Last month, Andrew McConnell’s Gimlet shook the Melbourne restaurant scene when it broke into the World’s 50 Best longlist – the only Australian restaurant to do so in 2022.
Now Melbourne has been honoured in a top 50 of a doughier kind, with South Yarra and Elsternwick’s 48hr Pizza e Gnocchi Bar beating such heavyweight contenders as The Pizza Bar on 38th in Tokyo and Beijing’s Bottega to be crowned Best Pizzeria in the Asia Pacific by 50 Top Pizza at an awards ceremony at The Peninsula Bangkok Hotel.
“This is the first year when we have grouped this zone under a single umbrella for the Asia Pacific region,” explain 50 Top Pizza curators Barbara Guerra, Albert Sapere and Luciano Pignataro. “The decision to do so was a very important one. The pizza there is excellent, even when made thousands of kilometres from Italy. This is a wonderful fact that we are happy to reconfirm year after year.”
Melbourne CBD spots A25 (35th) and SPQR (37th) also made the cut, along with Seddon’s Mozzarella Bar (39th) and La Svolta in Hampton (40th).
Now in its fifth year, 50 Top Pizza is an online guide that ranks the best pizzas and pizzerias in the world. The ranking process begins with a global survey, with anonymous reviewers then sent to dine at the shortlisted pizzerias. Quality of the pizza is the foremost criterion, with service, interior design, waiting time, and drinks lists also figuring into calculations.
Named for the minimum time required for pizza dough to rise, 48hr Pizza e Gnocchi Bar also topped 50 Top Pizza’s Best Pizzerias in Oceania list in 2021.
Best of luck for the world championships, ragazzi.
48hr Pizza e Gnocchi, 373 Malvern Rd, South Yarra, (03) 9824 2573; 15 Gordon St, Elsternwick, (03) 9089 0422, 48h.com.au, @48hpizzaegnocchibar
By Frank Sweet