There’s no question that the way we live and the way we dine has changed after recent years, and suburban dining is thriving as a result. New venues are popping up closer to homes, and weeknights at our locals are taking some of the attention away from city establishments.

Hospitality businesses like The Big Easy Group were some of the pioneers of this trend, even during the toughest of times, with venues including Anchovy Bandit 2.0 opening in 2020, and Bottega Bandito starting in Prospect in 2021, followed by Bowden Brewing with its Masa Mexican food offering later that year. Each venue has continued to evolve, pumping out delicious suburban eats and gaining a bit of a cult dining following.

In their latest move, these culinary outlaws have ridden slightly south, landing in the streets of Hyde Park with their newest adventure: Bandit Pizza and Wine. Not usually one to follow the pack when it comes to dining, I’m here on my fifth visit in the four months since they opened. It’s early on a Tuesday night and already heaving, with a new menu just launched.

We’re seated at a long communal table at the centre of this thoughtfully designed space. A light colour pallette is accented by plush green bench seating that wraps the walls, and a bespoke dark vaulted ceiling that adds some warmth to the dining area. More warmth comes from the open kitchen spanning the back wall, with grills and open hearths giving off plenty of heat.

The Bandit dining room. Photo: Duy Dash

The name says Pizza and Wine, but there are plenty more elements that make up the Bandit Menu. First off the starting blocks are margaritas. The drink, not the pizza. These are pre-mixed by their in-house cocktail cowboy, arriving in cute little bottles next to a glass of ice with a pre-salted rim. Giddy up. As good as any I’ve tried, they hit the (Tuesday) spot and get us prepared for the dishes that arrive quickly after ordering. Talk about some slick service.

Often just used as a topping on pizza, Stracciatella is highlighted in a simply prepared dish topped with chunks of cucumber and dusted generously with togarashi – a Japanese spice mix that adds a kick of chilli to heat up this otherwise chilled dish.

The next cold dish also has an Asian element to warm things up, with XO sauce added to kewpie-style mayonnaise forming a delicious and spicy coating to kingfish crudo. Rounds of picked baby cucumber arranged on top add crunch and another flavour profile to the delightfully creamy dish and there are scattered sesame seeds for a little more texture and umami taste. This dish is a  winner (though perhaps on the small side when sharing between three).

The snacks + plates menu warms up with the arrival of some impressively large tiger prawns, splayed down the centre and roasted in the fire. These are doused in butter that’s been flavoured with native curry – this offers a similar aroma but is a more subtle seasoning than traditional curry. It provides good balance without overpowering the (perfectly cooked) prawn flesh. From the ocean to the beach, foraged ice plant provides crunch and salty flavour to this excellent dish.

It’s early in the season for Pacific oysters, but here they are on the menu, heated over coals and coated in seaweed butter. I try my best to appreciate the cooking technique and flavours here, but there’s something a little strange about the texture of the barely warm mollusc: the sauce is on the grainy side and applied so liberally in each shell that it’s quite overpowering.

Tiger prawns, Bandit style. Photo: Duy Dash

The kitchen bandits go back to basics with a flame-grilled Boston Bay pork chop, served neatly alongside greens and a generous dollop of seeded mustard, and coated in a buttery jus that makes the entire dish shine, on the plate and in its flavour. With its charred outer and tender, juicy interior, the meat has soaked up some seriously smoky flavour from the grill and is utterly delicious.

Charred Boston Bay pork chop. Photo: Duy Dash

It’s about here that we contemplate whether we’ve had our fill, but the temptation of the array of pizzas whizzing past us all night is too strong. We go with pepperoni, one of the more traditional options on a list that includes lamb ragu with provolone, zucchini with peperonata, or Kipfler potato with nduja and fennel, but when it comes down to it, a true classic is just too hard to beat. San Marzano tomatoes and fior di latte cheese cover a perfectly cooked puffed and charred-edged base, oregano and chilli add season and spice, and small rounds of quality pepperoni complete this delectable disc. For three diners who had reached their limit, we manage to demolish it in minutes.

And with one more round of drinks, we ride off into the night, our brush with these bandits an adventure worth writing about.

Bandit Pizza and Wine

248 Unley Road, Hyde Park
banditpizzawine.com
0488 104 772

Open Tuesday – Sunday 5-11pm