you’re doing something right, because they pick you over everyone else.”

The restaurant moved to its Bellevue Road location in Figtree in 2013, and Mr Ferri said most customers had been coming to the restaurant years before that.

Figtree Gourmet Kitchen is known for its woodfire pizza. Picture: supplied

“We are very grateful that the customers have responded so well and they’ve been with us for such a long time,” he said.

“It’s good getting recognition that what you’re doing is on the right track,” he said.

“It’s a way of trying to maintain your standards and trying to better those areas that you need to because I wouldn’t say that we’re perfect but we’re always trying to improve.”

The Illawarra Star and Delicious Magazine’s search for regional Australia’s best pizza joints was supported by celebrity chef Matt Preston, as part of efforts to highlight the best hospitality businesses in regional Australia.

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