Pizza Madre

Overview

Of all the super powers one could wish for, the ability to create pizza out of thin air would be up there. But alas, our feeble bodies have not yet evolved to the point where we can naturally create hot slices at will, so we'll have to settle for Pizza Madre — which is a very excellent fall back. Italian for pizza mother, Pizza Madre is about as close as we're going to get to cozying up inside a pizza womb. The snug 35-seat eatery, is immediately inviting, radiating a pastel pink glow that spills out onto the corner of Marrickville's busy Victoria Road.

Pizza Madre is brought to you by the culinary legends behind cafe and pasta mecca, Two Chaps, and is similarly characterised by effortless simplicity — a handful of dishes done to perfection. Sourced by produce king Shane Roberts, the vegetarian ingredients are seasonal and exceptionally fresh. The drinks menu is short and sweet — a well selection of small-batch wines, beers by the (very) local brewery Grifter, and an all-Australian Negroni. The food menu is equally as concise. Each week, there are five or six pizzas on offer, which are shuffled, altered and revised based on the availability of local produce. So if you've got a hankering for sampling a different pizza every week for a year, then this is the place for you.

The team has gone for a stridently Australian approach to pizza making — using local wholegrain flour over the traditional tipo 00 in their Neapolitan-style sourdough bases. Though ever-changing, pizza flavours include combos like the warrigal greens with hazelnuts, fior di latte and a trifecta of cheese and the portobello mushroom with Jerusalem artichoke topped with generous dollops of smoked cauliflower hummus. Pizza purists may consider it sacrilegious to veer so drastically away from the classic pizza path, but rest assured, Pizza Madre is birthing some seriously tasty pizza bambinos.

As the eatery is on the snug side and only open a few days a week, you should be prepared to queue, which means arriving before you're entirely starving. It's also worth mentioning that the layout lends itself best to groups of four or less so if you're one of the lucky few with more than three friends, endeavour to arrive early. Worst case scenario, if you're too hungry to wait, Pizza Madre offers all their pizza delights in takeaway form, so you can enjoy your pizza party at your casa on your own terms.

Appears in:

Where to Find the Best Pizza in Sydney for 2023