What to Order at Pizza Fritta 180 If It's Your First Time

The menu at Pizza Fritta 180 is more focused than it first appears — at 628A Crown Street, Surry Hills, the entire kitchen is built around one dish. If it’s your first visit, the ordering approach is simpler than you might expect: start with pizza fritta, add contrast, and let the table do the rest.

This is the guide for that first visit. It covers every pizza fritta on the menu, what to order alongside it, and how to build a table that makes the most of what the kitchen does well.

The Pizza Fritta — Start Here

Pizza fritta is the reason the restaurant exists, and it should be the centre of every first visit. At Pizza Fritta 180, every pizza fritta is fried at exactly 180°C — the temperature at which the dough seals on contact with the oil, trapping steam inside and producing a crust that cracks when you bite through it. There are currently six options on the dine-in menu.

Classica 180 is the purest expression of the dish: Buffalo Ricotta, Fior di Latte, Basil, and Pepper — no tomato. If you want to taste the technique before anything else, this is it. The absence of a tomato base lets the dough and the 180°C frying standard take centre stage.

Chiara adds San Marzano tomato and Fior di Latte to the same simple Basil and Pepper combination. A gateway option: the familiar flavours of a Neapolitan tomato base, enclosed and fried rather than baked.

Nonna Rosa — San Marzano, Mild Neapolitan Salami, Buffalo Ricotta, Fior di Latte, Basil, Pepper — is the most traditionally Neapolitan combination on the menu. The salami provides depth without dominating; the ricotta keeps everything balanced.

Elena replaces the salami with Pancetta and keeps the Buffalo Ricotta and Fior di Latte. A slightly richer, rounder option — the cured pork flavour is more subtle than the salami versions.

Pulcinella uses Double Smoked Shoulder Ham alongside Buffalo Ricotta and Fior di Latte. The smokier, more substantial ham filling makes this one of the more robust options on the menu.

Allegra is the one for people who like heat: San Marzano, Hot Salami, Fior di Latte, Buffalo Ricotta, Basil, Chilli. If the table has varying heat tolerances, order this alongside a milder option rather than as the sole fritta.

For a first visit, ordering the Classica 180 and the Nonna Rosa together gives you the full range of what the kitchen does — one showing the pure technique, one showing the Neapolitan filling tradition. See the full dine-in menu at Pizza Fritta 180 →

How Many to Order

Pizza fritta is a sharing dish — ordering one each is the wrong approach. The Italian model is to order fewer pizza fritta than you think you need, then supplement with antipasti and sides that create contrast across the table.

For two people, one pizza fritta shared plus two or three antipasti gives a full, well-paced meal. For three or four, two pizza fritta plus a selection of sides builds a proper shared table without being excessive. For larger groups, the pattern scales: more variety rather than more volume.

The interior of a well-made pizza fritta is airy rather than dense — it’s satisfying without being heavy, which means you’ll eat less than you think before feeling appropriately fed. Start with less than you’d normally order and add if needed.

The Antipasti Worth Adding

The best antipasti alongside pizza fritta are the ones that cut through richness and refresh the palate rather than compound it.

The Parmigiana di Melanzane — layers of golden-fried eggplant, San Marzano tomato sauce, Buffalo Mozzarella, and Grana Padano DOP — is a full, considered dish in its own right and the kind of thing that turns a pizza fritta order into a proper Italian spread. The Arancini Bolognese, filled with slow-cooked Veal and Pork Bolognese, Peas, and Buffalo Mozzarella, work as a complementary fried counterpoint — the same Italian street-food logic as the fritta itself.

For something lighter, the Insalata Caprese — Vine-Ripened Tomatoes, Buffalo Mozzarella, Basil, EVOO — and the Rocket Salad with Grana Padano DOP and Honey Truffle Dressing both do what a good salad should: provide contrast and keep the table from tipping into heaviness. The Puverella Salad (Vine-Ripened Tomatoes, Cucumber, Green Olives, Spanish Onion, Croutons, Burrata, EVOO, Oregano) is larger and works well for four or more people sharing.

If you want a fried antipasto alongside the fritta, the Calamari Fritti (Flash Fried, Lemon Mayo) are light enough to sit alongside pizza fritta without the table feeling like it’s eating from only one register.

Beyond the Fritta — Pizza and Pasta

The baked pizza and pasta at Pizza Fritta 180 aren’t afterthoughts. The kitchen uses Solania San Marzano tomatoes and Fior di Latte across both sections, and the handmade pasta in particular — particularly the Paccheri alla Genovese with its slow-cooked caramelised onion and braised beef ragù, and the Gnocchi Sorrentina with San Marzano, Buffalo Mozzarella, and Grana Padano DOP — are dishes worth ordering for their own sake.

For a first visit, the simplest approach is to let pizza fritta lead and treat pasta or pizza as optional rather than expected. For a longer table or a group with different appetite levels, adding one pasta dish gives the meal range without competing with the fritta for attention.

What First-Timers Usually Get Wrong

The most common first-visit mistake is over-ordering. Pizza fritta reads as substantial on the menu — a fried pocket of dough — and people over-compensate by ordering as though it will be heavy. It won’t be, when it’s made correctly. Order less than your instinct suggests, eat what arrives, and add more if the table needs it.

The second mistake is waiting. Pizza fritta is at its best in the minutes immediately after it comes out of the oil — the 180°C frying creates a temporary textural state that starts to change as the pizza cools. When it arrives, tear it open and eat it. The conversation can continue while you do. How to eat pizza fritta the Italian way →

The Short Answer

Founded by Luigi Esposito — a third-generation Neapolitan pizzaiolo — Pizza Fritta 180 is built around a single standard: every pizza fritta fried at exactly 180°C, every time. If you order nothing else on your first visit, order a pizza fritta to share, one or two antipasti that create contrast, and a drink. That’s the table.

Everything on the menu exists in relation to that starting point. The more you eat, the more the logic of it makes sense.

Book a table at Pizza Fritta 180, Crown Street Surry Hills →

Frequently Asked Questions