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MELBOURNE | Farro Pizzeria & Cucina Fitzroy is the new restaurant from the people behind popular Thornbury pizzeria Farro Pizza. We’ve been to the Thornbury restaurant before and love the food there so when we were invited to check out the new restaurant we didn’t hesitate to pop in and check it out.
The Thornbury restaurant feels like a cozy, more old school restaurant, and the Fitzroy one has taken this and given it a more ‘Fitzroy’ look and feel. The space is small and simple, with exposed brick, soft Edison lighting, a high ceiling with exposed beams, and wooden furniture. A long tiled bar fills one side, with the dining are across from it and the prep area of the kitchen out the back.
Farro is all about rustic Italian food, cooked simply with a focus on high quality produce that’s organic where possible. There’s no shortage of Italian restaurants in Melbourne but Farro does a few things differently to stand out from the crowd. They use 100% organic spelt flour (which is higher in protein and less bloating compared to wheat) for all pizza and bread. Everything on Farro’s menu can be made gluten-free on request (using award winning gluten-free products), and a full vegan menu is also offered.
On the food menu it’s antipasti, salads, pizza and a few desserts. Unlike the Thornbury restaurant, there’s no pasta unfortunately. Drinks wise it’s an assortment of local and imported beer, wine, spirits and cocktails.
To start we went for a Bufala Margherita pizza. The classic and original Neapolitan pizza is, for us, the best way to see how well a place does pizzas. The Farro version stays mostly true to the authentic recipe with San Marzano D.O.P. tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, basil & E.V.O. oil. Of course the spelt base is where things differ, but we couldn’t tell any difference compared to a wheat base. Another area where Farro Fitzroy differs from the Thornbury restaurant is the type of oven used. Unlike Thornbury, the small size of the kitchen here meant that a wood fired oven couldn’t be installed and instead an electric oven is used. We were a bit worried that this might be detrimental but it surprisingly isn’t. The base of our pizza was soft and chewy, with a nice level of char and crispiness on the crust. You don’t quite get the same flavour as with wood, but it really doesn’t matter – the pizza was very tasty and the quality of the ingredients apparent.
We also tried the Gamberi pizza – San Marzano D.O.P. tomatoes, Fior di latte mozzarella, prawns, semi-dried tomatoes, fresh chilli, garlic, basil & E.V.O. oil. The balance of toppings to crust was perfect and it had a nice seafood flavour to it without the prawns overpowering the other ingredients.
We also tried some polenta chips with G.P. Parmesan, rosemary & truffle mayo, which very nice and soft on the inside and crispy on the outside, and some very moreish porcini mushrooms & truffle oil infused
arancini served with arrabbiata sauce. Finally we tried a salad with rocket, beetroot, farro, toasted walnuts, Meredith’s goats cheese, lemon & E.V.O. oil. A good choice on a warm summer’s day with nice flavours and textures. To wash it all down, an classic Aperol Spritz, and a very tasty berry twist mojito did the trick.
Interestingly, we didn’t realise until we’d finished out meal that apart from the seafood pizza, everything we tried was vegetarian. A plus when you don’t even notice that you’ve not really had any meat until after the meal! Don’t worry if you’re a through and through meat eater though – things like salumi, meatballs and meat pizzas are also on the menu.
Overall Farro Fitzroy is a welcome addition to the neighbourhood. It takes what we like about the Thornbury restaurant and gives things a Fitzroy makeover. Most importantly, the food is produce driven, simple and tasty, just the way Italian food should be.
Farro Pizzeria & Cucina
301 Brunswick Street
Fitzroy
Victoria 3065
Australia
Telephone: (03) 9416 0953
E-mail: n/a
Website
Open
Sun: 12:00pm to 10:00pm
Mon – Thu: 6:00pm to 10:00pm
Fri: 6:00pm to 10:30pm
Sat: 12:00pm to 10:30pm