Gigi's Pizza Balmain — Restaurant in Sydney

Do not waste your time or money on this horrible place. Daniel who runs his family pizzeria business over the last 13 years has been excruciating painful to deal with and the unpleasant attitude made it more worst. Our evening started very slowly… as we sat at the very back of the restaurant, it took 20mins for us to be acknowledged then for our to be taken As our lovely and very young inexperienced waitstaff took our order. Few minutes later, she came back served the in open bottles of wine ( IS THERE A RULE SERVING UNOPEN BOTTLE OF ALCOHOL - RSA !!! ) Our main course arrived without serving our entree first??? Guess what it was completely forgotten!!! All well in good at this stage… BUT this is all went down hill… Restaurant was empty by 9.00pm apart from us waiting for the three waitstaff to attend to us. Ask if we need anything, perhaps clear our table, offer us some refreshments or even desserts…but nothing cause they all congregated at the front bar chatting I approached them at 9.15pm and interrupted their get together, I ask if there’s a manager In site I could speak to! Apparently just left and if I have any complaint I should ring between certain hours! As I proceed back to our table one of the waitstaff rung the proprietor assuming advised him on the current situation. After few minutes we were inform that his on his way back it be around 8mins. But this stage it’s 9.45pm. Daniel, had storm In towards us & proceeded telling us that we told staff that they’re horrible which completely untrue! He argued and given us facts over and over about how busy his restaurant over the last 13 years. He interrupted and speak over us while we tried voicing our side. This kind of proprietor should take a good crash course dealing with clientele and how to run his establishment. ( that’s if he likes keep his business running for years to come! ) 1. Apparently his establishment is not fine dining so serving extra cheese on your pasta and empty pepper Shaker his already going above and beyond for the service 2. As we all understand it’s hard to find a good waitstaff with current business climate but it doesn’t mean you leave your business to the hands of unexperienced waitstaff who can’t even deal with complaints. 3. The food is over rated!!! He burns every pizza!!! 4. Finally Daniel excruciating attitude without any hint of sympathy or even acknowledgment about our over all experience is painful to observed and watch. Balmain is a well established area where you can find little cafes and restaurants that run mostly by families which promote warmth welcome, friendly service and made you feel at home… BUT NOT GIGI’s BALMAIN It will be ashamed for this business to stay open and let present & future clientele to be treated the way we were treated last night. This will ruin the...

First time here, and what a great pick for a Friday night birthday dinner. It was on the list, and the birthday crew chose well. We had a booking for four adults and a tween, and the whole night had a great vibe.

Located right on the always vibrant Darling Street in Balmain, parking was surprisingly easy—we scored a spot pretty much right out front (paid parking for a couple of hours).

The restaurant has a fun, welcoming feel—decorated with style but still a bit of the quirky charm from its former life as a Thai place (those funky doors live on!). There’s both a front and rear dining area, so plenty of space. We were up front, where the buzz of the pizza oven, bar, and street added great energy.

What We Ordered: • Margherita Pizza – My go-to and still my favourite of the night. Fluffy but firm base, fresh ingredients—a total classic that I could’ve eaten all night. • Diavola Pizza – Birthday boy’s pick. Super fresh with just the right kick—a strong contender against the Margherita. • Gnocchi Pomodoro & Mozzarella – Soft, fresh gnocchi with a perfectly balanced tomato and basil sauce. • Pepper Mafaldine alla Boscaiola – My favourite pasta dish of the night. Amazing texture and sauce—we even ordered a second one when another teen joined the table late. • Rucola Salad – A simple but beautifully fresh rocket and parmesan salad, great alongside the mains. • Masciarelli Montepulciano d’Abruzzo – We originally aimed for a pinot noir (clearly popular, as it was sold out), but this was a fantastic alternative—so good we ordered a second bottle. • Tiramisu (x2) – These became the birthday cakes. Super soft and fresh. Only question: is it really house-made or from a supplier? Tasted great, but I’m getting tired of seeing “house-made” on menus when it might not be.

The Experience:

The tiramisu came out with candles, and the whole restaurant joined in singing happy birthday—a great touch that made the night feel even more special.

Only hiccup? A few local kids tossed in some fart bombs through the window. Didn’t dampen the mood—just added a laugh to an already lively night.

Final Thoughts:

Gigi is a gem—fun, casual, great food, and a perfect spot for a celebration. I hadn’t been to this part of Balmain in a while, but I’ll...

After seeing Gigi’s “famous” pizzas advertised on Instagram as one of the 50 best pizzas in Australia we decided to try out this place and it was one of our worst experience we ever had. 1. They offer vegan options on they menu, but the only thing what they do to make the dishes vegan, for example the pizza they just make the pizza wirhout cheese, instead putting vegan cheese on a pizza like In any other pizza places offering vegan options.

I wouldn’t spend any money on their pasta options, they are not worth the price for the quality they offering.

After bringing the pizza with meat, even if we ordered vegan option, they took back the pizza and brought it back after 10-15min waiting, but this time the pizza was only half of the size, but charged us the same price like for the other pizzas which were actually double the size.

After ordering our food, we had to wait at least 30min to get even our starters, then we got our mains after another 10min, but also not all at once half of the dishes came first and the dishes of the other 2 friends came 10min later.

After all this bad experience and not even able to order any second drink or something, as the waitress just took care of a bigger group outside and didn’t really care about other guest inside, we complained about the size of the one pizza and that we wouldn’t pay for the whole amount plus for the vodka pasta which was actually only pasta with basic tomato sauce and was not cooked with vodka like normal vodka pasta which the chef actually confirmed after complaining, but then suddenly changed after talking with the boss and said no no we put vodka in there.

The pizza chef which is probably also the owner of this restaurant tried to convince me that everything was right and the pizzas are actually all the same size which was not true, we ended up paying in full for everything, without even a apology from the restaurant.

I can definitely say this place is definitely not worth the visit and it’s definitely not one of Australia’s 5 best pizzas.

First and last time...