By Marie-Antoinette Issa.
There are few cinematic moments more persuasive than Julia Roberts, sitting in a tiny Naples pizzeria in ‘Eat Pray Love’, taking a bite of Margherita so transcendent it convinced a generation of women to quit their careers, embrace carbs and chase La Dolce Vita.
Now, in a plot twist absolutely no one saw coming, Sydney is getting its own chapter of that story. Complete with the original 2.8-tonne, handcrafted-in-Naples imported oven. Albeit one that was held hostage by customs longer than anticipated and led to a delayed local return launch.
L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele - the Naples icon, the 155-year-old temple of dough and devotion and the place Julia Roberts made even more famous just by chewing - has officially opened its first Australian outpost on Pitt Street in the CBD. Walking in really does feel like stepping into the movie, minus the jetlag and existential crisis.
Warm, loud in that charmingly animated Italian-hand-speaking way and carrying the kind of tomato-and-toasted-dough perfume that could be bottled and sold, L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele is a sensory overload of scent and sound.
Pizzaiolos stretch dough like they’ve been doing it since birth because, in many Naples families, they probably have. Flames curl inside the imported Neapolitan oven and the pizzas begin their procession shortly after.
The Margherita - a certified UNESCO-adjacent cultural artefact - is almost comically simple: San Marzano tomatoes, Agerola fior di latte, basil. The first mouthful is all hot steam and soft chew and that perfect acidity that makes your shoulders involuntarily drop. The crust blisters in all the right places, feather-light inside, smoky at the edges.
The Marinara is louder - garlic-forward, oregano-bright, the kind of pizza that wakes your whole palate up like it’s been personally offended. Yes, you will absolutely swipe the last slice before your sister has even reached for it.
Prices start at $18, which feels like a typo considering this is the exact recipe, the exact technique, the exact oven and in some cases the exact pizza Chefs shipped straight from Naples. It’s not ‘Neapolitan-style’. It’s not ‘inspired by’. It’s the real deal - the brand that literally defined the category and held onto traditions so tightly UNESCO went, "Yeah, this counts as heritage.”
Sydney diners don’t live on pizza alone no matter how hard we try, so Da Michele also plates up antipasti, pasta and desserts that stay true to the Italian grandmother playbook. The tiramisu is soft and boozy, the limoncello is straight from Sorrento and the entire experience feels like you should maybe be wearing linen and making questionable romantic decisions with a local tour guide.
Will this solve your problems the way pizza solved Julia’s? Unclear. Will it transport you straight to Naples in a single bite? Absolutely.
Truthfully, that’s enough of a spiritual awakening for a Thursday lunch.
L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele has arrived. If you’ve ever dreamed of your own ‘Eat Pray Love’ moment, Sydney just handed you the slice.
