Tested: Australia’s Best Pizza

Living in Australia and hoping for some truly authentic pizza could mean flying to Italy. Some restaurants in Sydney have come close to achieving the real thing and now it’s amazing to discover that Australia’s Best Pizza is actually in a business district outside of Sydney.

Verace Pizzeria is located in Macquarie Park, around 20km North West of the CBD, sitting among large corporate offices. One side of the restaurant you’ll find an impressive trophy line up from around the world. The team at Verace Pizzeria fly to Italy each year to compete on the world stage to prove their worth. Once again, Verace Pizzeria has left Italy with more trophies including the best pizza from Australia.

As a customer for a number of years we’ve witnessed the growth of Verace Pizzeria and we’ve generally kept it to ourselves, it makes securing a table easier. But enough is enough, here is what you need to know about your shortest trip to Italy.

Pizza

The pizza is authentic, it is wood fired and it contains simple ingredients. This is a good thing, when cooking with fantastic ingredients, high quality ingredients, you don’t need to pile it on. No meat lovers, no Hawaiian and no super supreme. Truffle, mushrooms, salami, prosciutto, cheese – these are the sort of ingredients you’ll see on the pizza menu. The individual pizzas are fine, but if you are going in a group we recommend the 1 meter pizza. Here you can have up to three toppings across this wood fired pizza for your main meal… or ask for a dessert style 1 meter pizza. More Nutella on that than you can imagine.

Our Pizza picks: Diavola (San Marzano Tomato, Fior di Latte, Hot Salami, Basil) and/or Tartufata (Buffalo Mozzarella, Mushroom, Black Truffle, Grana Padano, Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

Pasta

Judging an Italian restaurant by the pasta is a very quick way to see if they’re the real deal. The typical Spaghetti Bolognese is a traditional pasta dish that can be boring or impressive. Fortunately for Verace, the Bolognese is spot on, the right size, the right sauce:pasta ratio and plenty of parmigiano reggiano to suit.

The lasagna and carbonara is good too, but you can’t go past their Bolognese matched with a glass of red wine.

Burger????

Yes, Verace Pizzeria has added, for a limited time, a burger to the menu. The twist on the burger is that rather than using a traditional bun, the burger is served in a pizza base pocket. Served cut in half we appreciated the closed pocket which meant no drips, no loss of contents and no mess whatsoever. The burger itself won’t win them trophies but it’s a great option for those who’ve had all the pizzas and all the pastas on offer…. so yeah – stick to the pizza and pasta.

Beverages

An Italian cafe/restaurant/pizzeria won’t be complete without some good drinking options. The coffee is primarily Illy and they’re ready to serve it from the early morning to late at night. Verace also bring in plenty of Italian beer and wine varieties that you won’t find at Dan Murphy’s, some amazing beers from Baladin and wines from Fantini.