Rosso Antico Pizza Bar — Restaurant in Sydney

Pizza that bases itself off the napoletana experience but at least for me the execution fell short. There's some 1 and 2 reviews here bagged out by the 5 star reviewers who claim this is how pizza is meant to be and those 5 star reviewers miss on a couple of important points. Yes, cooking for 90s in a blistering hot oven will give you char but in my case it was a few seconds too far, the point where char (which gives a tiny bit of bitterness) becomes burnt food - overcooked large black sections that are literally overcoming your palate with ash - that's not napoletana, thats you overcooking and burning your cornicione. It must be free from burns to truly be napoletana (the AVPN standard states this clearly as well). Even between two pizzas the char vs burn ratio is different on my table, and looking at other tables it's the same, in the heat of service the inconsistency between pizzas by seconds of cooking is literally the difference between a good crust and a bad crust, and the inconsistency here prevents them from being great. Also the comments about sogginess versus expecting it to be soft in the middle due to napoletana style - rubbish. Napoletana should be soft (again, explicitly mentioned in the AVPN rules) not soggy, and one fold of the tip in your slice inwards should hold your pizza in this style, so some softness is correct but when you fold the tip in and still struggle to hold the toppings - this means either too much toppings or inadequate dough structure. Unfortunately my pizza was genuinely burnt on the crust - I did not eat my crust and I rarely discard crust unless it commits a sin like killing my palate, and it was genuinely soggy in the middle - from the very first slice folding in the tip was not enough and having to roll it squishily. Anyway, aside from the technical consistency issue, flavour was good (not particularly outstanding but fine really) I'd eat it (without the crust if the crust was burnt) if offered but I would not come...

Pizza would deserve 4 or 5 stars. A waiter deliberately lying to us? 1 star and a reason to not come back. When we ordered our pizza's we asked 3 times for the pizza to be vegetarian. When I started eating the Zucchini pizza I noticed this very smokey flavor and my friend and I brushed it off as coming from the stone oven. However, when I came across small, red, flat square cut pieces I realised they must have left the bacon on there or at least started preparing it with it and possibly picked it off when they realised it was supposed to be vegetarian. So I asked the waiter to check and he insisted that it was vegetarian trying to explain to us that it was scarmoza. I asked if that cheese doesn't melt and he said they add it before and after the baking process. Sorry, I am not stupid. Make a mistake? Own up to it instead of making the customer feel stupid and come around the corner with such a poor excuse. Sad experience, because otherwise we thought the pizza was great.

Edit: 1* added. I returned yesterday with a friend because she wanted a pizza and though my previous experience was bad, I know they do good pizza. That's the reason for one additional star. I was really torn because on the one hand I did enjoy my pizza but on the other hand I'm now 100% certain they refused to admit the mistake last time. I ordered the same pizza again and it tasted different. No smokey taste which definitely came from the meat the other time. It's a shame. I still recommend this place to others but to return yesterday was reassuring my previous review and I...

Reading the reviews as usual, before giving my opinion, in order to compare my one time experience with what it's been already happening in the place. Well it was funny: all the 1* and 2* reviews are about a soggy, large burned edges and topping falling off pizza. Let me tell you something: the authentic Italian pizza, specifically this one from Naples, it's meant to be like that. But let me rephrase this for you all, Domino's pizza eaters :) The pizza dough it's brilliantly done, it melts into your mouth while a mix of high quality topping brings your palate to heaven and back. The topping is falling off, true, because this is what naturally happens when you don't have gluey cheese-like stuff on your pizza. Finally the edges, like the rest of the pizza, are cooked to perfection: those little black bumps are a reminder to whoever is enjoying this precious meal, that the pizza has just come out of wooden oven, where the heat of the fire has kissed it's surface whit natural imperfections. Yes the edges are wide, to surround and compensate the intensity of the pizza center. If you have been enjoying that pizza, you won't leave them into your plate.

Anyway, not everyone has to like it. I simply loved it. Will...