With slick new openings, classic cucinas and masterful high-end dining, there’s a lot to love in Melbourne’s Italian restaurant world.

Melbourne’s Little Italy has long magnetised the city’s visitors, but the lasting legacy of the city’s sizable Italian community extends well beyond the borders of Carlton. It created the blueprint for Melbourne’s world renowned cafe culture, and laid the groundwork for future generations of chefs to create Italian-inspired fusion food.

Today, Victoria’s capital, is awash with Italian eateries of every kind. From vibrant family-friendly pub-style osterie and glamorous Milanese-inspired CBD restaurants to cosy farm-to-fork Sardinian eateries. Eat your way around the city with this shortlist of Italian restaurants in Melbourne.

The shortlist

Best date spot: Di Stasio
Hidden gem: Da Noi
Hottest new opening: Elio’s Place

1. Studio Amaro

On a strip of Windsor’s Chapel Street, heaving with bars and restaurants Studio Amaro’s cool Dean Martin vibe is all its own. Sunny by day, moody by night, its sleek design shines in retro shades of olive, burgundy and mustard, with a wall of Amaro bottles shimmering in the light. Amaro? That’s the bittersweet Italian herbal aperitivo or digestivo (post-dinner) liqueur. You’ll find around 50 varieties to sip neat or in a cocktail.

Chef Daniel Migliaccio’s open kitchen is fired up. Scoop up the whipped ricotta with addictive house-made focaccia or indulge in a chunky curve of grilled pork and fennel sausage. Rigatoni arrabiata comes tomato-infused, chilli-laced and dotted with stracciatella. Mains are generous – saltimbocca, veal cotoletta (cutlet), fish – with Italian flourishes.

Post-dinner, head downstairs to the basement bar, where a DJ spins vinyl in a disco lounge.

Cuisine: Italian

Average price: $$$

Atmosphere: Sultry

Location: 168 Chapel St, Windsor

2. Puttanesca Osteria

Puttanesca Osteria in Kew’s Clifton Hotel evokes a regional Italian eatery to a T. It sprawls across multiple rooms, with dark timbers, terrazzo floors, arched doorways and iconic film posters.

Culinary classics stud the menu (think crunchy arancini with melting centres, pillowy gnocchi, ‘mamma’s’ beef meatballs and Roman-style pizzas with crisp, charred bases), and there’s an inviting, family-friendly atmosphere too.

Cuisine: Italian

Average price: $$$

Atmosphere: Family-friendly trattoria

Location: 99 High St, Kew

3. Luci

A fabulous space in the CBD – the Grand Hall of the former 1930s Equity Chambers Building – is home to Luci’s, where the polished marble, sculptural light fittings and tall ceilings offer a sleek and modern feel. Produce-driven, with discreet style and service, Luci has the polish of a Milanese restaurant. While the menu is Italian-inflected you’ll find other Mod Oz flourishes too, from crostini topped with prosciutto and Davidson plum to rabbit ravioli garnished with Geraldton wax oil.

Cuisine: Modern Australian

Average price: $$$$

Atmosphere: Members lounge vibes

Location: 472 Bourke St, Melbourne

4. Officina Gastronomica Italiana

In a ritzy pocket of Hawksburn, surrounded by designer fashion stores and breathtakingly expensive baby boutiques, Officina Gastronomica Italiana (OGI) offers the full-on Italian experience, low-key and laid-back but lively all at once. Expect a rustic interior, all stripped-back brick and hard-edge timber stools, and a little bit of theatre from the Italian waiters.

Start the day with a breakfast bruschetta or just caffé e biscotti. Sample fresh panini, house-made pasta and salads for lunch. And indulge with dishes such as squid ink spaghettoni with spanner crab and chilli, or pumpkin ravioli with goat’s cheese and mustard fruit at dinner. It seems modest, but it’s super fresh and confidently cooked.

The wine focus is centred on Emilia-Romagna and features artisanal production.

Cuisine: Italian

Average price: $$$

Atmosphere: Elegantly rustic

Location: 532/534 Malvern Rd, Prahran

5. Al Dente Enoteca

Al Dente’s main dining room, ‘Enoteca’, is an elegant and stylishly modern space with generously spaced tables; the second dining room (named ‘Sapori’) is for those who like to be a little more cheek-to-jowl.

Chef/owners Andrea Vignali and Davide Bonadiman focus on fresh, seasonal and local produce, though pasta is the standout star here (particularly the house signature, tortelloni cacio e pepe). After all, it was the success of Vignali’s Covid pasta delivery service that helped to launch this restaurant in 2021. But Al Dente offers much more, with dishes that riff on regional Italian classics while incorporating unexpected ingredients, like exquisitely fresh burrata paired with heirloom beetroot, cashews, and merlot vinegar; Victorian dry-aged duck served with Kakadu plum; and kangaroo tartare with mustard, capers, and applewood smoke. You’ll also find an interesting wine list and attentive service.

Cuisine: Modern Australian

Average price: $$$$

Atmosphere: Chic and inviting

Location: 161 Nicholson St, Carlton

6. Di Stasio

Take your pick – the original in St Kilda, the cool Carlton iteration or the modish Spring Street version. Di Stasio restaurants set the bar high (and they’re a little bit spendy).

Di Stasio St Kilda has burnished its food and service credentials over decades with a classic, high-end Italian menu.  Di Stasio Pizzeria in Carlton is younger, even a little hip, with its pasta/pizza menu and leafy, sculpture-studded courtyard. Di Stasio Città is the arty, Milan-channelling, hard-edge city outpost in Spring Street. It’s über-chic and you’ll find no surprises on the menu,but it’s all faultlessly executed.

Cuisine: Italian

Average price: $$$$

Atmosphere: Fine dining

Location: 45 Spring Street, Melbourne (Di Stasio Città)

7. Alta Trattoria

If you’re not familiar with Piedmont’s cuisine, this is your opportunity to get acquainted. Alta Trattoria is resolutely understated with white tablecloths, simple chairs and quality glassware – just as it might be in Italy. Piedmontese favourites feature on the menu… anchovies, vitello tonnato (veal with tuna sauce, originally from this region in Italy’s northwest) and rabbit, all expertly prepared and precision plated. Don’t leave without trying the tajarin – an egg-rich pasta made from thin ribbons of dough. Piedmont is famed for its wines, and they shine on this tightly curated list.

Cuisine: Piedmontese

Average price: $$$$

Atmosphere: Schmick

Location: Ground Floor Rear/274 Brunswick St, Fitzroy

8. Figlia

A new offshoot of Melbourne’s pizza royalty, Tipo 00 Figlia has plenty of knockout sourdough pizzas on the list. They really are bubbly and charred, light and loaded with excellent, though sometimes unexpected, toppings. Think wild boar sausage or cavolo nero with stracciatella and fermented cabbage.

Don’t underestimate the rest of the menu, though. You could make a meal of the stuzzichini (snacks) and antipasti. Crispy little cacio e pepe arancini, roasted carrots with mascarpone, octopus skewers, fresh oysters and polenta focaccia. Secondi might include a whole fish or a hearty wagyu steak. The fit-out treads between wine bar, bentwood-chair bistro and low-key industrial, but is definitely welcoming. It also has an Italian-leaning wine list, including carafes.

Cuisine: Italian

Average price: $$$

Atmosphere: Refined yet convivial

Location: 335 Lygon St, Brunswick East

9. Bar Idda

Well before White Lotus alerted many to the charms of Sicily, Bar Idda was flying the flag in its cute corner store in Brunswick. This cosy, family-style trattoria continues to nail its Sicilian menu with food that feels genuinely cucina casalinga.

From the juicy green Sicilian olives and crunchy arancini to twirly pasta with a slow-cooked beef and pork ragu, you feel in safe hands. There’s fresh fish, of course, and meatballs with that particular Arab influence of pine nuts, currants and cinnamon that weaves through Sicilian cuisine.

The salad with chicory, celery and sultana is a must. Nonna would never let you leave without dolce, so order up. A tiramisu-flavoured cannolo (or two) is possibly the way to go. Sicilian wines are on the list.

Cuisine: Sicilian

Average price: $$$

Atmosphere: Homely

Location: 132 Lygon St, Brunswick East

10. Elio’s Place

An all-day bistro in the heart of the city, Elio’s Place transcends Europe’s borders with its laidback menu, though it’s heavily skewed towards the Bel Paese. Come for the daily aperitivo ‘hour’ (3-5pm) and stay for the share plates: creamy burrata bathing in crispy chilli oil and scattered with sweet pickled onions; crunchy crostini slathered with nduja and ricotta; lamb skewers on a bed of punchy salsa verde.

Housed within a heritage-listed, six-storey former warehouse, this Flinders Lane eatery has good bones. Its interiors are dimly lit, awash with timber and superbly cosy, like a slice of Europe tucked into Melbourne’s laneways.

Cuisine: European

Average price: $$$

Atmosphere: Smart casual

Location: 1/238 Flinders Ln, Melbourne

11. Da Noi

This small, South Yarra stalwart is something of a local’s secret, quietly going strong since 1995. If it weren’t for the shop window, where this Sardinian restaurant’s fresh pasta is often handmade, then perhaps even fewer people would be privy to its charms.

Choose from a la carte or a set six-course menu here. Traditional dishes that might land on your table include culurgiones (stuffed pasta), porceddu (roast suckling pig), or fregola (small, toasted pasta grains). And did we mention that Da Noi even boasts its own smallholding? Much of the fruit, veg, eggs and meat that grace your plate have been sustainably and ethically sourced from the family farm in the upper Goulburn Valley.

Expect pressed white tablecloths, candlelight, wooden chairs and walls lined with art.

Cuisine: Sardinian

Average price: $$$$

Atmosphere: Cosy

Location: 95 Toorak Rd, South Yarra

12. Rosa’s Canteen

Rosa’s Canteen has amassed a loyal following over the last decade, known for its authentic, honest, homestyle Italian cooking in the thick of the city. Despite its location, this Sicilian-inspired eatery offers some respite from the CBD’s busy streets, its floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the treetops, allowing light to pour in.

Much of the kitchen’s produce is plucked from chef Rosa Mitchell’s family farm, and fresh herbs, fruits and veggies receive equal billing on the menu: whipped ricotta with pickled zucchini, chilli and mint; spaghetti aglio olio with anchovy, cherry tomato and garlic; eggplant involtini with tomato, celery, radish and ricotta.

Cuisine: Sicilian

Average price: $$$

Atmosphere: Tranquil and welcoming

Location: Shop 8, Rear of/500 Bourke St, Melbourne

13. Grossi Florentino

Among the oldest restaurants in all of Australia, Grossi Florentino (known as Café Florentino until its takeover by the Grossi family in 1999) has been going strong since the 1920s. Few restaurant experiences in Australia compare to dining upstairs here: lined with murals, forged wrought iron lighting, timber panelling, and chandeliers, this imposing space feels almost like a place of worship.

The menu commands similar reverence, each dish intricately composed and full of rich ingredients: risotto with Moreton Bay bugs, Cape Grim short rib with red wine sugo, caviar with ricotta hotcakes.

Downstairs, the buzzy Grill restaurant is inspired by Tuscany, and a more casual entry to the Grossi empire.

Cuisine: Italian

Average price: $$$$

Atmosphere: Stately

Location: 80 Bourke St, Melbourne

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