Dimitri's Pizza, Darlinghurst

So you like your pizzas puffy and blistered with a caramelised char? Me too. At Dimitri's Pizza in Darlinghurst, they churn out brilliantly floppy pizzas made with sourdough bases, finished in an Italian-made woodfired oven.



The best table is by the kitchen, offering a front row view of all the pizza making action. There's something almost sensual about watching a pizzaiolo gently coax the dough into shape, then strew it with toppings before plunging it into the fiery cavern of the woodfired oven (I told you it was sensual).


Marinara pizza $18 with stracciatella +$10
tomato, confit garlic and oregano

The classic marinara is simplicity at its best: a humble tomato sauce with confit garlic and oregano. We upgrade ours with stracciatella, made from torn mozzarella soaked in cream. It adds a milky decadence to this tomato pizza, interspersed with alternating hits of jammy garlic cloves and fresh basil leaves.

The pizza edges are the best bit, brilliantly bubbled around the edges with all the right shades of char. The base is soft and floppy because of its thinness, perfect for folding over while you try and eat this demurely with your fingers (who am I kidding? Just get right in there).


Funguy pizza $23
Mushroom, mozzarella, truffle oil, chilli and basil

The pizza menu is reassuringly short - just eight options to choose from - but owners Ken Williams and Drew Huston aren't tied to the usual toppings. They're not afraid of a few puns either, like the funguy pizza with mushrooms and truffle oil (boom tish).


Cream of korn pizza $23
Wood oven smoked and creamed corn, mozzarella and pickled jalapenos

The cream of korn pizza wins over my tastebuds tonight though, because, CORN. It's a party of juicy sweet corn kernels sliced straight off the cob, made even tastier with stretchy molten mozzarella cheese and the gentle heat of pickled jalapenos.


Bee sting pizza $23
Tomato, sopressa, mozzarella and hot honey

Things get even wilder with the bee sting pizza. That's slices of sopressa - an aged salami - drizzled over with warm honey.


Sopressa salami pizza with mozarella and hot honey

It's not as strange as you think. Pork goes brilliantly with sugar - think roast pork with apple sauce or Chinese char siu barbecue pork. Here it adds a mellow richness to the cured pork.


Smoked eggplant $16
with charred cherry tomatoes, olives and parmigiano 

It's not all pizza either.

The smoked eggplant is terrific, its buttery soft flesh permeated with smoky undertones, sauced up with blistered cherry tomatoes and a cloud of parmigiano cheese.


Cheese and tomato $16
housemade stracciatella and mixed heirloom tomatoes 

We get in on more housemade stacciatella action too, dolloped generously over a medley of mixed heirloom tomatoes. Tomatoes, basil, mozzarella and extra virgin olive oil. Is there a more iconic taste of Italy?

Drinks? There's definitely a focus on boutique beer breweries, including half a dozen beers by Marrickville brewery The Grifter. Happy hour used to run 5pm-7pm but looks to have been shortened to 6pm now. There's a pretty decent selection of wines too, includes orange/skin wines and nine wines available by the glass.





Dimitri's Pizzeria
215 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 8068 4247

Opening hours
Wednesday to Saturday 5pm til late


Related Grab Your Fork posts
Pizza - Bella Brutta, Newtown
Pizza - La Disfida, Haberfield
Pizza - Via Napoli, Surry Hills

Darlinghurst - Buffalo Dining Club (Italian)
Darlinghurst - Chaco Bar ramen and yakitori (Japanese)
Darlinghurst - Nom (Japanese)

Bella Brutta Pizza, Newtown

Is pizza the new sourdough? There's much to like about long fermented pizza doughs, proofed for extra flavour and a springier texture, the star of Sydney's hottest new pizzeria, Bella Brutta. Don't expect supreme or ham and pineapple pizzas. Do stand by for puffy and blistered pizzas strewn with mortadella or pepperoni (both housemade), surf clams or cavolo nero.


Smoked lemonade mojito $10
2017 Aller Trop Loin Nebbiolo, Heathcote, Victoria $14
2017 Ciello 'Rosso' Nero d'Avola, Sicily, Italy $14


Bella Brutta (translating to Beautiful Ugly) is the latest collaboration by the Porteno crew, partnering with Luke Powell to open in the former Ice & Slice by Mad Pizza site on King Street, Newtown. The space is long and narrow, flanked by banquette seating on one side and counter seats at the bar on the other.

The wine list runs close to 40 bottles - almost entirely Australian and Italian - with ten available by the glass. And while there's less of an emphasis on beer (just two available), interesting non-alcoholic drinks include a dark & stormy and a smoked lemonade mojito that is smouldering yet strangely refreshing at the same time.


Shaved fennel, burnt oranges and olives $15

On the day we dined, all the antipasti and vegetable dishes are entirely vegetarian. That's 11 dishes running from a crisp shaved fennel salad with oranges and green olives to roasted carrots with hazelnuts and marjoram ($12).


White beans, green sauce $12

From the antipasti menu, we pick the white beans with green sauce, a chunky white bean puree brightened with the zinginess of salsa verde, although we're tempted by the green tomatoes with straciatella ($14) and charred onions with romesco ($14) too.


Pepperoni pizza on the pass

Our attention is all on the pizza though. Just five pizzas are available, although the plain marinara ($17) comes with optional cheese (+$4) and four anchovy choices ranging from $12 to $28 for the tin.


Luke Powell flipping pizza dough

Luke moves seamlessly throughout the open kitchen working where needed, but more often than not, is at the pizza station. It's a show in itself watching the dough being gently portioned, dusted in flour and then slowly flipped, stretched and teased into pliable submission.


Fior di latte on pizza dough for the mortadella pizza


Cooking pizzas in the Italian wood-fired oven

The wood-fired oven - imported direct from Italy - takes pride of place in the centre of the dining room. It's mesmerising to watch the wood burning ferociously in the back corner while the pizzas are rotated through at a rapid pace. They're cooked on the oven floor for only a minute or so before being lifted up by the paddle and held aloft for several seconds.

There's a ballet-like elegance about the entire process, from the initial cleaving of soft dough to the final slide of steaming hot pizza onto the pass.


Cutting the clam pizza into quarters

We've serendipitously scored front row seats to all the pizza-making action. This also makes for sneaky photos of our pizza orders from start to finish. As soon as the pizzas are transferred to their metal serving trays, they're sliced into quarters and finished with garnishes and a slosh of extra virgin olive oil.


Surf clam pizza $26

Clam pizza might be a New Haven specialty but it's yet to be really seen in Sydney. Luke's take could become a summer favourite, brushed with a chowder-like clam reduction and daubed with fermented chilli. Pecorino, garlic oil and fresh parsley make it sing.


Making up the pepperoni pizza

We pick the pepperoni pizza over the mortadella (the latter covered in freshly shaved mortadella after the pizza is cooked).


Pepperoni pizza $26

The housemade pepperoni is thinly sliced and almost crisp at the edges, sweet and smoky without any sense of greasiness. And while I can see the intent in the generous scattering of fennel seeds, the dry seeds tend to provide more crunch than intensity of flavour.

Pockets of melting fior di latte accented with parmesan provide a oozing richness against the sweet tang of chunky pomodoro sauce (made from tinned San Marzano tomatoes).


Cavolo nero pizza ready for the oven

And while the pizzas have already gone up in price a dollar or two since they first opened two weeks ago, they've also managed to switch up the pizza toppings too. Gone is the cime di rapa I'd been keen to try, replaced by the equally enticing - and subsequently delicious - cavolo nero pizza.


Cavolo nero pizza $24

A mountain of young cavolo nero leaves ends up as a much smaller pile, toasted to a caramelly brown around the edges, and dotted with fermented chilli.

It's worth smashing the confit garlic cloves on your plate and then spreading them across your pizza slice, before relishing your green veg uptake with a garlicky, cheesy and spicy grin.


Mandatory pizza upskirt shot

The dough itself? It's not quite as thin and floppy as a Neapolitan pizza but there's still a thinness to it that allows the toppings to take centre stage. Giant blisters across the surface of the dough provide a puffy lightness, and while some may consider its char to be more on the burnt side of cooked, I would have been happy with even more smokiness.


Scooping the fig leaf ice cream

All the desserts are made inhouse, including a commendably smooth and fragrant fig leaf ice cream.


Fig leaf ice cream with yellow box honey $10

The fig leaf ice cream has all the flavour of fig, but pulled back on the jammy sweetness. It's so good on its own I don't think it even needs the drizzle of yellow box honey.  The texture of the ice cream is incredible too, creamy with an enviable silkiness.


Tiramisu $15

Of course we had the tiramisu. It's not until it arrives that we learn the traditional savoiardi fingers have been switched with an almond cake layer that tastes like an almond dacquoise. It makes for a more textural tiramisu, its signature softness interrupted by the crunch of almonds.


Bombolone $9

For maximum fun. get the bombolone doughnuts, fried fresh to order and then stuffed with stewed apple and mascarpone. It's just like an apple turnover in doughnut form. The cinnamon sugar will go all over your lips and make a mess, but just like eating a bella brutta pizza, that's half the fun.








Bella Brutta
135 King Street, Newtown, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9922 5941

Opening hours
Monday to Friday 5pm-11pm
Saturday 12pm-11pm
Sunday 12pm-10pm


Related Grab Your Fork posts
LP's Quality Meats, Chippendale

Bodega 1904 at the Tramsheds, Forest Lodge
Continental Deli Bar Bistro, Newtown
Porteno, Surry Hills
Stanbuli, Enmore

Merchants of Ultimo, Broadway Shopping Centre

It's like a food court, but with table service. The Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre is like a mini food court, complete with salad bar, pizzeria, rotisserie, cafe and patisserie. What most passersby don't realise is that eat in diners don't have to line up at each stall to place their order. Roving waitstaff offer complete table service, offering a clipboard menu of all offerings and a single bill at the end.


Seating inside the Merchants of Ultimo

Seating fills up quickly during peak hour. It's a cleverly designed space with plenty of timber beams, hanging greenery and tempting visuals, like legs of lamb slowly spinning on the rotisserie and pastry chefs icing bespoke cakes at the counter.


Salad station at The Gardens

The Gardens has to have one of the prettiest displays of salad vegetables around, much more enticing than the usual stainless steel sandwich bar set-up.


Salad ingredients

This station isn't all vegetarian. They also churn out wagyu cheese burgers, buttermilk chicken burgers and salads mixed with woodfired chicken, rotisserie lamb and miso glazed salmon.


Valoriani Forni wood fired oven

And on a cold day, you'll relish the heat from the Valoriani Forni wood fired oven, tucked away in the corner.


Rotisserie lamb salad $17

We tried a number of dishes over a series of visits. The rotisserie lamb salad was a winner with tender shredded lamb piled high with salad greens, cherry tomatoes, quinoa, roasted corn kernels, giant golden raisins and squeaky slices of grilled haloumi. The coriander and yoghurt dressing helped everything come together.


Roast pork with woodfire corn and house slaw from Henry's Block $16

The roast pork doesn't arrive with as much crackling as we would've liked, but the Henry's Box concept is a cute idea, allowing you to pick your protein and two sides. The woodfire corn is sweet and juicy, drenched in lemon butter and covered in shaved parmesan. The house slaw of shredded celeriac, kohlrabi and fennel is refreshingly crisp.


Sweet potato fries $5

And then there are the sweet potato fries. In a city plagued with soggy imposters, these are every bit as noisily crunchy as the ones in your wildest dreams. You'll be fighting over the last one.


Digging into lunch


Making pizzas at Pizza Mario

If there's one stall that shines, though, it's Pizza Mario, run by the same folks behind Da Mario.


Potato pizza and margherita pizza ready for the oven

In the open kitchen you can watch them prepping the pizza dough, layering on the ingredients and then transferring them into the woodfired oven using a peel.


Sliding pizzas into the oven


Diavola pizza $16

There are a dozen pizzas to choose from, including a ham, mushroom and ricotta calzone and a nutella calzone for dessert. The diavola pizza packs some devilish heat with spicy salami and chilli.


Buffalo margherita pizza $16

Traditionalists will go with the classic margherita for $13 or upgrade to the buffalo margherita for $16, strewn with buffalo mozzarella and cherry tomatoes.


Pizza upskirt shot

But the magic is all in the pizza crust, super thin and almost floppy in the middle with a puffy blistered crust that has just the right amount of woodfired char.


Buttermilk chicken burger $18

The buttermilk chicken burger is a satisfying number too, a juicy fillet shielded by a crunch of knobby batter. The milk bun is soft but still still sturdy enough to hold the chicken, salad, sriracha and pudding of molten smoked mozzarella cheese.


Seating in front of Nero's Brew coffee station

Coffees are served via Nero's Brew using Single Origin beans.


Desserts from Leave it to B

And it's hard to pass up the sweet treats from Leave it to B by ex-Rockpool pastry apprentice Brendan Dewar who went on to open Brendan Dewar Patisserie in St Ives.


Berry tart $8.50

The L-shaped glass cabinet runs from gateaux to croissants. 


Cheesecake slice


Citrus pillow $8.50

We've had the millefeuille and a tropical fruit dome takeaway, but the only dessert we've had eat-in was the citrus pillow, a fancy lemon meringue tart with shards of isomalt toffee. The lemon curd is bracingly sharp, just what you want against the sweet blowtorched rosettes of meringue.






Merchants of Ultimo
Level one, Broadway Shopping Centre
1 Bay Street, Broadway, Ultimo, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9346 8775

Opening hours
Daily 6am-9pm


Related Grab Your Fork posts
Ultimo - Malacca Straits
Ultimo - Pappa Rich
Ultimo - The Black Groodle