Inside Redfern’s Wunderlich Lane, Regina La Pizzeria has built its identity around dough, fermentation and Italian craft, with its recent Gambero Rosso three-slice recognition adding global weight to a venue already shaped by technique, hospitality and several distinct styles of pizza.
Redfern Pizzeria Built Around Dough
Regina La Pizzeria is not framed simply as another Sydney pizza shop. Set inside Wunderlich Lane in Redfern, the venue presents itself as a modern Italian eatery where pizza sits at the centre of a broader dining experience shaped by dough, technique and hospitality.
Founded by Matteo Ernandes and Michela Boncagni, Regina brings together Italian cooking, contemporary pizza methods and a menu that moves beyond one style of base. Its recent three-slice recognition from Gambero Rosso has placed the Redfern pizzeria among a very small group of Australian venues recognised at that level, but the award is only part of the story.
The stronger feature is the restaurant itself: a pizzeria built around craft, precision and the many ways dough can be handled before it reaches the table.
Multiple Pizza Styles Shape Regina La Pizzeria
Regina’s kitchen works across several forms of pizza rather than focusing on a single tradition. Its menu includes high-hydration contemporary pizza bases, pan-baked padellino, twice-cooked fritta, classic pizzas and speciali.
That range gives the Redfern venue a clear point of difference. The restaurant’s pizza program is shaped around texture as much as flavour, with long fermentation and different cooking methods used to create bases that vary from crisp and light to soft, structured and airy.
The Bellucci, listed under the twice-cooked pizza section, combines stracciatella, mortadella and macadamia rocket pesto. The Diavola brings together San Marzano tomato, fior di latte, basil, spicy salami, roasted capsicum, nduja, parsley and extra virgin olive oil. The Versace features king prawns, fior di latte, candied tomatoes, bottarga di Pilu, confit garlic, capers, parsley and chilli oil.
Other pizza categories include pan-baked options such as the Mastroianni and Vasco, classiche such as Margherita, Capricciosa, Marinara and Calzone, and speciali including Carrá, Bocelli, Vitti, Pavarotti, Del Piero and Rossi.
Italian Craft With A Broader Menu
While pizza leads the venue’s identity, Regina La Pizzeria is not limited to pizza alone. The menu includes starters, fried dishes, pasta, mains, salads, sides and desserts, giving the restaurant the shape of a fuller Italian dining room.
Starters include crostino di terra, crostino di mare, mini buns, schiacciata and misto salumi. Fried dishes include calamari, zucchini flowers, fries, sweet potato and suppli rossi. The pasta and mains section includes spaghetti alla chitarra cacio e pepe, rigatoni spicy vodka, fettuccine al ragu, gnocchi al pomodoro and baby peri peri spatchcock.
Desserts continue the Italian focus, with tiramisu, cannoli, Illy crema and a chocolate padellino served with vanilla mascarpone, mixed berries and hazelnuts.
A Redfern Venue With Global Recognition
At the centre of Regina’s kitchen is Australia’s first Fazzone oven, crafted in Naples. The oven supports the restaurant’s focus on pizzas with a crisp exterior and tender interior, while allowing the kitchen to work across contemporary, pan-baked and twice-cooked styles.
Ernandes is the driving force behind the dough program. His background includes growing up around his family’s pizzeria on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, and his work at Regina centres on fermentation, structure and consistency.
Boncagni brings more than 15 years of sommelier experience to the venue, shaping the drinks and guest experience alongside the food. The menu was designed by Ernandes with Federico Zanellato and Karl Firla, adding further structure to a restaurant built around Italian flavour, technique and service.
Regina has also listed a scrocchiarella night every Tuesday from June 9, adding a Roman-style pizza known for its thin, crisp, low-hydration base to the venue’s pizza offering.
The venue’s story is not just about one international award. It is about a young pizzeria in Wunderlich Lane using dough as its foundation, building a menu around multiple pizza styles, and turning a familiar food into a detailed expression of Italian craft.
Published 10-June-2026
