From inner-city power lunch powerhouses to a wine-diner on the city’s fringe.
From basement stayers to new players, these Italian restaurants serve up sophisticated snacks, perfect pasta and service that’s old-school in the best way. We’re talking establishments where white-jacketed waitstaff dish up hospitality with a capital H, others where the pace is furious but balls are never dropped.
Whichever you choose, you’re guaranteed an experience that our critics have rated good enough to earn aIt’s barely 5pm yet the padded barstools are full, a turntable spins vinyl and the warm woody room has a convivial hum.
“It’s a very busy place,” laughs one of the charming young staff who keeps the place purring. Devotees of this Scopri sibling love its well-executed classics – from skewered saltimbocca to tiramisu – paired with largely Italian wines. There’s an exemplary fritto misto of calamari, whiting and prawns; griddled sweet peppers from the owners’ farm with salty ribbons of lardo; and the signature spiral of pappardelle ripiene stuffed with field mushrooms.
Owner Caterina Borsato rattles off daily specials at antique marble-topped tables at her basement power-lunch hub; today it might be goldband snapper crudo with a trifecta of citrus and a persimmon sauce. The menu displays an Italian awe for the seasons, but there’s always rabbit, perhaps on the bone in a light white-wine braise boosted by green olives.
A meticulous list of 600 wines spans approachable to aspirational, with plenty by the glass and half-bottle, although no one’s counting how many glasses they’ve had. What is worth counting is the chefs’ hats or three courses.
Fried zucchini flowers stuffed with ginger and prawn mousse benefit from caviar-specked bisque, while sweet hunks of crab flesh mingle with a generous hail of pangrattato in an exemplary spaghettini. In a stark concrete gallery, suave waiters carry martinis on silver trays to top-end-of-town types − you might clock a politician and their security detail − who like their stuzzichini with a side of video art.
It can feel like you’ve stumbled onto a surrealist filmset, but a single, salty bite of sage-wrapped anchovy is a delicious reality check. A tangle of whisper-crisp fried seafood and zucchini might follow, or ricotta-spinach gnudi, gnocchi’s lighter Tuscan cousin. Two-hatted service is as crisp as the double-clothed tables. Straddling Carlton North and Fitzroy North, Lagotto’s mood-lit marble and maroon room attracts a well-dressed young professional crowd.
Waitstaff will affirm each of your choices with “gorgeous”. And so they are.its cross-section crisped on the grill, luxuriates in intensely cheesy parmesan foam. A skewer of ruffled pastrami is understatedly plated with black-garlic ketchup. And pork chop partnered by bittersweet kumquat jus and radicchio tones in with the room.
Woof; this is a handsome Italian with pedigree, just like its namesake dog breed. A rare find in an outer-fringe suburb, it’s obvious why locals are so enamoured with winery restaurant La Vetta, which strikes that elusive balance between accessible and special. Well-crusted steaks are placed on nearly every table, whether a date by the picture frame window or a big family celebrating.
Global ingredients inspire ingenious flourishes: curry leaves bolster a bisque coating paccheri pasta and Moreton Bay bug; chimichurri rides shotgun with the aforementioned scotch fillet. Wines are affordable estate drops or Italian varieties, and the views of rolling hills will have you forgetting you’re still in the city. Lucia’s handsome dining room and striking bar are elegant spaces in an unlikely office-block location, screened from Kings Way by creamy sheer drapes and an upbeat soundtrack.
Shiny happy people order caviar and martinis; laughter and clinking glasses tinkle from luxurious booths and cosy tables. White-jacketed, white-sneakered waitstaff spirit away coats, unfurl napkins and pour barolo. The menu starts with eclectic snacks, including a “taco” of wafer-thin kohlrabi wrapping lobster, avocado and finger lime; mains are fine-dining level, like crisp-skinned duck with quince and caramelised-fennel crust.
From the red neon sign ushering you down the alleyway to the bluestone-framed door welcoming you into the bustling dining room, Emilia has charisma to burn. Steel-beamed ceilings and white subway tiles whisper industrial but landscape paintings and oxblood banquettes lay on the romance.
Warm staff furnish you swiftly with wine recommendations and snacks − perhaps wafer-thin crostini with whipped lemon butter and Cantabrian anchovies, or kingfish carpaccio with bottarga, squid ink and freeze-dried mandarin − before moving on to pasta that demonstrates extreme mastery of the art form . This Italo institution is perennially packed, so book well in advance and don’t be surprised if service runs at a brisk pace; you’re not the only one in thrall to Tipo’s charms.
There’s no safer bet than pasta, but it’s best appreciated after a few detours, the first being ox tongue: delicately sliced, glistening with balsamic reduction and arranged like an accordion. The critics’ pick of the pastas is pillowy half-moons of pumpkin ravioli sitting among taleggio and offset by crisp sage. The Tipomisu is bolted to the menu, but you might luck onto its seasonal sister, tartufomisu: layers of chocolate and coffee crowned with fresh black truffle shavings and truffle cream.
Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the
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