Top 10 Must-Try Dishes at Via Napoli Pizzeria (What to Order First)

At Via Napoli Pizzeria’s Neapolitan pizza restaurant in Sydney, the menu covers a lot of ground — wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas, handmade pasta, antipasti, pizza fritta, and desserts that most tables end up ordering twice. If it’s your first visit, or you’re bringing someone who hasn’t been before, the choice can be genuinely difficult.

Via Napoli Pizzeria, a Neapolitan pizza restaurant with locations in Surry Hills and Lane Cove, Sydney, serves the same menu at both venues. Whether you’re at Via Napoli Pizzeria Surry Hills or our Lane Cove pizzeria, this guide covers the 10 dishes that best represent what the kitchen does — chosen to give you a cross-section of the menu, not just the most obvious options.

The Pizzas to Order

Via Napoli’s wood-fired pizzas are built on long-fermented dough, Solania San Marzano DOP tomatoes, and fior di latte mozzarella — cooked at 430–480°C in a matter of minutes. These four are the ones worth ordering first.

1. Margherita

The Margherita is the right place to start at any Neapolitan restaurant, and Via Napoli’s version makes a strong case for it. The base uses Solania San Marzano tomatoes alongside buffalo mozzarella, Pecorino Romano, and Grana Padano DOP — three cheeses where most Neapolitan kitchens use one. The result is richer without being heavy, and the crust gives you a clear read on the dough fermentation. If this pizza is right, everything else will be too.

For more on why the Margherita is such an effective benchmark, this article on the perfect Margherita covers the reasoning in full.

2. Diavola

The most consistently ordered pizza at Via Napoli for good reason. Hot Neapolitan salami, Gaeta black olives, and pecorino Romano on a Solania San Marzano base — spicy, briny, and balanced. The salami here is the real thing: a fine-ground Neapolitan-style salami that crisps under the oven heat rather than going greasy. A better version of what this style of pizza should be.

3. Allegra

The standout pizza if you want something that goes beyond the standard list. The Allegra is built around Nonna Giuseppina’s beef meatballs — a family recipe that’s been part of Via Napoli’s kitchen since the beginning. Pecorino Romano, pepper, and Solania San Marzano sauce complete it. The meatballs are dense enough to hold under the oven heat without drying out, and the pepper gives the whole thing a finish you won’t find on a standard pizza menu.

4. Burratina

The Burratina is a pizza that earns its place through contrast. Prosciutto di Parma and fior di latte go into the oven; the burrata cheese is added cold after baking, so it sits over the heat of the pizza and starts to break open as you eat. The result — the cured meat, the blistered base, the cool cream of the burrata — is one of the better combinations on the menu and a good choice for a table that wants something a step above the classics.

The Antipasti to Start With

Via Napoli’s antipasti are designed to be shared before the pizza arrives, and the two below are the most worth ordering every time.

5. Fiori di Zucca

Zucchini flowers filled with buffalo ricotta and Pecorino Romano — one of the most delicate dishes on the menu and one that not enough tables order. The flowers are light enough to eat without filling you before the main event, and the combination of the mild ricotta with the sharper Pecorino Romano is more interesting than it sounds. Order them early; they go quickly at a table that’s ordered the right things.

6. Arancini Bolognese

The Arancini Bolognese are one of the most reliable share dishes on the menu: crisp exterior, slow-cooked veal and pork Bolognese inside, with peas and buffalo mozzarella that holds everything together. They’re Italian street food in origin — arancini come from Sicily but the Bolognese filling is the Neapolitan adaptation — and they work well with wine before the pizza arrives. A table of two can split one order; a table of four should order two.

The Pasta Dishes That Stand Out

Via Napoli’s pasta menu is longer than most people expect from a pizzeria. All pasta is homemade, and the three dishes below are the ones where that effort shows most clearly.

7. Gnocchi Sorrentina

Homemade gnocchi, San Marzano tomatoes, melted buffalo mozzarella, Grana Padano DOP, basil. The Sorrentina preparation — named for Sorrento on the Amalfi Coast — involves baking the gnocchi with the mozzarella until it pulls into long strands. It’s comfort food done with proper ingredients, and it’s consistently one of the most popular pasta dishes at both locations. A good choice if someone at the table isn’t sure what to order.

8. Pappardelle Bolognese

Homemade pappardelle with a 5-hour slow-cooked veal and pork ragù, traditional soffritto, and Grana Padano DOP. The five-hour cook time isn’t marketing — you can taste the difference between a ragù that’s been reduced properly and one that hasn’t. The pappardelle are wide enough to carry the sauce without it sliding off, and the soffritto base gives the ragù a depth that a shorter cook can’t achieve. One of the best pasta dishes on the menu, and consistently so.

9. Spaghetti Chitarra Frutti di Mare

Via Napoli’s signature pasta dish. Homemade spaghetti chitarra — cut with a guitar-string frame rather than a roller, which gives the pasta a rougher surface that holds sauce — with local prawns, mussels, vongole, and calamari in Piennolo cherry tomatoes, garlic, chilli, and extra virgin olive oil. It’s the most involved pasta on the menu and the one most tables that order it mention when they come back. The Piennolo del Vesuvio cherry tomatoes, grown on the slopes of Vesuvius, bring a concentrated sweetness that San Marzano doesn’t have — a deliberate choice for a seafood base.

Don’t Skip Dessert

Most tables skip dessert. The ones that don’t are right.

10. Tiramisú

Espresso-soaked ladyfingers, lightly sweetened mascarpone, cocoa. The Via Napoli Tiramisú is made in-house and done without embellishment — which is exactly how it should be. It’s the kind of dessert that earns its place by not overcomplicating itself. Order one between two and reconsider your decision to skip dessert in future.

How to Order Based on Your Occasion

The right order at Via Napoli depends less on personal taste than on who’s at the table and why.

First visit: start with the Margherita and one antipasto, then a pasta or a second pizza. You’ll have a complete picture of the kitchen without overordering.

Group table or occasion: the antipasti and a mix of pizzas work well for sharing — the Allegra, Diavola, and Burratina give enough variety across the table. Add the Pappardelle Bolognese for anyone who wants pasta.

Date night: the Burratina and the Spaghetti Chitarra Frutti di Mare are the two dishes most suited to the occasion — they require a bit more attention and reward it.

For the full menu with current dishes and availability, see the dine-in menu.

Want someone else to work through this list themselves? A Via Napoli gift card puts the ordering in their hands.

Book a Table →

Frequently Asked Questions