Queen Margherita of Savoy, Cronulla Roman Pizza

Craving your own Roman holiday closer to home? Head to Queen Margherita Of Savoy in Cronulla to try their new Roman pizza slices and filled sandwiches. The popular pizzeria switches from Neapolitan style pizzas at night to Roman style pizzas at lunchtime this summer. So what are they like?

“I wanted it to look like it had been here for a hundred years,” says Lee Carroll, the owner and pizzaiolo at Queen Margherita of Savoy in Cronulla. The wall of the pizzeria sports a sign that reads, “No half half, please don’t ask for pineapple.” with a cross through a picture of a pineapple. Lee trained in pizza making in Naples in 2013 and has been an accredited member of the AVPN (‘Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana’) since 2015 making pizzas in the authentic Neapolitan style way. But in the middle of 2023 he decided to switch things up a bit and offer pizza in teglia or Roman style pizzas for lunch as a pop up. Cronulla workers didn’t tend to go for whole Napoletana style pizzas at lunch but Roman pizza sold by the slice is a more portable and personal style size.

It took from August 2023 to December 2023 to get the Roman style pizza dough just right. Roman pizzas are thicker, with a crispier bottom and a light, airy crust-similar to focaccia and presented a challenge for the experienced pizzaiolo. “I was confident, it turns out over confident. Neapolitan pizza is all about the manipulation of the dough on the bench and the management of the fire and cooking on a stone – all the talent is on that side of it. The dough is less challenging once you get to know it its very easy. This (Roman pizza) is the exact opposite. The dough itself is extremely challenging, its very high hydration 80% minimum and so it’s tough to handle,” says Lee. He explains further, “You’re not actually adding flour, you’re drying out water. In pizza making your water is the only thing that isn’t going to change, what will change is your flour, yeast and salt.”

To add to the challenge you cannot cook Roman style pizza dough in a wood fired oven. “A Neapolitan pizza oven cooks in 3 different ways: it cooks from the floor up, it cooks from the refractory brick down and the ambient heat all around. Most of the heat comes from the top down. In a deck oven (used for Roman pizzas) most of the heat comes from the bottom to give it that oven spring and crispy base,” says Lee. They have a compact pizza deck oven for their Roman pizzas. The tiny oven used is dwarfed by the enormous Stefano Ferrara wood fired pizza one made in Naples with materials from Mount Vesuvius. Now Lee and Wilson Carroll’s 27 year old daughter Jorja is the pizzaiola and is one of a very few female pizzaiolas in the world. She has been working here since she was 18.

It’s a hot summer’s day and it feels like we are on holidays here. They have an Italian lemonade slushie on tap that is the perfect antidote to the summer heat. It can be had as is or as a prosecco pourover or with a shot of vodka. It’s a virgin one for me and a vodka one for Mr NQN.

There are 7 varieties of the Roman style pizza each lunchtime; the main selection of six plus a special of the day and are a mix of slices or filled sandwiches at $20 each which is on the higher end for pizza. These pizzas are a made for a quick lunch as they are sold by the slice and are crisped up and warmed just before serving. We start with a margarita, the classic tomato and mozzarella base. It’s a good start, the base crispy with a good amount of sauce punctuated by creamy, melted mozzarella.

There are four styles of pizza slices today and the second one is the pepperoni with hot honey and basil oil, a luscious number that is both of our favourites. The hot honey gives this a sweet, spicy burst of flavour, a beneficial support act to the pepperoni.

Each day they have a special and today’s is delicate little lamb meatballs that melt in the mouth with basil and parmesan. These are such tasty, tender little morsels and I spear one with a fork and then take a bite of the pizza and the meatball for a bite with everything.

The eggplant ragu pizza is a vegetarian choice and no slouch. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I don’t even think it needs the burrata because the eggplant ragu is full of flavour by itself. If I had this at home I’d probably add some chilli oil or Muraca spicy hot cream peppers on top.

Sandwich wise we start with the classic Roman sandwich of mortadella, stracciatella and pistachio, “For Roman’s that’s the margarita,” says Lee bringing slices to our table outside. Smelling the mortadella Teddy and Milo give us sad, pleading eyes. It’s a fantastic sandwich with a generous amount of both mortadella and stracciatella that’s crispy, gooey and cheesy at the same time. Forgetting about pacing ourselves, we scoff this entire thing.

It’s hard to make a choice with the mortadella or the roast porchetta that are both resoundingly delicious. The porchetta is made in house and it is paired with sweet caramelised onions and herby salsa verde.

Mr NQN’s favourite sandwich is the double smoked ham with buffalo mozzarella, slices of fresh tomato and rocket. And it’s good if you prefer a more cold deli meat sort of sandwich.

I’m not trying to tell you how to live your life but if you are a tiramisu fan then most definitely save room for their house made tiramisu. It’s incredibly light in texture, one of the lightest we’ve ever had and with a wonderful balance of flavours plus a judiciously thick blanket of chocolate on top. A perfect ending to a perfect pizza lunch.

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried Roman style pizza and if so what do you think of it?

Queen Margherita of Savoy

9/2-8 Surf Rd, Cronulla NSW 2230

Open Tuesday to Sunday Lunch from 11am and Dinner from 5pm