Peppina's Pizza, Roselands

Peppina's is a pizza eatery in Roselands in South Sydney that is located in a car park setting. The pizzas here have very thin, crisp bases with a range of unique toppings with beef and lamb replacing pork to make the pizzas halal. There's also a new branch of Peppina's in nearby Sandringham but which one should you go to?

My friend Sophia loves a particular type of pizza. It has a super thin base that is crisp on the bottom (no wet bases for her). And Peppina is one of her favourite pizza restaurants for this very reason. She has also visited here a few times as well as the new Sandringham eat-in restaurant and she prefers the pizza here at the original place because she found them oilier and softer at the new branch. The menu at both is similar but the Sandringham branch is more a sit down restaurant while this is more a warehouse with some outdoor seating.

So that's how we have ended up at the original Roselands branch of Peppina pizza sitting at tables and chairs in the pebble filled edge of a car park. Sophia has pre ordered the pizzas and they're a good price with each pizza around $22 or $20 for a classic margarita with the seafood pizza the most expensive at $28. Between the two of us we have ordered 3 pizzas with the intention to take some home with us.

We have arrived early at just before 6pm to nab one of the 4 tables. The owners of Peppina pizza are childhood best friends Armand Nariman and James Gulli, the latter who was formerly the co-owner and head chef at Pizza Madre in Marrickville. The pizzeria shares a counter with Duo Duo ice cream. Peppina's is named after James's nonna Peppina and was inspired by her cooking.

The first pizza I try is the Lombardia with a mild gorgonzola cream fondue sauce, brown onions, walnuts and thyme. The gorgonzola is super mild and doesn't have that hit on the back of your throat that you can get with some blue cheeses and it blends so perfectly with the sweet caramelised onions, crunchy walnuts and light sprinkling of thyme. "I knew you'd like that," says Sophia who knows my love of rich food. And when I take a bite into the base I can hear the crispness in each bite.

I really wanted the Calabrese because I love nduja but Sophia can't eat much chilli so she wants the Salamino instead which they assured her was mildly spicy. This has San Marzano tomatoes, spicy beef salami, fior di latte, calabrian chilli and basil. The pizza bases are super thin as promised and crisp even with the slightly wetter tomato base. I thought I'd like this pizza the most but I think I prefer the other two.

Sophia's favourite is the potato and sausage with a twist. All the pizzas have beef instead of pork to make them halal friendly and this sausage is not Italian pork sausage but lamb sausage with confit garlic, fior di latte, paper thin potato slices, red onion, rosemary and manchego. The real stand out flavours are the confit garlic with the lamb sausage although you do have to love the flavour of lamb for this one.

By the time we leave the other tables are filling up so we head elsewhere for some dessert on this warm spring night!

So tell me Dear Reader, what is your ideal pizza base like? Would you choose the branch with the restaurant seating or the one with the pizza that you like?

This meal was independently paid for.

Peppina's

67 Chapel St, Roselands NSW 2196

Saturday 5–10 pm

Sunday 5–9:30 pm

Monday to Wednesday Closed

Thursday 5–9:30 pm

Friday 5–10 pm

https://peppinas.com.au/