Restaurant trends come and go like Ampol “Foodary” deliveries in the night. Today it’s frozen yoghurt and soupless ramen; tomorrow Fijian-Indian will be the next big thing (or at least, we can wish). The 1984 Good Food Guide listed almost 100 French restaurants across NSW; in the current edition, we’ve included no more than a dozen.

Sydney’s love for pasta is eternal, however, and Italian food remains just has popular as it was in the age of Kingswood Country and Mondo Rock. Here are 10 of the best hatted Italian restaurants from the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide, from Bondi Beach to the foot of the Blue Mountains.

10 William St

On any given weekend, you can expect 10 William’s small dining room to be heaving with people, pasta and fast-emptying bottles of wine (probably natural, probably French or Italian). Waiters weave their way through the crowd, stopping to say hello to regulars, or suggesting a second glass from the changing blackboard selection. It’s an easy place to lose an hour or two, dragging ripped morsels of still-warm pretzel through salty whipped bottarga, twirling buttery spaghetti chitarra around the tender piece of prawn on your fork, or savouring the velvet-like gnocchi doused in sweet, bright pomodoro sauce. Pro tip: booking ahead makes it better – walk-in guests may encounter a wait.

10 William Street, Paddington; 10williamst.com.au

Bar Vincent

Remember when inner-city restaurants were dark and squeezy, with small terrace rooms, French-Italian inclinations and a Beaujolais to Barolo-forward wine list? This always crammed charmer has all those olden-days assets, not to mention excellent produce and a more left-field wine list than yesteryear. A Clos du Gravillas field blend from the Languedoc goes great, thank you, with everything from ruddy sirloin tagliata to vitello tonnato – the rare-as veal topped with teeny quail egg halves, anchovies and capers. Nice. Smart and smiling service, meanwhile, is a perennial bonus.

174 Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst; barvincent.com.au

Cricca

It’s easy enough to imagine busting outta the city, taking the lease on an old pizza shop and building the restaurant you always dreamed of. But when you see a couple of people, in this case former Bentley chefs, who’ve actually made it happen, it hits you how rare and special it is to pull it off. Inside a handsome space on Windsor’s main strip, the wood oven burns hot. Alessio Nogarotto pours Italian grape varieties he loves to drink and mixes pitch-perfect negronis, while Giles Gabutina slips oysters topped with house-made pancetta into the oven, then uses it to crisp Jerusalem artichokes to be topped with pear, pecorino and burnt honey. Cricca is smart, striking and packed with charm. But most of all, it’s personal.

1/135 George Street, Windsor; restaurantcricca.com

Fontana

There’s garlic bread and then there’s Fontana’s garlic bread, perhaps Sydney’s G.G.B.O.A.T. It lands hot and oozing with glorious, caramelised garlic butter, ready to kick off your night with a glass of Sardinian orange wine or precision-stirred martini. Fontana marches to the sound of its own chilled beat with simple, assured cooking that feels just as at home in Redfern as it might in a natural-wine bar in Rome. That garlic bread is the perfect team mate for just-set ricotta, before moving on to luscious, rustic ceci e tria (Puglia’s signature chickpea pasta), back-fat-rich pork sausage, and spaghetti con le sarde – a punchy tumble of sardines, pine nuts, currants and anchovies.

133A Redfern Street, Redfern; clubfontana.com

Icebergs Dining Room and Bar

When it comes to dining-room real estate, restaurateur Maurice Terzini’s seaside pearl sits in a league of its own. The unofficial dress code seems to be white linen and sunburn, with well-to-do tourists and the local glamour set all here to watch the Pacific Ocean put on a show. Everyone is looked after at Icebergs: there are luxe numbers such as Moreton Bay bug insalata with kelp-roasted potatoes, and delicate coral trout tartare, but also crowd-pleasing favourites, including whole lobster and salt-crusted rib-eye. Still one of Sydney’s most Sydney restaurants.

1 Notts Avenue, Bondi Beach; idrb.com

Ormeggio at the Spit

Ormeggio could simply present itself as an Amalfi cliche of yellow-striped awnings, neon spritzes and pasta standards, and allow its gleaming water views to do the rest. But nothing about Alessandro and Anna Pavoni’s flagship restaurant is predictable. A luxuriously textured baccala entree is served tableside with a detailed northern Italian origin story and a surprise dusting of cocoa, Sichuan pepper and juniper. Delicate bottoni, or “little buttons”, of carbonara-filled pasta are studded with tiny gems of caviar, swordfish pancetta and glossy drops of lemon-infused oil so they sparkle like Sicilian cassata. The exceptional wine list and service make it all the more special.

D’Albora Marina, Spit Road, Mosman; ormeggio.com.au

Osteria Russo & Russo

Behind cafe-curtained windows, father-and-son-team Pino and Marc Russo have been reinventing the traditional trattoria for the past 12 years. Old-school hospitality underpins modern Italian cooking, now featuring an Australian-Korean bent courtesy of chef Jowoon Oh. While the look is all European bistro – candlelight, chalkboard menus, vintage frames – house-made ferments and pickles signal we’re not in standard Napoli territory anymore. Expect the likes of salty-sweet taralli doughnuts with black garlic, curled anchovies and wattleseed, and kombu-charged spanner crab harnessed by sweetcorn casarecce.

158 Enmore Road, Enmore; russoandrusso.net.au

Otto Ristorante

With a stunning location and a decades-long history of serving fine Italian food to a who’s-who of Sydney business, fashion and media, it would be easy for Otto to take its eye off the ball. But this harbourside institution, rocking a menu of Italian classics and a wide-ranging wine list, still remains one of the best lunch spots in town. Linguine studded generously with Moreton Bay bug – a dish that’s unlikely ever to leave the menu – is perfectly al dente. The paparazzi of old may have moved on, but gazing over the water with a crisp Alto Adige pinot grigio in hand, Otto still feels like the place to be.

Area 8, 6 Cowper Wharf Road, Woolloomooloo; ottoristorante.com.au/sydney

Pellegrino 2000

The fervour surrounding Taylor Swift’s 2024 visit to Pellegrino is still reverberating. It wasn’t exactly easy to get in before, but nowadays if you don’t plan ahead, you’re likely to be left scrambling for an early booking or a seat in the cellar (good for groups, but away from the action). It’s easy to see why it’s so popular. Pellegrino is sexy, stylish and a damn fun place to smash yuzu-spiked sgroppinos and chubby rigatoni dressed in cheesy, yolky carbonara. The team (also behind CBD grill Clam Bar) clearly have the magic touch: the room is all energy, the street-side bar-seats rock, and the menu plays Italy’s greatest hits with swagger. We hope Swift ordered the charcoal-grilled octopus.

80 Campbell Street, Surry Hills; pellegrino2000.com

Pilu at Freshwater

It’s been two decades since Pilu first opened its doors, and at a lunch booking the sun is surely just as bright, the view over Freshwater Beach just as striking. Then there’s the suckling pig, a day-one dish starring free-range pork roasted slowly, maialetto style, to render the skin crisp and the flesh rich. It hits as hard as ever, and encapsulates a menu dedicated to Giovanni Pilu’s Sardinian roots, but this is no nostalgia trip. Saltbush salt atop Skull Island prawns with preserved lemon sauce brings in local touches, as does Murray cod with horseradish foam for bite. The cellar has real depth and the triumphant tiramisardo is still made tableside. Twenty years? And counting.

Beach end of Moore Road, Freshwater; pilu.com.au

The SMH Good Food Guide 2025 is on sale for $19.95 from newsagents, supermarkets and at thestore.com.au. It features more than 500 NSW venues.