From strictly traditional Neapolitan or Roman discs, to New York styles and flavours a little outside the (pizza) box, here’s a slice of Sydney’s best pizzas.

Bella Brutta

The forces behind LP’s quality meats and Porteno combined in 2018 to create one of Sydney’s most popular pizzerias. Meaning “beautiful ugly” in Italian, pizzas come out of the Italian wood-fired oven speckled with black, charry blisters, just how co-owner Luke Powell likes them. We reckon there’s nothing ugly about it.

Nicest slice: Clam pizza studded with sweet jewels of surf clam among a sea of garlic, fermented chilli, pecorino, and parsley ($30).

135 King Street, Newtown, bellabrutta.com.au

Cicerone Cucina Romana

This low-lit Surry Hills haunt splashed with Italian graffiti shows the best of traditional Roman cuisine with a Sydney edge. Their oval-shaped wood-fired pizzas are a thick and fluffy Roman style, kissed with charred bubbles that Sydneysiders can’t get enough of. Cicerone takes its cured meat toppings seriously here, with their prosciutto pizza featuring the best from Parma, and finocchiona, a special Tuscan salami with hints of fennel, found on the eponymous pizza. It isn’t all tradition here, though, with their luxe “vegana” with a truffle base, potato, red onion, and rocket.

Nicest slice: Mortazza with its lashings of mortadella, stracciatella and pistachios will convert you to white pizza bases ($26).

417 Bourke Street, Surry Hills, ciceronesyd.com.au

Dimitri’s Pizza

Dimitri’s wood-fired sourdough pizzas cater for sticklers for tradition and those who like to walk on the wild side. Find comfort in their top-quality marinara, or get your gear around cream of korn, with roasted creamed corn, pickled jalapenos, parm and mozzarella. Keep returning for their weekly specials guided by the seasons and to make your way through their considered drinks list.

Nicest slice: The bogan rosa with onion, parmigiano-reggiano, rosemary and toasted macadamias is pure genius ($22).

215 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, dimitrispizzeria.com

Epic pizza

This New York-style takeaway shop has a chokehold on by-the-slice pizza in Sydney. While conveniently located in Sydney nightlife hotspots Enmore and Darlinghurst, it’s worth visiting even if you’re not looking for a midnight snack. Slices are bigger than one’s head and start at $6.50. Quality is not sacrificed here though, with tomato sauce made in-house, and dough fermented for 24 hours.

Nicest slice: The New Yorker studded with pepperoni, pork sausage, provolone, and mozzarella on a tomato base (from $19.50 for a medium pizza).

192 Enmore Road, Enmore; 310 Crown Street, Darlinghurst, epic.pizza

Gigi Pizzeria

Gigi’s is famous for its Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana accreditation while being completely plant-based. Since owner Marco Matino made the move to go vegan in 2015, he has been experimenting with unique flavour combinations sans salty meat and cheese. Matino has embraced meat and cheese imitation products to create vegan takes on classic flavour combinations. The funghi e radicchio features vegan blue cheese, and the atlantico layers plant-based “smoked salmon” and tree nut cream cheese with red onions, capers and parsley. Come back again and again to try new revolving seasonal specials, too.

Nicest slice: Try their textbook marinara tradizionale ($22).

379 King Street, Newtown, gigipizzeria.com.au

Glorietta

The arrival of Glorietta and their perfectly executed wood-fired pizzas marked a change for the once-barren North Sydney. Pizzas here walk on the traditional and simple side, but still know how to have fun. Any pizza can swap in vegan cheese, or become gluten-free, making Glorietta the perfect pizzeria to take a gang for post-work dinner and negronis.

Nicest slice: Broccoli and mushroom on the funghi pizza makes eating your vegies pure pleasure ($28).

Upper ground floor, 100 Mount Street, North Sydney, glorietta.com.au

My Mother’s Cousin

MMC’s New York-style pizzas and wings were sold out by 9pm every in Sydney’s
2021 lockdown days. Fast-forward to now, and anyone can (and should) cross town to eat in at this slice of New York in Sydney. MMC, whose owners once ran the popular Nineteen 43 cafe in Rockdale, take their pies very seriously, fermenting their dough for at least 48 hours, and ensuring quality and detail in all their flavour combos. They make their own sausage for their “snag-a-relli” pizza, and little luxuries such as confit garlic, ’nduja, and signature hot honey make repeat cameos throughout the menu.

Nicest slice: The salty and smoky OG ’roni isn’t complete without a side of MMC’s hot honey ($28).

9 Shaw Street, Bexley North, mymotherscousin.com.au

Pizza Madre

Inventive vegetarian pizzas underpin Pizza Madre’s ethos. You could visit the cosy Enmore dining room every week and never have the same pizza twice, as the list of half a dozen or so pizzas gets overhauled each month. It’s a pioneer of long-fermented dough and non-traditional flavours, so expect fun combos such as miso eggplant or dukkah topping their sourdough base.

Nicest slice: Their pizza with garlic puree, potato, manchego and fried rosemary is hard to beat ($29).

Shop 2, 205 Victoria Road, Marrickville, pizzamadre.com.au

Westwood

Westwood is not the type of pizza joint where you can spontaneously drop in for takeaways on a Friday night. Be prepared to clear time in your calendar, order ahead, or wait a few hours before sinking your teeth into Mitchell Westwood’s Neapolitan-style pizzas with an Australian focus. The commitment to native ingredients is woven throughout the pizza-making process here, from the native ironbark in the wood-fired oven, to the Gunnedah flour in the light dough.

Nicest slice: The signature garlic-honey pizza is made from their house-infused garlic honey ($22).

245 Australia Street, Newtown, westwoodpizza.com.au

Da Orazio Pizza + Porchetta

Bondi’s favourite pizza is back. After a few years helming other trattorias,
chef Orazio D’Elia has reopened his namesake porchetta and puffy-crusted
margherita hub in its original spot. This chic, buzzy space has been stripped back to its bright, white roots, with walls rendered to look like they belong in a Mediterranean fishing village.

Nicest slice: Friarielli, boasting crumbled pork sausage and blitzed rapini ($28).

75-79 Hall Street, Bondi, instagram.com/da_orazio