Alta Trattoria restaurant review 2023: Kara Monssen visits Fitzroy Italian eatery

Adult sodas on tap, homemade pasta and a stellar wine list — save the plane trip and head north of the river for a taste of northern Italy.

Why travel to northern Italy when you can taste true Piedmontese flavours at Fitzroy’s Alta Trattoria.

Let’s talk about needs and wants.

Does Melbourne need more Italian restaurants? Some would say no.

But is there anything wrong with wanting to suckle on salty green olives, dirtying our faces with spaghetti or swirling nebbiolo in obnoxiously sized glasses?

Hell no.

Alta Trattoria is new place to unashamedly do all of the above in the city’s hipster north.

Carlo, of the Grossi restaurant clan, is behind this Fitzroy passion project chalked up with wine-loving mate James Tait (King and Godfree), chef McKay Wilday (Copenhagen’s Geranium, Victoria by Farmers Daughters) and Luke Drum (Carlton Wine Room).

The snack game is on point.

It’s a straightforward game: northern Italo eats and drinks, maybe a few Frenchies (because who doesn’t like chablis?) inside a 40-seater dining room off Brunswick St.

Pasta superfans may remember this hideaway from its Lucky’s Lasagne days, or even the Little Odessa era.

The bones haven’t changed: the sugo red exterior and retro front room with red and white chequered terrazzo tiles remain. White tablecloths, new art and black leather stools smarten up the place. I can’t decide what area is better – the chatty front room or the back space defined by a solid timber bar, devil’s ivy draped either side, complete with a meat slicer and four taps pouring grown-up soda.

I’m told these are made with the Baladin softies, stiffened with the likes of vermouth or tequila, but for those going without booze you can enjoy the Italian soft drinks spritzed up with citrus wedges.

Negronis or martinis may get you in the mood for food, but wine leads the charge.

Tait impressively builds a list from Italian grapes (at least 70 per cent, largely from the north)— think familiar pours by the glass, less so by the bottle.

At least 70 per cent of the wine list is Italian.

Chaste sweet memories of caramelised agnolotti del plin.

On the pans, Wilday keeps it traditional. We start with the Barbagiuan di Zucca ($15 for six) fried ravioli parcels snowed under by a pecorino cheese flurry.

It wasn’t fresh-from-the-fryer crunchy but still crisp and squishy where it mattered – with oozy roasted pumpkin, marjoram and chard centres. Delish.

Next is the vitello tonnato ($28), a Piedmontese classic made with pale pink ribbons of whisper thin veal topped with fried capers and trademark tuna white sauce. If you clocked that shiny meat slicer at the bar, know its sole purpose (for now) is finely slicing that girello cut (taken from the hind leg) for this dish. That “tuna sauce” is both salty, smooth and luscious, though I’d like to see more of it on the plate.

Does your bunet al cioccolato wiggle wiggle?

I also loved the beefy depths of that meat.

For the pasta course, we chase sweet memories of caramelised agnolotti del plin ($34) from experiences gone by.

The sauce, Sugo di Arrosto, is made from braising juices and hits the salty-sweet pleasure spots; though the pasta was a little dry made noticeable by the lack of lubrication.

This is a trend across the board at Alta. Those fish fillets ($46 for two. We ate John Dory, this week it’s Victorian flounder) needed more golden lemon butter and parsley goodness for lolling. While the smattering of unpitted green olives added a welcome jab of umami and salt, it proved messy and annoying to eat.

The crostata (baked tart) flavours are ever-changing.

Alta Trattoria is just off Brunswick St in Fitzroy.

Bunet al cioccolato ($20), a chocolate flan creation didn’t come out as suggested with a hard caramel top or amaraetti biscuit beneath, yet the flavours were brilliantly balanced with equal amounts rum, orange and caramel.

A marker of a great restaurant in my books is whether you find yourself planning what to eat on a return visit before the night’s out (I’ve got my eye on you, tarajin rabbit ragu).

There was plenty of that at Alta — a place bound to satisfy both your needs and wants.