Bella Brutta (beautiful ugly) is an acclaimed Italian restaurant specializing in neopolitan pizza, with a few other specialties. Reservations are required with their clam pizza drawing me to come out of our way for a Thursday dinner. The pizza turned out to be pretty good (definitely best eaten immediately), and the service was excellent.
I like to read lists of 'Best of' whenever I come across them in my feed, so perused a list of 'Best Pizzas in the World' by timeout.com (2025 edition), mainly to see if any were within driving distance. The fifth one on the list was the clam pizza from Bella Brutta in Sydney, Australia. Knowing that I would be in Sydney in April 2025, I marked this restaurant as someplace to try. Low and behold, my brother and I got the opportunity to try it by taking a bus from our hotel on our last night in Sydney before heading back home to the States.
They request reservations, so we made one for what was available same day (5:00 pm right when they open, and at the bar). We arrived exactly at 17:00 and sure enough, they were opening up. We got seated at the bar, and I had a chance to peruse their pizza oven, imported from Italy when the restaurant opened in 2018. We were soon greeted by our waiter and we ordered two pizzas: the clam and the sausage, each costing AU$32. As expected, the pizza came to our counter as soon as they were ready. It was good pizza, with the first bite of the crispy middle being very good. But as expected, it got soggy pretty quickly. The edges are pretty large and bready (without any toppings) and would have made great dippable breadsticks (but wish the toppings had crept more closer to the edges). The toppings on both were moderated and well distributed (in the places where it was laid out)...definitely not overdone, but in the case of the clam pizza, wishing for more clam flavor. Our waiter offered us finishing chili oil, which added some more flavor to the sausage. The two of us were able to finish both pizzas, and had enough space to share one freshly filled cannolli (AU$8), which was really good: the shell shattered as we bit into it, and the filling wasn't too sweet or cheesy. A really good bite.
As mentioned, the service was excellent. Payment was taken care of at the table. They seemed to have enough staff ready to handle a large crowd. It hadn't gotten too busy by the time we left, but can imagine how busy it could get. With the processes in place, the owners and staff seemed to have this restaurant buzzing. read more