Mister Bianco

Warm, modern address serving crowd-pleasing plates.

November 18, 2024

1 / 9Saffron spaghettini with prawns, lemon butter and bottarga.Kristoffer Paulsen

2 / 9Mister Bianco leans into maximalism.Simon Schluter

3 / 9Beef cheek on cauliflower puree.Simon Schluter

4 / 9Sfincione, Sicily’s answer to pizza.Kristoffer Paulsen

6 / 9Owner-chef Joseph Vargetto.Eddie Jim

7 / 9Turnip and beetroot with hazelnuts, beet greens and garlic.Simon Schluter

9 / 9The cheese trolley.Kristoffer Paulsen

Critics' Pick

Italian$$$

And the award for Yellowest Dish in Melbourne goes to: the prawn-saffron pasta at Mister Bianco. Spaghettini with the particular sproing of a good house-made pasta is doused in saffron-scented butter and teamed with whole prawns.

It would be easy to make a meal simply of bread and various nibbles. The wood fired oven turns out focaccia and sfincione, the thick Sicilian pizza-adjacent snack. There are fried zucchini flowers with truffle honey, and meaty sardines over sweet agrodolce. Roasted baby beets and turnips are cooked to fudgy perfection, and a brazenly rich beef cheek dish arrives over silken cauliflower puree.

The restaurant recently moved – the original opened in 2010 – and now leans into maximalism: amber glass dividers, cascading fabrics and staff in multicoloured shirts. But the food and the wine (covering mostly Italy and Australia) remain as good as ever.