La Disfida Enoteca Pizza, Haberfield

“But I love a hearty slice of pizza when I’m hungry” I lament.

“Well, why don’t you try asking your friends what they want for dinner instead of thinking about yourself all the time?” Mysaucepan says.

“That’s a load of crap, I always think about my friends” I say, slightly cheesed off by my wife’s convenient generalization of my supposed selfishness.

She gives me a look of resignation and rolls her eyes, “Sure, whatever!” she replies.

I have heard so much about this restaurant and have been wanting to sink my teeth into one of the pizzas at La Disfida for many years. This is not unlike going out on a hot date with a beautiful girl and I don’t mean sinking my teeth into her either.

If a restaurant is famed for dishing out great pizzas, then the anticipation of good food is like being on a date with a beautiful girl, right?

The six of us arrive at the restaurant at 8.30 pm on a Saturday night and this joint is in full swing.

The dining room in this inner west terrace is packed and we wait watching locals tuck into a variety of pizzas and pastas while our table is being prepared upstairs.

A waiter leads us upstairs and we are huddled into a cozy table on the fully-enclosed verandah.

It’s a chilly winter evening and we start with bold 2002 Kalleske  Shiraz. Tannins are soft and it has a chocolate and minty flavour. A lingering finish is made all the more elegant with age in this bottle.

A Calamari E Zucchine Fritti is crispy from its deep-fried batter and a twist of lemon juice makes this a mouth-watering entree. 

We could not resist one of the evening’s specials ~ pappardelle wild boar ragu sounds like a truly comforting meal at home.

Sprinkled with a little parmesan, this pasta is good although nothing extraordinary.

“Okay folks, we are really here for pizza and not pasta” I declare.

No sooner than the Tartufa of mozzarella, prosciuto, wild mushrooms and truffle  lands on our table is it being torn apart by hungry hands.

“Hello, can I at least take a photo?” I say.

The crust is very thin and crispy which is how I like my pizzas. Unlike pizzas with a tomato base, this ‘bianca’ is light with a wafer thin slice of prosciutto ham and a drizzle of olive oil and wild mushroom sauce.

Everyone seems to like this first pizza but maybe because we are hungry since it’s 9 o’clock by now.

I like chewing on the prosciutto, savouring its salty goodness while leaving the thin  slice of crispy pizza bread for last. However, I am not quite a fan of pizzas where ingredients are added after the pizza has been taken out of the oven.

A farfalle with cherry tomato and basil is almost like an appetizer as we eagerly wait for our next pizza.

My personal favourite is to pair farfalle with a creamy, bacon and mushroom sauce but this red tomato sauce is fresh and tangy while the pasta is al dente.

Voyager Estate is a Margaret River heavyweight from Western Australia.

Our 2007 Voyager Estate Shiraz is opening up with a floral bouquet of dark cherries and spicy pepper.

A Bufala of tomato, mozzarella cheese and basil tastes as delicious as it looks.

We are hungry for pizza tonight and there is something about the aromas of cheese, tomato, fresh herbs and bread that make you want to tear into this pizza.

On this cold winter evening, our pizzas arrive steaming hot. We can still see the cheese bubbling away slightly.

Finely chopped basil adds a fragrant tinge to the aromas of this bufala.

Personally, I like the Diavola because the combination of tomato, cheese, salami, olive and anchovies is difficult to beat.

The desserts are stock standard Italian classics that make you smile after all those slices of pizza.

So dear readers, which is your favourite Italian pizza restaurant in Sydney and do you always agree to where your friends want to go for dinner?

La Disfida Enoteca Pizza
109 Ramsay street, Haberfield
New South Wales

Tel: +61 2 9798 8299

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