Charlies Pizza Restaurant — Restaurant in Melbourne

I have to admit that when I first came into this place I didn’t expect much. Obviously the circumstances are a bit different at the moment with Covid so naturally it’s takeaway only, so outside furniture was in and the dining room was unavailable.. Even still, I caught a glimpse into it with the classic red/white checkered table cloths and nostalgic Italian decor with a little bar at the back. Classico! 👌🏻

We ordered a pizza, chicken parmigiana, and scaloppine di fungi al Marsala (veal scaloppine with mushrooms and Marsala sauce)... and again I did so without high hopes. We were told it would be ready in 30 minutes, so we went and did a bit of shopping at Coles during the wait.

When we returned it wasn’t ready and the time was getting on... didn’t wanna break the 8pm curfew! He came out from the kitchen and said it would be a few more minutes, but I was quietly getting a bit irritated, impatient, and downright “hangry”! And feeling like I would never come back to this place...

However, at that point is when things started to turn around. He took responsibility for the delay and quickly made us some special bread in the oven to nibble.. And with it his personal stash of home-made garlic butter, with peperoncinis, which melted on nicely! To wash down the nibbles (and possibly his guilt) he offered us a couple of beers on the house while the pizza was finishing. All with enough time to get home by curfew! And when we did get home, and dug in to the food...... well, Mamma mia! 👌🏻 The food was delicious! Everything was perfectly done, flavourful, and seemed exactly like it had been made for generations.

The point is, things happen. His business, like many others, are in a very fragile situation with Covid and he has to work either by himself or have very minimal additional staff/support. He’s doing everything he can to survive. On top of that he didn’t complain, he took responsibility, he was hospitable, and he worked with us to make the best of the situation at hand.... and what’s more is that he still cooked us unbelievably good, authentic, and uncompromising food.. Worth every dollar and every minute.

I will certainly be supporting Charlie and his amazing moustache thoughout and beyond this pandemic!...

I was at Charles' joint when I was 22 or thereof. It was a day after heavy drinking. I ordered mushroom steak and thought groovy! So 70s!

And I am 39. I visited the first time on this last Saturday after many years bygone. We ordered scaloppini along with the veg pizza and our flatmate ordered parmigiana. The wait was long and the Covid restrictions had us god-fear in us for fines. In another word we were impatience and hungry. Despite that we mused ourselves to come back to the place in better times for some boozy night out because we were so charmed by the 70s decor the place has.

All the three of us felt like we were the biggest winners when we wolfed down the food like in less than 10 minutes after all that trajectory. I was dreaming of being in the 70s or at least the food made me feel nostalgic of that boozy night when I was a wee lass. Who would have thunk that the flavours haven't changed. I love somethings left unchanged and predictable, especially food like Charles can make.

Well Charles, you can give us that bread and that garlic butter again! No worries about aftermath of delicious farts, really - I don't mind. You were so hospitable, generous and acknowledging of our impatience. Many thanks for those two cold VBs. They were much sculled (;.

See you soon for more of that steak and that scaloppini! We are so hopeful that we can return to your restaurant for a date night after 2 September 2020 when the state of disaster will be...

This place is a gem in Footscray.

I was at this restaurant about 20 years ago and recently on Sunday I took my little one here was a walk down memory lane. It was a magic moment shared with my little one and it gave me some nostalgic moments. There was plenty of carparks out the front as we arrived here around the time they opened. We were greeted by the charming Charlie himself up to our table. We felt warm and welcome. The iconic interior has not changed. Clean and presentable. Charlie was so nice, friendly and so we chatted away a bit.

We ordered the famous mushroom sauce steak, carbonara and a Coke. Our entree was the free bread with green pickled chilli and garlic butter. Omgosh these were sooOoO delicious, so fresh like homemade!

That was just the beginning. The steak was mindblowing. So soft that could melt in your mouth along with the perfectly cooked mushroom and tasty creamy sauce. My little one loved it so much. Not to mention the carbonara pasta was on another level. The pasta itself tasted like homemade and not like those ready made store bought pasta. It was so fresh and tastes so good.

To top it all off Charlie gave us a complimentary gelato Ice-cream (I insist to pay though haha 😄).

Price is on point and very worthy. We will definitely be back again and recommend to friends and family.

Thank you Charlie for your amazing food and...