What can I tell you about Bella Brutta, in the haze of six months after our visit, that will add to the online discourse about this already widely known restaurant?
Probably nothing, so let me bore you with some poorly taken photos (the steam is a killer) and some very brief thoughts.
The clam pizza ($32) is very good. I loved the seafood flavour mixed with the zesty citrusy fermented chilli. This is one of their signature pizzas and for good reason.
The sausage pizza ($29), meaty, was good but not in the level of specialty as the clam. It’s a pizza you could get from any good pizza shop, with all the requisite sasuage, tomato (pretentiously named pomodoro on their menu), fior di latte, and fennel seed toppings.
The cavolo nero pizza ($28) was a vegetarian feature, with a lacinato kale apparently traditional in Tuscan cuisine. The flavours were good, vegetably, and I didn’t hate the confit garlic, even though I was worried that I would. Also missable under the shadow of the surf clam.
The casarecce with spanner crab in lobster oil ($28) was an excellent and memorable pasta. I’m really surprised that my seafood averse fiance and her seafood averse brother allowed us to have two seafood dishes, but this was great. Again, so much seafood umami intensity.
Overall thoughts: While the overall quality of food at Bella Brutta is good, the seafood dishes (surf clam pizza and crab pasta) are the unmissable items here.
Bella Brutta
135 King St, Newtown NSW 2042
(02) 9922 5941