Melbourne’s 10 best new Italian restaurants
Pasta, pizza and wine have been staples for Melburnians on a night out for decades, but a new wave of restaurants is setting the standard for Italian food. Here are the 10 best spots for Italian in Melbourne.
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Calamari and cotoletta and pizza and pasta have been immutable fixtures of Melbourne’s dining landscape for decades, and restaurants such as Rosa’s Canteen, Il Solito Posto and Bottega are as popular as ever.
But a new wave of venues and next-gen operators are shaking things up, with many blurring the lines between restaurant and bar, just as they do in Rome and beyond.
Here are 10 must-try new Italians to put on your eating hit-list.
CITTA
It really is hot in the Citta.
Ronnie di Stasio’s CBD outpost of his St Kilda stalwart Café di Stasio opened at the start of the year and it’s nothing short of spectacular.
Whether it’s the racy red leather chairs that surround double-clothed tables set on a glorious terrazzo floor, the elegantly long, seductive marble bar, the towering powder blue Murano chandelier lighting the loos or the cutting-edge video art, this definitive Melbourne restaurant captures the intersection of modern art with hospitality’s timeless arts.
It’s expensive, it’s ageless, and it’s one of this year’s most exciting new restaurants — Italian or otherwise.
EAT: That bar is the pick for solo and duo diners in for a quick bite, as perfectly amenable a spot for an “after school sandwich” — herb-crumbed veal cosseted in fluffy buttered white bread — as it is a knockout plate of paccheri (a large tube pasta) with a rich, refined ragu.
The full menu is cleverly served all day, all night, and includes velvety vitello tonnato covered in crunchy fried caper blooms, while a vibrant patch of raw veg to dunk into bagna cauda — a decadent pool of blitzed garlic and anchovy — is simple perfection. Pasta is a highlight — see the peerless capellini con gracio — but larger dishes, such as pork slowly braised until it sticks to the fork, are equally compelling.
DRINK: A perfectly made negroni bianco — or brandy alexander, if you don’t mind — at the bar might precede a glass of Alto Adige pinot bianco before a bottle of Barolo from the mighty cellar that spends much of its time in the three figures. But then again, a glass of Di Stasio’s own Yarra Valley pinot before an espresso served with silverware, is just as enjoyable.
45 Spring St, city
LAGOTTO
They first wowed with Collingwood’s understatedly fabulous wine bar, Congress, then doubled down with Richmond’s forward-looking Japanese izakaya Future Future. But for their third outing, siblings Katie and Michael McCormack of Milieu Hospitality have looked to team the style of Milan with the food of Rome in a space named after a dog from Romagna.
EAT: An“all-day Italian food store”, Lagotto offers cacio e pepe eggs to start the day, mortadella and provolone sandwiches in the middle of it, Aperol spritz after work and salumi and cheese after dark. Grab and go meals are there for dinner al coucho, along with passata and pasta and other staples — including vino — for the home cucina.
DRINK: A short list of Italians by the glass and bottle are bolstered by a good negronis and those knock-off spritz, all served in a space that’s at once drop-dead gorgeous and lounge room casual.
1 York St, North Fitzroy
GIRO D’ITALIA
Chef Domenico de Marco — who hails from outside Bologna — is serving a simple menu of classics, one dish from each of Italy’s main regions, at his fabulous, low-key six-month-old Rathdowne Village restaurant.
EAT: Though firmly pitched at North Carlton locals, word has quickly spread that Domenic’s tortelli is cross-town-for great. These sunshine-vibrant plump packets of sweet roasted pumpkin come swimming in nutty butter in which sage has been fried crisp, making for a plate that brightens a winter’s night. Rich duck ragu tossed through effortlessly light gnocchi is also a win, while the cotoletta caldostana — a hefty crunchy-crumbed puck of veal that’s stuffed with fontina cheese and smoky ham — takes care of big hungers. And we have Domenico’s nonna to thank for a knockout tiramisu.
DRINK: A tight 12-bottle Italian list is augmented by four local wines on tap — a pinto grigio, rose, pinot and shiraz — for carafes and glasses, while BYO Wednesdays are already a hit with Carlton locals.
651 Rathdowne St, North Carlton
PENTOLINA
Meaning “little saucepan”, CBD laneway pasta bar Pentolina makes the most of the huge, handsome counter area that surrounds both bar and open kitchen, where business blokes slurp back bowls of bol at lunch, and duos tete e tete over tagliatelle at night.
EAT: While simple, home-style pasta is the main Pentolina game, opening acts include 2019’s Mr Everywhere Dish: octopus and potato with spicy njuda (a Calabrian soft sausage).
As for the pastas, a rich, slightly sweet and almost hamburger-y ragu is the meaty foil to fat, slippery pappardelle ribbons finished with a squirt of parmesan cream. Fettuccine — rather than spaghetti as it would be served in Rome — is the carb of choice here for the carbonara that’s as good as you remember creamy pasta to be, while pumpkin agnolotti with chestnuts doubles down on winter comfort.
DRINK: Italian pinot grigio and sangiovese come by well-priced glass and carafe on a list that also includes a good line in spritz and negroni and $9 Nastro Azzurro.
Pentolina, 2/377 Lt Collins St, Melbourne
LEONARDO’S PIZZA PALACE
Prahran’s rocking fun diner Ramblr may be no more (RIP), but chef Nick Stanton’s terrific Sichuan-tingling Bolognese that topped noodles there lives on in pizza form at the team’s equally rollicking new pizza joint, Leonardo’s Pizza Palace. It’s just one of the genre-mashing delights on offer at this retro-cool Carlton restaurant.
EAT: Nick favours big flavours and so expect carb loading with class. Yes, you’re here for pizza, but you won’t want to miss the sardini crostini to begin — a fried sardine splayed over whipped bottarga (cured fish roe) finished with a burger pickle, it’s finger food that raises a pinky. Nor will you want to skip the stracciatella — the Italian cheese that’s the love child of mozzarella and fresh cream — which Stanton serves with a scoop of roasted peppers and slices of oven-warm white bread.
But pizza is the main game and they are big in size and calorie count — especially when you dunk the crusts in the jug of creamy-sharp ranch sauce served to the side. The pepperoni is a must — a monster topped with a plethora of tiny spicy slices of American salami, the light, charry blistered base providing ballast for the cheesy excess atop. And that Sichuan Bolognese is seriously good — a cross cultural mash up of the most delicious kind. Finish with a slice of tiramisu cheesecake that’s equally revelatory.
DRINK: Licensed until 1am — and cooking pizzas until then — this is a hospo hot spot where knock offs might include a jug of the very smashable house “Italian Stallion” lager, a “wet” martini or a field blend white from the tight, forward-looking list where bottles hover around $60.
Leonardo’s Pizza Palace, 29 Grattan St, Carlton North
AGOSTINO
The final piece in the long-awaited, multifaceted, multi-level rebirth of Carlton’s landmark King and Godfree has slotted into its Lygon St place with the opening of Agostino. Joining the ground floor K&G Deli and grocers and the rooftop party bar Johnny’s Green Room, this part wine store, part cellars, part pasta bar has well-to-do Carlton firmly in its sights, where good things on the plate are trumped by great things in the glass.
EAT: A selection of simple, modern classics — terrific baccala mantecato served on grilled polenta; culatello (cured pork) with slivers of salted persimmon — join a tight list of pastas that includes a sunshiny spaghettini with crab and macheroni with vodka-splashed tomatoes. Bigger plates, such as pan-fried fish with borlotti beans and fennel, and desserts including a lovely semifreddo with nougat, are equally simple and let the wine shine.
DRINK: An excellent selection of imported Italians and home-grown on-theme varietals is offered by the glass but it’s the extensive cellar from local vermentinos through to wallet-busting Barolos and vintage Burgundies that is a real drawcard for vinophiles the city over.
297 Lygon St, Carlton
AROMI
A long-time fixture in the kitchens of some of Melbourne’s most popular Italians (Sarti, Bar Carolina) chef Paolo Masciopinto has teamed up with Salvatore Montella to open Aromi in Brighton.
EAT: Offering a contemporary take on Italian, the carte starts with gnocco fritto and salumi before seguing into a half dozen pastas — pumpkin toretlli with amaretti; spaghetti with crab and macadamia — plated with modernist flair. To finish, the little-seen but never-forgotten chestnut monte bianco is a must.
DRINK: The short wine list, created by sommelier Mattia Cianca, is an on-theme selection of big-hitting Italians that features a couple of credit card-busting barolos and brunellos in its midst. House made liqueurs will send you off into the night with a smile.
312 New St, Brighton
SLICE SHOP PIZZA
Beef brisket on a pizza? Sure, why not — especially when that brisket comes from the smoker tended by talented BBQ boys \Steve Kimonides and Raphael Guthrie. The Burn City Smokers duo has taken over a former Footscray discount supermarket and turned it into a NY-style pizza-by-the-slice joint.
EAT: Pizzas here are big — 45cm across — and slices are made for folding and scoffing. A changing line up of toppings include a truffle-y mushroom number and homemade pepperoni along with that brisket beauty.
DRINK: It’s all about the snacking here, but take your slice over to Mr West just across the way for cool crafties and vino on tap.
100a Nicholson St, Footscray
BAIA DI VINO
Just like a cosmopolitan Milanese businessman, Sandringham newcomer Baia di Vino might travel through the Mediterranean but retains an unmistakeable Italian accent. A second venue for the team behind Malvern East’s Riserva, this wine bar and store aims to deliver a similarly neighbourhood-focused city-style venue in the suburbs.
EAT: Co-owner Dino Moshin (Riserva, Rockpool Bar & Grill) is in the kitchen where he’s cooking an Italian-leaning menu of wine-friendly fare — think burrata with wood-roasted capsicum; stuffed squid, brodo di pesce and a nice pasta selection.
DRINK: A cracking cellar created by co-owner Vivian Man (Rockpool) made up of more than 200 bottles from around the world at order-another prices seals the deal. It’s a top notch list chosen with class with interest at every turn (and some real bargains to boot) set to entice wine lovers from (much) further afar.
1 Melrose St, Sandringham
NONNA’S CUCINA
This Port Melbourne newcomer is Abruzzo native Dario D’Agostino’s third venue (Pizza E Birra; Mamma’s Boy Trattoria) but the first to include food of his home.
EAT: You’ll find such dishes as seafood brodetto and gnocchi stucco with cod and porcini mushrooms particular to the region alongside a good line of more classic dishes: spaghetti carbonara, risotto funghi and bistecca alla griglia.
DRINK: A good cellar of Italian drops — including a nice line in Franciacorta sparkling wine — keeps things suitably on theme, as does the range of amari to finish.
40 Crockford St, Port Melbourne
PLUS A FEW MORE
LUPO: Scott Pickett’s latest addition to his Matilda/Estelle stable offers his modern take on Italian in cool and classy surrounds in what was Saint Crispin in Collingwood.
LORD LYGON: In Melbourne’s spiritual home of Italian and part of the new-boutique Zagame’s House hotel, this smart wine bar serves wagyu meatballs and salumi platters to go with a cracking Italian-leaning cellar.
SMITH & DAUGHTERS: Australia’s favourite I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-meat restaurant has changed its tune, swapping its Latin American songbook for vegan trippa alla romana and pappardelle ragu and meatballs in red sauce.
AND STILL TO COME: Joe Mammone is adding an upstairs-downstairs duo — casual cafe Carolina Cantina and rooftop cocktail bar Tetto — to his always busy South Yarra trattoria Bar Carolina by the end of the month.
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