Australian pizza named among the world’s best, despite city snub
While Australian cities may have missed out in a recent list of the world’s top eating destinations, the news is better for pizza lovers.
The US city of New Orleans has been named Time Out’s best food city of 2025, followed by Bangkok, Medellín, Cape Town, and Madrid.
While no Australian city featured in the top 20, Sydney’s pizza – or at least one particular pizza – was listed as one of the world’s best.
Bella Brutta in Newtown’s clam pizza was judged as Time Out‘s fifth best in the world after offerings in Naples, New York, Tokyo and Rome.
Topped with a “white, chowder-like sauce, tender sea-sweet clams, a kick of chilli, a liberal handful of fresh parsley and a squeeze of lemon that lifts” the pizza is “so good that no one will think you’re being shellfish if you don’t want to share”, according to Time Out.
Bella Brutta (Italian for “beautiful ugly”) is a co-venture by chef Luke Powell of LP’s Quality Meats and Porteno deli owners Elvis Abrahanowicz and Joseph Valore.
Newtown may not be by the water, but this clam pizza is getting noticed. Photo:Bella Brutta
Ahead of the eatery’s opening in 2018, Powell told Gourmet Traveller “the terrifying thing is that we’ve never cooked pizza before”.
“The main thing is that it’s going to be fun,” he said. “I don’t know anyone that doesn’t like eating pizza.”
Stay informed, daily
Taking top spot in the best pizza list was a classic margherita from Pizzeria da Attilio in Naples, followed by ‘cheese slice’ from New York Scarr’s Pizza.
A Japanese umami pizza – featuring the un-Italian combination of shiitake mushroom cream sauce, mozzarella, pecorino, mackerel, bonito flakes, kombu, green onions, sesame and soy sauce – claimed third spot for Pizza Marumo in Tokyo, before the capricciosa at Rome’s 180g Pizzeria Romana returned us to the dish’s birthplace.
Rounding out the top 10 were: The spicy blue cheese and nbluja pizza at Diamond Slice, Copenhagen; the ‘Jode’ from London’s Dough Hands; The Fellini fennel sausage pizza from Cape Town’s Novo; the mysteriously-named No 6 at Oobatz in Paris; and the Búfala Fest at Madrid’s renowned Italian restaurant, Baldoria.
