Ultimate guide to Melbourne’s favourite Italian restaurants

As soon as you go up the stairs at The Hardware Club in the city, you’ll know you’ve found a true Italian gem of a restaurant.

First, the very Italian staff will greet you with a friendly “Ciao!” Then you might have a drink at the bar with a little snack – we can recommend the fried mortadella if it’s on the menu, or the baked olives, mandarin and lemon. Then you’ll make your way to your table in a room lined with jars and bottle of limoncello and various other liquors happily fermenting, waiting to join their brothers on the drinks trolley which will undoubtably make its way to your table later in the evening.

This is not traditional Italian, rather it’s Italian with a strong modern Australian twist. The cacio and pepe toastie – a dish we loved so much we made it our must-try dish of the week – is indicative of the kind of food you get here. The menu is divided by the sizes of the plates, so it’s all made for sharing, and there are many vegetarian and a couple of vegan options too.

Run, don’t walk, to join the Hardware Club.

Dish Cult’s top pick: Cacio e pepe Taleggio crispy cheese toastie ($15)

On Little Bourke Street, you’ll find Rosa’s Canteen. Created by Rosa Mitchell, who came to Australia from Sicily as a child, the food reflects Rosa’s Sicilian roots as well as her love for excellent quality ingredients treated with respect.

The cuisine of Sicily is varied and here you’ll find the traditional and not-so-traditional on a menu that changes with the seasons. Take, for example, the classic Sicilian salad of oranges and fennel – at Rosa’s this had been paired with cured fish and given a kick with chilli, to make an excellent and unexpected antipasto. Pastas and mains follow a similar trajectory, with influences from other Italian regions also present, but whatever you do you must finish with that favourite pastry of wise guys the world over, cannoli.

Dish Cult’s top pick:  Housemade chestnut trenette with beef shin and onion ($33)

You might not be able to fly to Venice anytime soon (or maybe you can and half your luck!), but you can always do the next best thing and book a table at Hawthorn’s Vaporetto.

The bar and restaurant specialise in the cuisine of the City of Canals and the menu features dishes such as fritto misto, mixed fried seafood with Vaporetto’s own  ‘Lagoon’ salt, agnolotti di melanzane, hand-folded fresh pasta with a smoky eggplant, marjoram and ricotta filling, and ‘il pesce di Glynis’ – market fish with vongole, Soave wine, parsley and pistachio.

It’s the perfect place to satisfy your Venetian daydreams – you won’t need a gondola to get there, and you’ll also skip all the hassle that comes with a long haul flight!

Dish Cult’s top pick: ‘Bigoli con anatra’ (thick spaghetti with duck), mandarin, pancetta, Valpolicella, mustard seed and carrots ($38)

With its roots very firmly in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy, an area known for such gastronomic masterpieces as prosciutto di Parma, Parmigiano Reggiano and all things Bolognese, Trattoria Emilia is all about quality ingredients, treated with respect, to create rustic dishes that are still refined.

You’ll find a carefully curated menu with the stars of the show definitely the pasta selection. The dishes change with the seasons but expect perfectly formed ravioli, tortelloni and tagliatelle, the latter comes with a traditional Bolognese ragu (no spag bol here!). There’s an even smaller selection of mains, featuring pork, fish and duck, and you’d be stupido to miss the desserts – tiramisù anyone?

Dish Cult’s top pick: Pork and beef ragu’ ‘alla Bolognese’ with Parmigiano Reggiano

Busy and buzzy, Osteria Ilaria is an Italian bistro where you’re pretty much guaranteed good food, killer cocktails, an excellent wine list and a fun time.

Sister restaurant to the more pasta-focused Tipo OO next door, Osteria has a wider remit and you can expect dishes such as scallop with celeriac and bottarga, whipped mirror dory with purple broccolini and olive, and Bultarra lamb with buttered turnip, radish and fermented blueberries.

There is, as you’d expect, still excellent pasta on the menu, and if you find yourself in the city and hankering for a bowl, sit at the bar and order the malfalde with game ragu, carrot and saffron for a sensational lunch for one.

If you’re not sure what to order, ask for the Chef’s menu, and just go with it. You won’t be sorry.

Dish Cult’s top pick:  Malfalde, game ragu, carrot and saffron ($44)

Historic Italian restaurant? Tick! Plush and classy surrounds? Tick! Renowned celebrity chef? Tick, tick and tick! Grossi Florentino more than fits the bill for those looking to celebrate a big occasion in old-school Italian style.

Starting life as the Florentino Cafe in the 1920s, Guy Grossi’s restaurant complex also includes the Cellar Bar and the Grill, where you’ll find Tuscan dishes in a more casual atmosphere, but it’s the Florentino that can’t be beaten for special occasions.

This is Italian fine dining with impeccable service. Choose three courses from a set menu and expect antipasti such as the crespelle, crepes with ricotta and spinach, pasta dishes like the spirulina spaghettini – Fraser Island spanner crab, bottarga and colatura (an Italian fish sauce) – and mains such as ossobucco alla Milanese. Add an extra course so that you can try the chocolate soufflé with Amaretto gelato.

Or try the Gran Tour, which for $210 per person consists of a six-dish set menu. Pair with wines from the truly encyclopaedic wine list to make it a meal you won’t forget.

Dish Cult’s top pick: Soufflé – chocolate soufflé, Amaretto gelato

If it’s romance you crave, Il Bacaro delivers. An intimate setting plus a Venetian-inspired menu from Executive Chef David Dellai means you can’t go wrong.

Start with quail featuring parmesan gel, rainbow chard and olive oil snow, move on to a risotto with veal broth, parmesan and black truffle, for a touch of lux, then choose the maialino (suckling pig with apple)  for main, and finish with the chocolate and orange delice with chocolate soil, gold and orange sorbet if you really want to impress.

Dish Cult’s top pick: Chocolate and orange delice, chocolate soil, gold, orange sorbet ($25)

Cirelli & Co are up baking well before dawn so patrons can score loaves of fresh bread and delicate pastries daily.

If its mid-morning coffee time, go for the Nutella pizza with strawberries, bombolone (filled donut) or ricotta-filled cannoli.

If it is later in the day, then the lunch and dinner menu has plenty of pizza and pasta dishes to choose from, and they can make little Italian fans a Mickey Mouse pizza too.

We love the pizza here so much, we’ve also included Cirelli in our list of Melbourne’s best pizza.

Dish Cult’s top pick: La Lurida pizza – tomato, mozzarella, hot salami, pancetta, ham and parmesan ($25)