Melbourne’s 12 best Italian restaurants revealed
The Herald Sun’s food experts have twirled their forks around town to find Melbourne’s 12 best Italian restaurants.
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MELBURNIANS have always had an affinity with all things Italian, from licking a gelato on Lygon St to tucking into an extra slice of wood-fired margarita from one of the hundreds of artisan pizza joints scattered across our suburbs.
But where do we go for this town’s most al dente pappardelle, or for a tiramisu that transports us straight back to a restaurant in the backstreets of Rome?
Well the Herald Sun’s food experts have twirled their forks around the best of the best to find Melbourne’s 12 best and most authentic Italian restaurants.
Buon appetito!
1. GROSSI FLORENTINO
80 Bourke St, city.
TO ascend Grossi Florentino’s curving staircase and dine in its glorious Mural Room is to enter a world of classic Italian hospitality. But time has not stood still at the “Flo”. Guy Grossi — its proud custodian since 1999 — is a quiet moderniser who describes his food as “Melbournese cooking’’. And while this gentle tug between tradition and modernity might not please every Florentino diner, there are many joys to be had.
Guy Grossi will design and cook the HEAT Homeless Longest Lunch at St Kilda’s Luna Park on March 31 as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine festival. Book tickets here.
2. TIPO 00
361 Lt Bourke St, city.
FROM the moment the rosemary-flecked warm housemade focaccia served with a scoop of fresh ricotta hits the table unbidden — and gratis — through to the “ciao, mille grazie” that waves you goodbye from the door, it’s clear you’re in seasoned hands at Tipo 00, where big-hearted — and good value — hospitality is the order of the day. That they’ve named their restaurant after the flour that makes up the tortellini and pappardelle and spaghetti at this “pasta bar” explains how seriously Andreas Papadakis and Albert Fava take their specialty in the kitchen.
Tipo 00 is hosting two sold out events as part of this month’s Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. Book tickets to other Festival events here.
3. CAFE DI STASIO
31 Fitzroy St, St Kilda.
At St Kilda’s Cafe Di Stasio, it always seems to be sundown with light raking the room through venetians and waiters ferrying dishes to linen-draped tables. The cooking here has always been impeccable. Still is. At a recent lunch, angel hair pasta (tagliolini) came furled with spanner crab, a perfect fillet of turbot swam with a perfect pea salad, and roast duck — its skin burnished to a coppery sheen — was pure luxe with spaetzle.
4. BECCO
11-25 Crossley St, city.
CAN it really be 20 years since Becco opened behind Pellegrini’s? Sure can. And this sophisticated Italian bistro is wearing well. Start at the bar where swishy Bellinis can be matched with superior “cicchetti” (snacks): mixed olives, arancini balls and San Daniele prosciutto. Then step into the tiered dining room — another engaging mid-century space where vibrant tiles add pops of colour.
5. IL BACARO
168-170 Little Collins St, city.
TWENTY years young, Il Bacaro is still Melbourne’s most romantic restaurant. The lovely venetian-shaded room, anchored by its distinctive U-shaped bar, remains darkly glamorous — a place for flirting and quiet whispers — with intuitive waiters who know how to “read” diners’ body language: when to recite a “special”, remove a plate, and retreat. As for chef David Dellai’s food, its still a deft marriage of tradition and innovation. Pasta favourites such as chilli-flecked spaghettini with Moreton Bay bugs stand the test of time. But how easily we are seduced by rabbit tortellini and chestnut maltagliati, allied to wild mushrooms and dried buffalo curd.
6. GROSSI FLORENTINO GRILL
80 Bourke St, city.
IT was out with the tablecloths and in with custom light fittings, brass features, handsome American oak floorboards — oh, and a stonking great Josper oven and Asado grill — when Florentino Grill reopened at the start of last year. And with its new look came a focused dedication to the fare of Tuscany, where smaller dishes to start segue seamlessly into out-of-the-norm pasta including fat ribbons of testaroli drizzled in olive oil, basil and parmigiana, or little pici twists tossed through wild boar ragout.
7. LITTLE BLACK PIG & SONS
48 Burgundy St, Heidelberg.
CARCIOFI ripieni. Ravioli del plin. Arrosto di maiale and pesce al forno. No, we’re not in Tuscany but downtown Heidelberg, and it’s where you’ll find some of the best Italian cooking in Melbourne. Glenn Laurie, putting his years of training at London’s famed River Cafe to excellent use in his smart suburban restaurant, is serving up a daily changing menu that truly pays heed to the seasons.
8. LUPINO
41 Little Collins St, city.
THE buzz around Lupino started slowly, giving it time to ripen on the vine. Five years on, this unpretentious Italian bistro near the back end of the Melbourne Club has a lot of us sitting up and taking notice. Manager Richard Lodge and chef Marco Lori welcome everyone with open arms, plonking a basket of bread and foil-wrapped butter on your table before you can say “Ciao bella”. A glass of good Italian red isn’t far behind.
9. ROSA’S CANTEEN
Cnr Thomson and Little Bourke streets, city.
Everything’s good at Rosa’s Canteen but if the chicken livers are listed as a “special”, look no further. The ones they send out here are unbeatable, blushing pink and drenched in soused onion and marsala. “Here, I can do more than just Sicilian cooking,’’ Mitchell says. We won’t argue. But it’s a sure thing that any meal at Rosa’s Canteen must finish with cannoli — oozing honey-scented ricotta — and a stovetop coffee. Ask her for the recipe. When time allows, Rosa loves a chat.
Rosa Mitchell will cook some of our fave Mediterranean morsels as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival’s Mediterranean March on April 3. Book tickets here.
10. CECCONI’S
61 Flinders Lane, city.
ON Flinders Lane, populated by the cool and the cutting edge (and those up for queuing for them), proudly sits Cecconi’s, a bastion of high-end Italian hospitality where business is clinched and milestones are celebrated over bottles from the motherland, France and Oz. The family-run establishment has notched up a decade since its move from Crown, the basement space cosy and classy despite its vastness.
11. ROSETTA
Crown complex, Southbank.
NEIL Perry’s grande Southbank signorina still hits all those high notes: the room that’s like the love child of Dean Martin and Maria Callas remains comfortably plush, the expansive Italian cellar remains a labour of love, and the food remains a celebration of region and produce that’s Perry’s signature. But now, more so than ever, pasta is something to behold, thanks to a dedicated “La Sfoglina”, hand pressing the orecchiette that’s tossed through garlic, anchovy and broccoli; folding the precious little pockets of agnolotti filled with veal and rabbit, and making the chestnut-flour gnocchi that then comes swimming in burnt butter to deliver a lesson in eye-rolling pleasure.
Rosetta will host a culinary and musical journey through Italy on April 4 as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. Book tickets here.
12. SARTI
6 Russell Place (off Little Collins St), city.
A big bar anchors Sarti at one end. A rooftop terrace beckons at the other. But to really enjoy the Latin fare served here, you want to be on a banquette — preferably armed with a Peroni or a flinty Italian white from Sarti’s plentiful cellar. Here Italian classics are given an elegant twist; the tonna crudo with avocado puree and white bean skin is an intriguing take on tuna tartare, while prettily plated black ink pasta with blue swimmer crab (spaghetti alla chitarra) tingles pleasingly with chilli. Even Sarti’s tiramisu toys with tradition, layering coffee jelly under savoiardi biscuit, choc chips, mascarpone and a frothy crown of zabaione.
Melbourne restaurants Sarti and Shoya will embrace their Italian vs. Japanese culinary rivalry in the You say Sensei, We say Padre event on April 4 as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine festival. Book tickets here.