It’s not one for a date night, perhaps, but when feeding the hordes quick and well is the order, any of the three Via Napoli pizzerias (Hunters Hills, Surry Hills and Lane Cove) has the game plan to trust. Think: metre-long, extraordinarily good, pizza.It’s a bustling place, hectic with boisterous waiters and large families, high chairs for the tots and pizza stands for the famished (we <will> fit four pizzas, the wine, the water jug, large plates for all on your tiny wooden table).The huge woodfired pizza ovens are getting a thorough workout, not just with the large tables of Italian families ordering enough pizzas to cover the table, but because of the metre-long pizzas being turned out through the night, which start to look relatively modest alongside a colossal 5m pizza that, we’re told, serves 20 people. If all that seems excessive, there are 50cm-long versions for the faint hearted, and a “traditional” size for the positively weak. We bow our heads in shame and go for the latter, barely finishing the glorious masterpiece between two.Some say it’s the best pizza in Sydney. If chewy, charred, foldable, soft and crispy at once is your ask then, sure, these taken the gong. It’s hard to argue with your mouth blissfully full of a slice topped with San Marzano tomato, fior di latte, hot salami, olives and fresh basil leaves.Skip the starters and salad if you must – there’s limited space on the table and in your stomach – but don’t naively go past the pasta. A paccheri pasta is tossed with fresh cherry tomatoes and a ball of burrata that you tear open on the plate, releasing the oozing creamy centre. But the magic comes via an eggplant puree, dolloped on the plate and packed with real eggplant flavour – are we in Italy yet?Must-eat dish: Any pizza, and paccheri pomodorini melanzane e burrata
