Julius Pizzeria – Fish Lane Brisbane Southside

Longing for a decent, authentic, wood-fired pizza, but don’t want to travel halfway around the world to get it?  Well luckily Julius Pizzeria, in Fish Lane, Brisbane has you covered.  This place serves up seriously good pizza! In fact, the atmosphere is pretty amazing as well.  Think chic semi-industrial warehouse interiors, smiling buzzing wait staff and happy chatty diners. Well, that pretty much sums up Julius!

With a “no bookings after 5 pm policy”, you can rest assured that this is going to be a popular restaurant. Arriving around 7: 00 pm on a busy Friday night, the queue is already extending down the street, but hey we’re getting used to this routine now! Leaving our contact details with the oh so congenial Italian host, we set out in search of a pre-dinner drink. We have an hour to kill and decide to check out Julius’s neighbouring restaurant, “Hello Please“, a quirky little Vietnamese restaurant/bar. (see “Hello Please” review). After a couple of well-received drinks, we find ourselves with a lovely window seat back at the Pizzeria.

The Bites

Back at “Hello Please” the staff had highly recommended we try the Tartufo pizza($24.50). Lovingly made with mozzarella, fresh portobello mushrooms, smoked bacon, creamy stracchino and truffle paste, all I can say is WOW! The flavours work extremely well together, and the result – a delicious, well balanced earthy style pizza.

Having read several reviews saying that the pizzas were large enough to share, we wondered whether we should be ordering one or two.  But, given the size of our appetites, and the fact that I had to write this review, we felt justified in our decision. I asked our lovely Milanese waitress if people usually shared the pizzas at Julius.  She said reassuringly, that in Italy, pizzas are designed for one, so who were we to argue?

The Gamberi Piccanti sounded appealing. Full of juicy plump prawns, sweet cherry tomatoes, garlic, herbs, chilli and lashings of fresh peppery rocket. A steal at $26.00! Delicious but I am going to say the Tartufo was the standout for me.

The pizza toppings are certainly packed with flavour. However, The pièce de résistance would have to be the crust!  Cooked to absolute perfection!  I believe there’s a fine line between crusts being “charred” and “burnt”, and our crusts definitely fell in the former camp.  Thin, but not overly so, with a good size crunchy border to hold the toppings together.

The Menu

But it’s not just pizza these guys are famous for. The other dishes certainly looked impressive too. The antipasti (starters) menu includes such delights such as fried baby calamari with rocket & lemon, roasted pork & fennel sausages and wood roasted eggplant.

There are several choices in the Primi (pasta) menu. Flat ribbon pasta with duck & tomato ragu sounded amazing. Not to mention the long ribbon pasta of tiger prawns with zucchini, tomato, chilli, garlic and white wine (yes please!).

For Primi (mains) the roasted boned chicken with sautéed rainbow chard, cavolo nero, fennel seeds, garlic, almonds & charred lemon really got my attention. They also have the more well known Italian fare –  crumbed veal scallopini or fresh fish of the day.

The Drinks

Julius offers a good selection of red, white and sparkling wines averaging about $11.50 per glass. I enjoyed a glass of fruity sauvignon blanc from NZ ($11)and David opted for a Peroni (or two) @ $9.50.

The Verdict

I honestly can’t think of a bad thing to say about this restaurant. The food, atmosphere and staff all certainly ticked all the boxes for me.  Leaving full and satisfied we were already planning our next visit. And, with a “thank you for dining” and a “ciao Bella” from our once again congenial host – I knew I’d definitely be back!

Julius Pizzeria
77 Grey Street/Cnr Fish Lane
South Brisbane QLD 4101
Online bookings only – bookings@juliusp.com.au

 

 

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