Few have been able to ignore the new restaurant on the corner of Bree Street and Wale Street, Bocca. It’s wood finishes and large windows make it the perfect place to see and be seen. More Than Food visited Bocca to see if the food tastes as great as the setting looks.

Surprisingly Bocca is the first pizzeria to set up shop on the urban watering hole that is Bree Street. Home to the trendy, creative and often financially challenged young heart of Cape Town, Bree Street is where the hip upwardly mobile eat. The trick it seems is to create a beautiful setting and stock great wine. While Bocca does have an interesting menu focused on fun food intended to be easily consumed using fingers the stars of the show are clearly the pizza’s.
The pizza selection at Bocca is divided into Bianco pizza’s (those without a tomato base) and Rosso pizza’s (those with tomato). If I am totally honest, I didn’t even notice the non-pizza section of the menu until my second visit to Bocca. The flavours are the first indication of the family connection between Bocca, and it’s older sister Burrata.

The award winning Buratta is an Italian restaurant situated in the Old Biscuit Mill also famous for it’s excellent pizza’s. Unlike the more formal atmosphere of Burratta even the menu created by Chef Annemarie Steenkamp seems to lean itself more towards impromptu dinner and drinks with friends. than Burratta. The pizza base is one of those things you either love or hate, it’s super thin and more like a Turkish flatbread then a regular pizza base which sometimes makes it difficult to hold onto when piled with delicious ingredients

As you climb the wooden steps of Bocca and enter the cocoon created by the oak slats that extend onto the outside wooden deck you can’t help get the feeling that Bocca is the Solange Knowles to Burrata’s Beyoncé. It’s casual, young, fresh and slick. It’s second floor is a combination of brown leather booths and a wooden deck that over looks the kitchen and gives you the perfect vantage point to watch the goings-on of Bree Street. The kitchen and it’s wood burning oven are the heart of the restaurant and if you can tear your eyes away from people watching you can see your pizza come to life.
I think it’s safe to say we are head over heels for Buratta’s little sister.

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