Italian restaurants in Melbourne
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Brunetti
Bustling from dawn to midnight, Brunetti is a mini-Roman empire. It’s famous for its coffee, granitas and authentic pasticceria (pastries). Bain-marie meals can be on the stodgy side (and sometimes that’s just what the locals want) but the toasted tremezzini always please.
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Italian Waiters Club
Down a laneway and up some stairs, the inside of the Italian Waiters Club will make you feel like you stepped into another era. Opened in 1947, it still bears '50s drapes, wood panelling and Laminex tables. Once only for Italian and Spanish waiters to unwind after work over a game of scopa (a card game) and a glass of wine, now everyone from suits to students is allowed in for hearty plates of red-sauce pasta and the regularly changing roster of specials.
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Grossi Florentino Grill
The Grill won’t wow you with culinary curiosity, but it does offer an authentic regional Italian menu with metropolitan flair and great produce. The Cellar Bar next door is brooding, intimate and affordable: a great place to have a quick bowl of pasta and a glass of pinot grigio. Service is snappy and professional. If you’re into grand statements (with mains hitting the $50 mark), upstairs is an opulent fine dining stalwart.
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Giuseppe, Arnaldo and Sons
Prodigal (and preternaturally talented) Maurizio Terzini sold Melbourne’s café e cucina concept to Sydney and now he’s brought North Bondi Italian back south. It’s a splendid space – with the drama of a marble bar hung with small goods and a spot-lit bread station – and but be prepared for some noise and bustle. Food is enticing, stunningly fresh and exciting, while retaining a produce-driven simplicity. The menu is flexible and great for sharing.
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Journal Canteen
Journal Canteen, tucked away up an obscure flight of stairs off the CAE building foyer, is no secret. It’s packed to the rafters each lunchtime with diners lapping up Rosa Mitchell’s sensational Sicilian-style antipasto plates, pastas, roasts and ragus. Be spared the agony of choice: Rosa bases her few offerings on what is fresh and seasonal on any given day. There’s a $30 degustation deal, which comes with a complimentary caffitere -brewed coffee.
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Carlton Espresso
Piadinas and panini are stuffed with a wonderful array of fillings and the little tarts and biscotti are homemade. This place brims with contemporary Italian brio – a nice change from the drab nostalgia found elsewhere.
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Sarti Restaurant Bar
There’s a lot of ciao bella schmooze going on, but the menu doesn’t just flirt – it delivers. A joyful mix of the knowingly modern and rustically nostalgic: wild harvested venison is prettily parsed with pickled beetroot, celeriac puree and crispy beets or a perfect pistachio panna cotta is embellished with salted popcorn. Or a plate of pasta ($24) on the terrace makes for a soothing city lunch.
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Café Veloce
Tucked at the back of Dutton’s, this Fender Katsalidis shrine to auto design (and car lust in general) turns out perfect house-baked pasticceria, eggs and interesting breakfast dishes like baked ricotta served with fresh berries. Lunches (reminiscent of classic Café e Cucina fare) are more than good enough to assuage the sight of baby boomers getting gooey over classic Porsches.
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Pizza e Birra
The old train station’s great bones and the sharp, graphic fit-out make for a lovely night out. Sit under black-and-white photos straight from the Cinecittà archives and eat hand-stretched, wood-fired pizzas (both tradizionali, with tomato sugo, and bianche, without) or venture on through their mains of pastas, grills and tasty salads.
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Mirka’s at Tolarno
The dark dining room has a history (it’s been delighting diners since the early ‘60s) and Guy Grossi’s carefully tweaked, knowingly retro food – truffle poached eggs, steak tartare, duck à l’orange – adds to the sense of occasion. But you don’t get gravitas with your Chateaubriand. Beloved St Kilda painter Mirka Mora’s murals grace the wall infusing all with a rare joy de vivre.
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Tutto Bene
There’s other primi piatti on offer but the main event here is risotto. They range from a simple Venetian risi e bisi (rice and peas) to some fabulously luxe options involving truffles or roast quail or aged balsamic. Fine house-made gelato is the requisite desert; you can drop in anytime just for a coppa scooped from an outside servery.
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Scusami
Feast your eyes on the city views, then feast on Scusami's outstanding dishes. This long-running restaurant has been teasing the city's culinary senses for over a decade. An excellent range of wines is offered by the glass to complement the classic and contemporary Italian fare. Expect a sprinkling of luxurious ingredients such as porcini mushrooms and truffle oil.
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Melbourne Wine Room
In the iconic George Hotel, the refined Wine Room is like the cone of silence compared to the heaving front bar next door (where bar meals are also available). Naturally for a wine room, there's a stellar selection on offer. Critics have acknowledged the service here as the city's best, and the Wine Room's overall reputation for fine dining remains unblemished.
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Da Noi
Da Noi serves beautiful Sardinian dishes chosen for the season. The spontaneous kitchen might reinterpret the chef’s special three times a night. Just go with it; it’s a unique experience and harks back to a different way of dining. The five-course chef’s selection is worth making room for. Bookings advised.
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Enoteca Sileno
This groaning enoteca imports some of the city’s best quality Italian provisions; you’ll see them employed in the small but smart menu of regional standards. The Italian wines are also exemplary; pick up a bottle and a jar of carciuga (artichoke anchovy spread) to take home.
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Tiamo
When you've had enough of pressed, siphoned, slayered, pour-over filtered and plunged coffee, head here to one of Lygon St's original Italian cafe-restaurants. There's laughter and the relaxed joie de vivre only a time-worn restaurant can have.
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Cafe di Stasio
Capricious white-jacketed waiters, a tenebrous Bill Henson photograph and a jazz soundtrack set the mood. The Italian menu has the appropriate drama and grace.
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