Italian restaurants are thick on the ground in Melbourne, and everyone has their favourite. Thanks to decades of migration, multi-generational hospitality families and the city’s appreciation for food from “the boot”, diners can eat a different Italian specialty for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day of the week.

Knowing that you’ve already got a spot where you like the gnocchi and another where the bistecca alla Fiorentina is the must-order, consider these restaurants – all awarded hats in The Age Good Food Guide 2024 – the crema de la crema of Melbourne’s very rich Italian dining scene.

Scopri

Will it be frilly edged, rabbit-stuffed agnolotti to kick off, or earthy mushroom tortelloni in delicate fondue? A salty southern Italian vermentino with the grilled flathead in bisque, or perhaps a bottle of something special from your own cellar? As you deliberate, a quiet army of waitstaff dart in, whisking away this, resetting that, all to a soundtrack built not from music but the constant, content conversations of the clientele who have long adored this reliable achiever.

Must-order dish: Roasted and deboned quail because it’s a treat to have something like this so skilfully cooked.

191 Nicholson Street, Carlton, scopri.com.au

Caterina’s Cucina e Bar

Spectacular staff, classically delicious dishes and a hostess for the ages have made this a business lunch destination for more than three decades. It’s only gone from strength to strength in that time, defying work-from-home trends. Where else can you get scallops seared just-so, enhanced by bright pea puree and a tangle of caramelised onion? Or gently spiced baby octopus that can nearly be cut with a spoon, paired expertly with rich tomato sauce?

Must-order dish: The pork cotoletta (crumbed pork chop) is a paragon of the form.

Basement, 221 Queen Street, Melbourne, caterinas.com.au

Bottarga

Thai-born Somi Paremanee and her Italian partner Federico Bizzaro opened their dream business two years ago: a contemporary Italian restaurant with Asian influences. Fusion is a high-wire act, but the riskiest dish here is also the most successful. Culurgiones, a stuffed Sardinian pasta usually filled with potato and pecorino, instead encase prawn mousse and paddle in Thai red curry. It sounds odd, but pasta is a cousin of dumplings and the flavours meld beautifully. Many restaurants play it safe, looking over their shoulders at what everyone else is doing. Not Bottarga.

Must-order dish: Cuttlefish ink and lime linguine with spanner crab, lobster sauce and bottarga.

Shop 3, 124 Martin Street, Brighton, bottarga.com.au

Trattoria Emilia

This cosy trattoria pays homage to the Emilia-Romagna region, but with a couple of surprises. The undisputed star of a short, sharp pasta menu is delicate tortelloni with a prosciutto and mortadella filling – unorthodox in the chefs’ hometown of Modena, but very welcome in Melbourne. Tiramisu, surrounded by swirls of espresso and Frangelico, hides gems of caramelised savoiardi and chocolate-hazelnut biscuits under mounds of soft mascarpone. It’s refreshing to try a new spin on Italian traditions.

Must-order dish: When in Emilia, eat the snack of the region: gnocco fritto. Crisp squares of pork fat-enriched dough come with a choice of prosciutto di Parma or wagyu bresaola. Or why not both?

Rear, 360 Little Collins Street (enter via Gills Alley), Melbourne, emiliamelbourne.com.au

Enoteca Boccaccio

Climb the pink marble stairway to snacking heaven: a schmick sibling wine bar to the 60-year-old Boccaccio Cellars. Cheese wheels and salumi are placed like religious relics behind a central bar, where you could happily sit with a plate of fried mortadella-stuffed olives and other small bites. Of course there’s pasta: egg-yellow agnolotti filled with aromatic veal and swimming in chicken broth, perhaps. The wine list is a sophisticated read – but would you expect anything less?

Must-order dish: Lemon tart, when it’s available. It hovers between liquid and solid and packs an acidic punch.

Level 1, 1046 Burke Road, Balwyn, enoteca.boccaccio.com.au

Bar Carolina

Real estate doesn’t come more coveted than this slender Toorak Road diner, reflected in menu moments such as, say, the $130 T-bone steak. Well worth it though, when paired with a prime atrium window seat where you and your prime beef become the fantasy of passersby. The wine list skews classic and Italian, and the floor staff are so invested they’ll overrule your spanner crab spaghettini order in favour of the porcini and mascarpone agnolotti if they think it’s more your style.

Must-order dish: The rabbit ragu on pappardelle is exactly the type of all-day cooking that’s best left to the pros.

44 Toorak Road, South Yarra, barcarolina.com.au

Lagotto

Sometimes extraordinary things go uncelebrated for reasons hard to discern. Case in point: Lagotto. Perhaps it’s because the inner north has many fine Italian restaurants, but it’s a shame because the space is lovely, drinks are fun and Italian-born Matteo Fulchiati (Lake House, Osteria Ilaria) cooks with playful modernity. Choux pastry filled with mortadella mousse is a ridiculous and delicious snack. Prawns with ’nduja and sea urchin butter are predictably fantastic. Less probable? Celeriac cooked until sweet, topped with hazelnuts and saltbush.

Must order dish: Saffron spaghettini with Moreton Bay bug (or sometimes spanner crab).

1 York Street, Fitzroy North, lagotto-fitzroynorth.com.au

Osteria Ilaria

Like a negroni sbagliato, Ilaria takes a classic format and invigorates it. Intriguing combinations, such as stracciatella strewn with jammy tomatillos, pecans and marigold petals, ping every receptor. Accommodating staff suggest biodynamic wines with confidence and automatically split pasta dishes – perhaps squid ink mafaldine with crab – to share. Ilaria might be the younger sibling to hatted pasta palace Tipo 00 but there’s no cry for attention – she’s got plenty of that.

Must-order dish: Dessert. Executive pastry chef across the group Lucy Whitlow has a palate that produces original creations such as the savoury-teetering white chocolate mousse with fennel.

367 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne, osteriailaria.com

Grossi Florentino

One of the city’s grandest dining institutions, two-hatted Florentino is not a place where things are done by halves. A champagne trolley arrives, followed by elegant canapes such as a short tartlet with prawn and Russian salad crowned
with caviar. South Australian tuna tartare is mixed in a plinth tableside. Some dishes have been fixtures for decades, such as precise porcini tortellini in brodo. Order them and you’ll see why.

Must-order dish: The chocolate souffle is part of Melbourne lore.

80 Bourke Street, Melbourne, florentino.com.au

Di Stasio Citta

At Di Stasio’s city dominion, soaring concrete and marble, fabulously incongruous art gallery-like projections on the walls, and the sophisticated clientele make an instant statement. With the help of skilled waiters, mix and match between rich primi such as ricotta and spinach gnudi, and smart secondi that might include buttery veal topped with prosciutto and redolent with sage. Wines are smartly balanced across price and style, so it’s hard to choose badly.

Must-order dish: Embrace Italy’s love affair with anchovies by way of a snack where the tiny fish snuggles with a fragrant sage leaf inside a wafer-thin batter. You’ll never want to start a meal without one.

45 Spring Street, Melbourne, distasiocitta.com.au

1800 Lasagne

It’s not your typical hatted restaurant, but 1800 Lasagne nails the brief completely. From service to atmosphere, there is simply nothing about it not to love. A description of the namesake lasagne as a mix of beef, pork and delicate pasta doesn’t do it justice. Side dishes, too, stand out – hard-shelled garlic bread loaded with butter, a crisp cos wedge showered in cheese – and cocktails, including a mandarin sherbet number that skips from sweet to sour and back again, are so much better than they need to be.

Must-order dish: Don’t make us spell it out.

653 High Street, Thornbury, 1800lasagne.com.au

The Age Good Food Guide 2024 is on sale for $14.95 from newsagents, supermarkets and at thestore.com.au.