The most knowledgeable pizza aficionado I know claims this is one of the world's best pizzerias. And he is right. But even at one of the great places in the world - there are rules that need to be followed by the customer to make the most of the experience. You can't just throw darts at the menu and get something you will love. *** The major claim to fame of Vacanza is their San Marzano tomatoes and their superior bufala mozzarella. San Marzano tomatoes are way better than the red paint in a can that Americans put on pizza. But they are not enough to make a dish. Taking classicism and the house claims of the superiority of their base materials seriously, I ordered a margarita pizza, the first item on their pizza menu. The famous tomatoes. The famous cheese. Four leaves of basil. The End. It was not enough to produce something I would want to eat again. As boring as a date with an accountant. My wife of all people - the militant pescatarian in the room - got olives and ham on her pizza - but no cheese. She despises both olives and ham. I was in utter shock. I checked her for mental illness since she was totally out of character. She was fine. Her olives were amazing. Her ham was strong. Her cheese-less pizza was boring ... But the house does not offer cheese-less pizza on the menu. There is a reason for this and the wife had to put in special requests to get her way. I could see that neither of us had ordered well ... and that with care and planning - an amazing pizza could be had here. Get your pizza with a ton of ingredients on top and things could be very intriguing. Other note: the menu offers a number of pure cheese dishes using bufala and other stuff - no pizza crust. Those might be interesting indeed. * * * One last note. Samuel C. is not a wine drinker. Wine is really sort of mandatory here. Beer won't cut it. Water won't cut it. A serious red wine would have done much to improve the quality of my meal. * * * Australia is not only a major center for Italian food ... It is a major center for Indian food, for Chinese food, for their own excellent Australian food, and offers Sri Lankan cuisine ... a cuisine we never see in the United States. So I am not sure how much more pizza I am going to be having. But I will put in one petty sniveling remark. Here is Samuel C offering "whine" to go with his "wine." I am NOT a believer that ordering a plain simple dish at a good restaurant should give you a dull meal. I have had many pizza people say "You ordered a cheese pizza. What did you expect?" My counter to those people is Brazilian pao de queijo. Pao de queijo is one of the most intoxicating dishes in the world you can eat. It is a Mineiran dish that is served all over Brazil. It is merely bread baked with Brazilian cheese inside. It is addictive. You want more. They put out a breadbasket full of pao de queijo, you eat up the whole basket, you order seconds and there is no room left in your stomach for your meal. Offering pao de queijo early in the meal is one of the tricks Brazilian all you can eat rodizios offer to cut down on the expensive meat eaten by the customers. If the Brazilians can make one of the most magical foods in the world just using bread and cheese, How come Italians can't make something fascinating and good with bread, cheese and good tomatoes - giving them one more ingredient than the Brazilians use? Just saying. read more

A few of our friends have been raving about this pizzeria located at Charing Cross and now that we've moved just walking distance away, what better time to check it out. When you're passing by the store, you would think there's only the bench out front to wait for your takeaway, but when entering through the hallway from the entrance you realise how much seating there is out the back. And there's another level upstairs for dining. It's full of surprises. The atmosphere is warm and inviting, the decor trendy; perfect for chillin' with a group of mates sharing pizzas. Alongside their pizzas, the menu also has a range of antipastos, baked dishes, salads, desserts and something for the kiddies. Now what to get? Seeing as my wife has an allergy to tomatoes, it was great that they had a section on the menu of non tomato based pizzas. We tried the 'Di Matteo', which had Italian pork & fennel sausage, porcini mushroom, fior de latte and rosemary. It was large with generous portions and the crust with right amount of crunch. We wanted to try the Nutella calzone, but it was a bit on the pricey side so we opted to give it a go next time. read more

Vacanza Pizzeria - Pizza Near Me - Waverley, NSW

Vacanza is conveniently located near Bondi Junction and features delicious pizza. There were a variety of toppings and different pizzas, so something for everybody. This restaurant is very authentic with Italian staff and authentic food. The prices were reasonable too. The service was really good and catered to our group. read more

Vacanza Pizzeria - Il Saraceno and Il Capitano - Pizza Near Me - Waverley, NSW

Vacanza has become my local go-to pizza place. Love that they have real Italiano staff here. read more

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Authentic pizza and pasta here! We loved sharing a couple of pizzas and pasta here. The pizza was fresh and full of flavour and wood oven baked. Nice crust and the good size.The gnocchi was nice and fresh tasting too. Great to be able to BYO wine and enjoyed wonderful service. read more

Service was great, pizza was great. Had a great glass of Pinot. Tiramisu was so so. I would return again.

If you want some legit Neapolitan-style pizza, this is it...buffalo marg is the gold standard and Vacanza delivers. Chewy crust in the middle and light and slightly burnt on the crust. We're regulars here and also recommend the D'avola or El Capitano. Happy that the new place in Surry Hills is now open as well, much easier to get to! read more

I really like this place. We live locally and go about once every two months. What I like about it, is that it's consistent. There is consistently good service and food. The management are very friendly and professional and the pizza is YUM. Prices are all reasonable too. I hope it's here to stay. read more

The pizza here is absolutely delicious! Authentic ingredients and a perfect pizza base. I really enjoyed eating here, and so did my friends. If you want a great Italian experience, I recommend checking out Vacanza Pizzeria. read more

We had high hopes for this restaurant as everyone was raving about the pizza. While the pizza is good, for Sydney, it's not amazing. The staff are great - very friendly and helpful. Unfortunately, the manager seems to be getting away with bad customer service by smiling and saying sorry. It takes ages to be seated, there are no split bills and he tries to seat big groups on small tables and you have to request a bigger table to fit the pizzas on. If you arrive a little before opening time, there's no accommodating you, it's all about coming right on time. Coming from a very customer-focussed country recently, I'm always baffled at how bad Sydney treats their consumers. This restaurant is just another example, although, if you are a regular or have kids, this restaurant is very welcoming. read more

I came to the restaurant to make a booking for 8 people to celebrate my birthday on my actual birth date. A table was booked but the floor staff, Alex, kept asking if I can change the time from 7.30pm to 8pm. Since I am not an aggressor and an understanding person, OK, 8pm is fine. On my actual day, the same floor staff, Alex, rang me up and asked if i could postpone the time to 8.30pm. I said it's not possible as everyone is being notified. He goes "well it's fully booked and busy." In my mind, "hello? i didn't make my booking this morning nor did i make it last night." I kept myself quite and he said "it should be alright". I asked "if i have a few more friends coming, let say 1 or 2, is it alright to get a few chairs for them?" straight no was the answer but then he said "i will see what i can do". When i was at the restaurant, I brought my cake there and asked if they could serve the cake when the meal is finished. The same floor staff again said NO. I went "OK, you don't have to cut the cake but can you give give me the knife and plates. so we can serve it ourselves". He goes "NO. we don't serve cakes here." He then told me I SHOULD HAVE asked if they serve cake before making the booking. What the?! I am not the only one who has a birthday dinner there. Before me, there was a table for 16 celebrating theirs. And, after that there was another table for 6 celebrating their birthday. I have already told the him, Alex, that the booking was made to celebrate my birthday and you as an experienced restaurant server should have known anything better than customers. He could have told me if cake can be served or cakage fees will be charged or corkage fees will be charged. What kind of service is this?! Then I walked away from the restaurant and he rang me if I still want the table. I kindly said "no i would like to head to a place where i can have my cake". He goes " it's so unprofessional to leave the place like this. I have reserved the table for you for 8 people" then he hang up. What the?! What kind of attitude is that?! To me, no matter how good your food is, customer service is the utmost important. Because of your sick attitude, unprofessional service, i will never go back again. And, you've just lost 300 bucks of business that night. *Reputation is hard to earn but easy to destroy. Once customers are lost, you can never get them back* Note: I have worked in a semi-fine dining restaurant before when I was in uni and my friend is a 300-seat restaurant manager. We both shake our heads and completely disagreed that service shall be in place anywhere in town at all. read more

Minimalist but excellent quality ingredients. A bit pricey but it is good.