Is this Australia’s best hotel restaurant? Old-school flavours straight from the nonna playbook

Peppina wasn’t supposed to be called Peppina. The flagship restaurant at the Tasman, the luxury hotel in downtown Hobart, began its conceptual life with another moniker, one even nearer and dearer to culinary director Massimo Mele’s heart.

“I actually wanted to call the restaurant Maria’s,” Massimo says now, taking a short break from prepping the Italian-style food served at his now 18-month-old diner. “But there was another place in Hobart called Maria’s – I don’t even know where it is. So, I made it Maria’s mother’s name instead.”

Chef Massimo Mele named the restaurant after his nonna, Peppina.

Maria is Massimo’s mother. Peppina was his grandmother, his nonna. So you see, this isn’t some marketing ploy, some Italian-sounding name plucked from nowhere. It has connection.

And it tells you everything you need to know about Peppina the restaurant. This might be a cavernous room with more than 100 seats set in a large hotel owned by a multi-national corporation, but it’s a restaurant with heart.

It’s been a raging success, too: Peppina is a firm favourite among both visitors and locals in Hobart, and it is surely up there with Australia’s finest hotel restaurants, if not at the absolute pinnacle.

You would stay at The Tasman just to eat at Peppina. Or, you would stay somewhere else and book a table here anyway. And how often can you say that? How often would you visit a city and go to another hotel to have dinner? Rarely.

Stylish and authentic: Peppina.

But at Peppina, Mele has taken what is so often a soulless, staid experience and turned it into something beautiful, with a local feel and an almost tangible sense of family. How did he do this? How did he make this vast space in this large hotel feel as cosy as home?

“A lot of work,” Massimo laughs. “I’m in here five or six days a week. I’m cooking three or four nights a week. I’m checking the pasta, making sure the produce displays look good, making sure it’s clean, making sure it’s being set up right. I’m all over this restaurant. I’ve got eyes on everything.”

The reason Peppina was going to be called Maria’s is that the food served here is so heavily influenced by Maria Mele and her Neapolitan heritage. The handmade pastas, the slow-cooked sauces, the stewed greens … these are straight out of the Maria Mele handbook, classics around the house when Massimo was growing up, both early on in Naples and later in Hobart.

“Her style is very ‘casalinga’, old-school flavours,” Massimo says. “She’s the reason I am the chef I am today. She just puts in a lot of love and a lot of time. It’s very gentle, her style, very subtle, but delicious. And obviously seasonal, because everything is coming out of her garden – and that’s an extension of what we do at the restaurant as well.”

Good food, done well.

Check out Maria’s influence in the likes of Massimo’s mozzarella dish, which is served on a bed of stewed bitter greens. “It makes no sense,” Massimo says. “Most Italian restaurants, it’s just the mozzarella and the prosciutto on a plate. But I like to eat it with the greens that my mum does.”

See that influence, too, in the paccheri Genovese, a rich ragu of wagyu beef shin and pork belly. Spot it in the lamb rump with steamed baby chard, tomatoes and olives. Slow food. Food of passion. Food of love.

Maybe there’s a hotel out there in Australia right now with a better restaurant. Maybe. Plenty of these places now have style. They have a sense of occasion.

But very few have such soul.

The Tasman’s signature restaurant Peppina is a stone’s throw from Salamanca.

THE DETAILS

More

marriot.com

Eat

Peppina is open for dinner seven nights a week (5pm-9pm), and for lunch on Fridays (12pm-2pm). See peppinarestaurant.com

Stay

The Tasman, Hobart is just near Salamanca and has a wide range of beautiful rooms from $324 a night. See website above.

Five more high-quality hotel restaurants

Atria, Ritz-Carlton, Melbourne

Set on the 80th floor of the Ritz-Carlton, Atria has plenty of that ritz, but under culinary advisor Mark Best’s guidance, also excellent fare. ritzcarlton.com

Oncore by Clare Smyth, Crown Sydney

Michelin-starred British chef Clare Smyth brings her talents to Australian shores at this pricey but perfect fine-diner. crownsydney.com.au

Lake House, Daylesford

Australia’s original destination dining venue continues to bring in the crowds with its inventive, though soulful cuisine. lakehouse.com.au

Hellenika, The Calile, Brisbane

Modern Greek fare making the most of high-quality local ingredients, served in a stylish dining room or as poolside snacks? Yes, please. thecalile.com

Garcon Bleu, Sofitel, Adelaide

Head chef Gianni Delogu blends modern French and Australian influences, utilising local produce, in a dining room with views all the way to Adelaide Hills. sofiteladelaide.com.au

The writer travelled as a guest of The Tasman.