Surf n Turf is worth ordering. Photo: Lucy Ridge.
Pizzeria Officina opened late last year next to Bar Outro on Lonsdale Street. Deliberately rough and ready, the renovated garage has temporary automotive decorations, including tires out front and car posters on the walls, and the whole thing has a distinctly old-school mechanic vibe.
The building will soon be earmarked for redevelopment, so the owners (and the team at Terra and Recess) are intentionally keeping things low-key. We don’t invest in long-term equipment or fancy equipment.
I visited on a stinking hot Saturday and I didn’t envy the kitchen staff sweltering next to the pizza oven. The temporary keg system wasn’t ready to pour beer on tap, so I grabbed a small beer from the fridge to quench my thirst instead.
Continuing the automotive theme, the menu is divided into classic and custom pizzas. I immediately fell in love with surf and turf. A vodka tomato sauce base with shrimp, nduja salami, and stracciatella cheese.
Big Mac pizza is covered with shredded lettuce. Photo: Lucy Ridge.
Out of curiosity, I also ordered a Big Mac pizza. Seasoned beef mince, pickles, burger cheese, and macaroni sauce are baked on top of a base sprinkled with sesame seeds, and then piled with shredded iceberg lettuce. Sounded like a good idea, but probably didn’t live up to expectations (like a late night Big Mac…) I think the “mac sauce” could have been better smeared on top of the shredded lettuce, helping it stay in place.
Surf and Turf, on the other hand, definitely paid off. The shrimp were evenly spaced (one per slice) and the tomato vodka base was delicious. Vodka sauce has become very trendy lately. The point is not to get everyone drunk with pasta, but to use vodka to amp up the tomato flavor. It has something to do with volatile molecules, but that’s about as much science as I can tolerate today. The cool, creamy stracciatella cheese contrasted with the hot, spicy ‘nduja salami, leaving my fingers dripping with bright red oil. Again, pretty dirty pizza to devour, but no one judged.
The best part was that they added dipping sauce to the pizza dough. We chose the garlic mayonnaise and it tasted great and made it easier to finish the batter (I expected my hair to curl at any moment).
You’d be forgiven for thinking there’s still a mechanic living in this space. Photo: Lucy Ridge.
We pretended to be healthy by ordering a side salad of endive, wood-roasted peaches, parmesan and tarragon vinaigrette. The peaches could have been aged a little longer or roasted over a wood fire a little more (possibly both). The side plates match the theme. Only the finest plastics are used here. The cutlery also has plastic handles, but the cups were thankfully made of glass.
The whole thing was fun, a little kitschy, but in a kind of self-referential way. However, the price was a bit of a pain. If you’re paying more than $30 for a pizza, you’re going to have pretty high expectations.
We stopped at the bar next door, Outro, for cocktails to end the evening. However, it’s worth noting that the pizza shop has an Outro drinks menu. You can also order pizza at the bar.
Pizzeria Officina is located at 4/9 Lonsdale St, Braddon. Open Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 5pm to 9pm and Friday and Saturday from 5pm to 10pm. It is also open for lunch on weekends from 12 noon to 2:30 p.m. Follow Pizzeria Officina Instagram.