Roma Capoccia, Riverwood

It's time for a little food adventure with my neighbours. This time we are headed out to dinner at Roma Capoccia in Riverwood, an Italian restaurant that is know for their 1 metre pizzas, house made pasta and friendly service.

A few weeks ago our retired neighbours Paolo and Rita suggested that we go out to dinner at Roma Capoccia and asked if we were up for a drive and an adventure. He's Italian and she's Greek and he's as outgoing as she is shy. I call him the mayor of our suburb as he talks to everyone that walks past his house and we struck up a friendship with them along with our neighbours a few doors down Tony and Bryan. Paolo's friend had told him about Roma Capoccia and he and Rita had visited and loved their metre long pizza.

We take the drive here with Bryan and Tony and Rita and Paolo greet us at the front door welcoming us. Capoccia means "the head of" and the name means the "Head of Rome" which is where the family that owns it are from. Tonight their 18 year old daughter Trinity is in charge and while she's young she takes charge in a confident and friendly manner. When we ask about the name she even offers to put on the Roma Capoccia song on the tv for us to listen to.

The place mats are definitely quirky as they are made out of jeans, yes blue jeans and the pocket is where the cutlery goes. Roma Capoccia is BYO so you can bring your wine along. On Fridays and the weekends you need to book as it gets very busy. "I'm just undoing my pants," says Paolo fiddling with his waistband.

We start with a mixed antipasto platter which is meant for two but is enough for us to nibble on. There is prosciutto di Parma, salami Borgo, provolone, two types of arancini, grilled vegetables, tomato topped bruschetta, olives, artichokes and salad. I particularly like the meat bolognese arancini and the bruschetta.

The Caprese Salad is deliciously simple with thick slices of Italian mozzarella, tomato, fresh basil on a bed of rocket with a drizzle of balsamic dressing on top.

There are a few types of house made pasta: fettuccine, agnolotti and gnocchi so we try the seafood pasta swapping out the linguine for the house-made fettuccine. House made fresh pasta is such a lovely treat and there's a decent amount of seafood in this too with 2 prawns, 2 clams, 2 mussels and some octopus and calamari and Napoletana sauce.

For the metre pizza you can choose 3 toppings and we decided that each couple would choose a topping. Paolo and Rita like the vegetarian Ortolan pizza, Bryan and Tony chose the margarita while I was tossing up between my favourite Diavola with salami, chilli and tomato sauce or the Colosseum with mozzarella, mushroom, homemade pork sausage, pecorino cheese, mint and tomato sauce. My love of Italian sausage wins out and we choose that. They prep our table for the metre long pizza and it comes out with a flourish.

Somehow, the margarita has become a diavola (I'm not mad about this) so there is the diavola at one end, the Colosseum in the centre and the Ortolana at the other end. Each pizza comes up sliced up in 9 pieces so it's easy to share with a group so that everyone gets to try it. They're all absolutely delicious and the vegetarian choice of the Ortolana is no slouch with mozzarella, eggplant, zucchini, mushroom, olives, onion, tomato sauce.

I would order all three of them again in a heartbeat and I love the house made pork sausage on the Colosseum. But the key is the crust, artfully stretched thin and cooked up crisp at the base. It's so light with just the right amount of topping.

We also tried a single pizza,the carnivora and it has thin, crisp edges and a scattering of mozzarella, homemade pork sausage, ham, pancetta, tomato sauce. This is also very good although because the 1 metre pizza longer and less wide the base for the 1 metre pizza is crisper at the base.

With the pizza make sure to ask them for their chilli oil too which is made for them by a family friend Carlo. The logo is for the A.S. Roma team whose football jerseys adorn the walls.

Dessert wise, apart from tiramisu there's a range of house baked cakes and tarts from Mille Foglie and lemon tart but I can't resist tiramisu. And while the menu mentions that the tiramisu has meringue on it, it doesn't but it's still a delicious classic in a serve made to share with mascarpone, cream and biscuits soaked in coffee.