Ninety minutes after the High Street door had opened they'd ran out of pizza dough.

"It was totally crazy," owner Giuseppe Maviglia said. "We were swamped."

He frantically had to pull down the online ordering form and stop doing takeaway orders over the phone or he wouldn't have been able to feed his in-house diners.

Things have settled down somewhat, but it's obvious Maitland has a love of a good pizza.

He is doing a strong trade six nights a week (closed Mondays) and is planning to open for lunch on Thursday and Friday after numerous requests. But like in all businesses, there has been the occasional hiccup (sorry about that),  just as Giuseppe knew there would.

"We make a traditional style pizza," he explained. "Traditional Italian pizza doesn't have loads of toppings or a thick crust. Some people don't understand that and want more.

"Traditional pizza is all about a delicious base and quality ingredients."

And in that regard, no expense is spared.

The tinned tomatoes he uses come from Italy - "cherry tomatoes from the volcanic soils near Mt Vesuvius", he says.

The prosciutto also comes from Italy because, in his mind, Australian prosciutto doesn't get the same depth of flavour he's after.

The buffalo mozzarella is from Sydney, but produced by an Italian immigrant family who moved to Australia 40 years ago and still do it the traditional way.

All this comes at a price, so while the big pizza chains can offer deals that will bring prices down (and with thicker crusts and more toppings to boot), Giuseppi doesn't try to compete. His pizzas range from $16 to $24.

"For the ingredients we use, I think that's very reasonable," he says.

Similarly his wine list is Italian too - mostly from his home region of Piemonte in the north-west - and again he is careful to keep prices.

"I think all our wines offer really good value and go well with food," he says.

We tried three pizzas - the Margherita (basil and buffalo mozzarella), the hotter Calabrese Piccante (mozzarella, onions, hot salami and a hot spreadable salami paste) and the "white" pizza (no tomato sauce), San Daniele. All were hits.

"We cook a pizza in about two minutes," he says, estimating a temperature of "360 to 400 degrees" in his pizza oven.

And if you're wondering about Giuseppe's story, he came to Australia 14 years ago on a holiday, met a nice girl, started English lessons ... a life with the lot.