Pizzeria Bellucci & Stuzzichino at La Piazza Bankstown

Sydney’s hidden gems can now be found at your local club? That’s right, if you have noticed lately, most of the local clubs in Sydney are stepping up their foodie game, and no longer just serves your Sunday roast. One of these hidden gems (or maybe not so hidden anymore) is La Piazza, located in Bankstown Sport’s Club Italian precinct. Who would of thought hidden away in this club, there would be a gateway to Old Italy. La Piazza is home to two Italian eateries Pizzeria Bellucci and Stuzzichino, there is also a Venetian Balcony, and the private wine cellar Vino for available for bookings as well.

The Entrance

We decided to head to La Piazza for early dinner, as it was blazing hot day, it only made sense to go somewhere that was fully air-conditioned. Like all clubs, you will need to either sign in or sign up to the club (if you’re in the area), membership here is $12 for a year. La Piazza is located on the right hand side after the main entrance, there’s quite a few eateries located in the club, but you won’t miss it. The La Piazza entrance is quite spectacular, and captivating. Once you enter the Italian precinct, it is like you have stepped into the streets of Italy. The interior is amazing with open glass ceilings, street lights, and windows and balconies with overhanging clothes, you feel like you’re truly sitting on the streets of Italy.

Inside La Piazza

Absolutely in awe when we entered, staff were very friendly in guiding us on the restaurants and told us we could choose to sit anywhere we wanted. The main open dining area is for Pizzeria Bellucci whilst the Stuzzichino restaurant is towards the back, and has more of a modern sit down restaurant feel. We wanted to get food from both menus, and was told that we could but food may not arrive at the same time (This is also written on the menu), we just had to order at two separate counters.

Pizzeria Bellucci is more of a casual eatery and you order at the counter. Once we chose a seat, we reviewed the menu, the menu has quite a big variety, and besides wood fire pizza, there are also mains, seafood, pasta and sides that can be ordered. If you nothing on the menu tickles your fancy, you can also opt for the Stuzzichino menu located at their restaurant order counter. We opted to go for a Piazza Suprema Pizza and Linguini Piazza from the Pizzeria Bellucci menu and the Risotto Pescatore from the Stuzzichino menu. We headed up the counter at Pizzeria Bellucci to place our order (you will also need to quote your table number), and noticed that there was gelato and cakes on offer as well at the counter. Once the order was place we headed over to the takeaway counter at Stuzzichino to place our order for the risotto. If you get confused just as the staff, they were all very helpful in guiding us where to go. For drinks, there is a separate bar between the two eateries where you can get your beverages from.

Don't forget you table number

Stuzzichino Restaurant

The Drink Bar

Once our orders were placed, we sat down to admired the atmosphere and wait for our food. The first meal to arrive was our Piazza Suprema Pizza, which as the name suggest was a supreme pizza consisting of mozzarella, onions, mushroom, olives, capsicum, pepperoni, ham and cabanossi and looked delicious. The toppings of the pizza was generous and fresh, whilst the pizza base was smoky, thin and crispy. We loved the pizza, and wished we had ordered another one to try.

Piazza Suprema Pizza ($25)

It didn’t take long after the pizza arriving for our Linguini Piazza to arrive, with the wait staff bring over black pepper and parmesan cheese to top as desired. The Linguini Piazza is a flat spaghetti with prawns, tomato, pesto and cream sauce, and this did not disappoint. The dish was wonderfully tasty, with the pasta cooked al dente and packed with pieces of prawn, the classic flavours of the tomato, pesto and cream worked really well without being too heavy. We all agreed that this dish was simple delicious.

Linguini Piazza ($20)

Our last dish arrived shortly after, with the staff manned with pepper and parmesan. The Risotto Pescatore is made with fresh seafood, garlic, olive oil, baby spinach and tomato, and was our last dish to arrive. The risotto was cooked perfectly, and there was an abundant of different seafood mussels, prawns and octopus to name a few. We really enjoyed the dish, and will opted to try the spaghetti version from Pizzeria Bellucci next time.

Risotto Pescatore ($26)

Overall, we had a great dining experience at La Piazza. The venue and atmosphere is amazing and will transport you through to the streets of Italy. The staff were all very friendly and helpful, and the food, fresh and delicious. Who would have thought there would be such an amazing eatery in a club? Our only disappointment was that we were too full to have the Apple Crumble Pizza for dessert, oh well there’s always next time right.

Pizzeria Bellucci & Stuzzichino, La Piazza

Address: Bankstown Sports Club, 8 Greenfield Parade, Bankstown NSW 2200

Phone: 02 9722 9810.

www.bankstownsports.com