Bella Brutta — Restaurant in Sydney

Amazing Pizza, Shockingly Bad Service from Our Waiter

The pizza at Bella Brutta was outstanding — truly some of the best we’ve ever had — but sadly the service from our waiter, Jamie, completely ruined what should have been a special lunch. I was hosting close family friends from Tokyo on their last day in Sydney, and instead of enjoying the meal, we were made deeply uncomfortable throughout.

What happened:

Upon seating us, Jamie addressed the table in a commanding, scolding tone, insisting we order drinks before even looking at the pizza menu.

He asked our guests “Do you speak English?” and “Where are you from?” then launched into personal anecdotes about living in Japan/Korea and working as a stylist for BLACKPINK. He repeatedly raised the issue of Japan–Korea historical conflict and “bad blood” between the two nations — even after we informed him our guests were a Japanese–Korean couple with their 13-year-old daughter present. He brushed it off with “whoops” and continued anyway.

He made inappropriate remarks to my partner, asking “What’s it like living in a Japanese household?” and then adding “Japanese people are the best Asians — the politest, clean, strict, but the best.” This forced my partner into an awkward position and created an offensive comparison of ethnic groups, particularly against Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans.

He repeatedly interrupted us, even addressing the 13-year-old guest directly with questions in English as though giving her an unsolicited “English lesson,” which made her uncomfortable.

He was taking away the empty plates which is absolutely fine. However, he attempted to consolidate plates while pizza was still left, making us feel rushed.

He returned twice to raise the dessert menu and time-limit issue while we were still eating, only mentioning the 2-hour booking limit 30 minutes before the end. This created unnecessary pressure and spoiled the meal.

I addressed the issues on Jamie's behaviours to the manager, Grace. To Grace’s credit, she was apologetic in person and promised to rectify the experience. She agreed on inviting my partner and I back to the establishment and treat us with a dining experience, served by a different waiter. I emailed the following day, nevertheless, not receiving any follow-up despite my written email has left me feeling dismissed.

👉 To Bella Brutta – I am still waiting for a reply to the email I sent. As promised to the manager Grace, I followed up my complaint in writing after our lunch booking at 12:15 on 16th August 2025, but I never received a response. Grace had verbally offered to invite my partner and I back for a rectification meal (served by someone other than our server), but this has not been confirmed in writing despite my email. Please get back to me at your earliest...

I had seen this place on a lot of food magazines/ articles/ reviews etc and I was planning to visit from a long period of time as being a Pizza Chef in my life I had to tryout this pizzeria. So I went with a lot of expectations, but this place didn't live up to it.

The seating is too cramped and close to each other, you can hear what people are talking about next to your table.

The ambience was alright with dimmed lights, the pizza oven in the centre of the restaurant gave a nice vibe to the whole place.

Talking about the food, Disappointed. The waitress didn't let us modify any pizza as being Vegetarians we had very minimal options to choose from. Thus, we had no other option so We ordered Jersey Milk Straciatella and Wood fired Mushrooms to start with, the straciatella was just a whole big dollop of cheese with seasoning nothing else, so obviously you'll need some bread to eat which will cost you an additional $5each. The mushrooms were dripping with the chilli oil and had no flavour as such to it except the chilli.

Next we ordered a Cavolo Nero Pizza which was a disaster. The pizza was cut into some odd shapes making it even harder for 3 us to share. The flavour profile was alright but the pizzas tend to get cold in a flash plus the crust is just burnt bread and nothing else. After which we ordered a Margherita which was pretty good and it actually saved the day for us.

At last we ordered a Tiramisu which was pretty moist and had a nice taste to it.

Altogether we didn't enjoy the overall experience after spending a total of $120 and travelling for 1.5 hrs all the way to newtown.

Worth...

I haven't been back for a specific reason - it gets excessively loud indoors, but last visit I was grabbing a table out the back which is kinda awkward at night with maybe a possum or something in the area scurrying around causing leafage to drop onto the table/seating but you can actually hear your fellow diners, and that fixes the atmosphere problem quite considerably. The other issue is always the lines but it seems these days in a weeknight that walkins are very plausible for solo or duos (and you can book online on sevenrooms which helps you lock it in for dinner in advance if can plan a wee bit ahead). The pizza flavours are solid, clam pizza are renowned and the sausage is super reliable. The pizza base is structurally easy to pick up, no issues with overloaded toppings leading to sogginess issues. Ask for specials, the nduja confit garlic I had was awesome. The pizza crust is a bit contentious for me since I think they go a little over the line from charred to a bit too singed and while I can do that for a few slices I think the acrid singe on the crust is a tad too much to eat a whole pizza worth of crust, so at some point I stop eating crust (which you won't find me doing at places like Al Taglio where I'd gobble every bit of crust), but it's definitely not as bad at certain other pizza joints which seem to think either people like ash or that people don't care about crust, so I let that slide here. Service is reasonable. Definitely enough of a Sydney institution that any pizza lover must go at least once yo judge...