Sydney has no shortage of Italian restaurants. What it has very few of is restaurants that have been making the same Roman recipes, the same way, for 25 years without cutting corners. This is the story of how Made In Italy started, what it serves, and why the methods that seemed slow in 2000 turned out to be the point.
How It Started: Rome to Sydney, 2000
Made In Italy opened in Sydney in 2000. The concept was specific from the beginning: Roman-style pizza and slow-cooked pasta, made from family recipes that predated the business by generations.
Roman pizza is not the same as Neapolitan pizza. It’s not the same as the thick American-style base that dominated Sydney at the time. Roman pizza is thin and crispy — made to be eaten at room temperature on the streets of Rome, or shared across a table with family. It’s lighter than most pizza Sydneysiders were used to, and it handles more topping weight without going soggy.
In 2000, Sydney diners were not especially familiar with the distinction. That didn’t slow anything down. The regulars came, then came back, then brought people with them.
The Recipes: What “Family” Actually Means
The word “family recipes” appears on a lot of menus. At Made In Italy, it has a specific meaning: the recipes arrived with the people, not with a consultant.
The tomato sauce base for every pizza — vegan or not, meat or vegetable — slow-cooks for 12 hours. This is not a marketing number. A 12-hour cook produces a sauce with a depth and sweetness that a fast-cooked paste cannot replicate. You can do a side-by-side tasting and tell the difference in the first bite.
The pasta sauces use the same method. The Lamb Ragu — one of the most ordered dishes across all four stores — braised for 12 hours per batch. The Boscaiola builds its mushroom and cream base over the same extended cook.
Every pizza base is hand-stretched daily. Not pressed. Not machine-rolled. The hand-stretch is what gives a Roman base its uneven thickness — slightly thicker at the edge, thin through the centre — and its characteristic crisp.
What’s Changed in 25 Years
Four stores, where there was once one. Alexandria (the original). Then Annandale. Then Pyrmont. Then Sydney CBD, at 37 York Lane near Wynyard.
Online ordering, where there were once only phone calls. Direct ordering through the Made In Italy website, with no third-party app fees passed on to the customer.
The VIP Club — a free membership that earns customers a pizza on their birthday, now with thousands of members across Sydney.
TikTok. The Hot Roman Honey Pizza found an audience it didn’t expect.
The Hot Roman Honey Pizza: An Accidental Viral Moment
The Hot Roman Honey Pizza was not designed to go viral. It was designed to taste good — hot chilli oil drizzled over the base after cooking, finished with a drizzle of honey. The contrast between the heat and the sweetness, on a thin crispy Roman base, is one of those combinations that sounds odd until you try it.
TikTok found it first. Food creators filmed their first reaction. Then their second. Then recommended it to their audiences. The comment sections filled with people asking where to order from and whether delivery was available to their suburb.
The recipe hasn’t changed since it appeared on the menu.
What Hasn’t Changed
The recipes. The method. The refusal to use a faster process when a slower one produces better food.
Roman pizza is still hand-stretched. The sauces still slow-cook for 12 hours. The bases are still thinner and crispier than most Sydney pizzas. The XL format is still built for sharing.
After 25 years, the original decision — to make food the Roman way, for Sydney — turns out to have been the right one.
Made In Italy delivers across inner Sydney from four kitchens: Alexandria, Annandale, Pyrmont and Sydney CBD.