Your Ultimate Guide to Australia’s Best Italian Restaurants

Australia’s love of Italian food rarely wanes but right now there’s more amore than ever before.

“Italians are like mushrooms. We pop up everywhere,” says chef Orazio D’Elia, who opened Da Orazio, a lively pizza and porchetta palace in Bondi Beach in March last year and, soon after, Ori’s Bar, its little sibling that is all about fresh-off-thebeach drinks and snacks. D’Elia has been mushrooming around Sydney’s Italo-Australian restaurant scene for nearly 20 years, from the original Icebergs Dining Room and Bar to Matteo in Double Bay and the departed Popolo.

D’Elia isn’t the only everything-old-is-new-again chef clanging pasta extruders and pizza pans in the post-pandemic wave of Italian restaurant openings around Australia. In Sydney’s Elizabeth Bay, Barry McDonald, the maestro behind the original Fratelli Fresh and Café Sopra, has opened Bar Grazie, where classics such as saltimbocca alla Romana and extravagant bistecca alla Florentina are matched with a wine list of unapologetic old-world big names. Meanwhile, D’Elia’s former business partner, Maurice Terzini, has injected fresh life into a reopened Icebergs, giving head chef Alex Prichard the same brief he stamps on all his past success stories, from the Melbourne Wine Room to The Dolphin in Sydney’s Surry Hills: “Flavours my parents would recognise but food they wouldn’t cook.”

The mantra of Icebergs is to “embrace our traditional background but also reflect who we are. Everything we cook is sourced from here – the only things we bring in from Italy are the anchovies, the balsamic and the parmigiana Reggiano,” promises Terzini. “We don’t need to import pure bloody water or special rice from Italy and have it sit in a container for six months. Italian food is about sourcing from where you are. That’s our version of Italo-Oz cucine.”

If this is a “new wave”, you could loosely call the first wave the migrants who appeared after WWII and adopted Melbourne’s Lygon Street and Sydney’s Leichhardt as their spiritual homes. The unofficial second wave broke in the ’80s and ’90s – Café di Stasio in Melbourne, Buon Ricordo in Sydney – and then a third wave was led by the tear-up-the-rulebook stylings of Terzini and co. in the 2000s, later joined by Italian-ish cuisine-clashers such as Sydney’s now defunct Acme and Hobart’s still-thriving Fico.

But the latest openings aren’t just about the old guard reinventing themselves or going back to their roots. Lesser-known names are coming out swinging. Testun Bar in Perth calls itself a “Neo-Italo neighbourhood osteria”, creating Mozzarella Martinis and house-cured meats served on toffee-pickled mussels and focaccia. In the Jonson Lane precinct in Byron Bay, chef Matteo Tine, who cranked out the classics at Melbourne’s Grossi Florentino for 13 years, is now on the pans at Pixie, which he describes as “modern Italian with a vintage kick”. Tine’s sfinci – Sicilian donuts – aren’t sweet. Instead, he fills them with cacio e pepe sauce and adds a cape of air-dried Wagyu bresaola. He’s even made an Italian-style kimchi. “I like to say that when I cook I’m walking a dog and that dog is Italian food,” he says. “I have that dog on a leash – that’s when I’m being super traditional – but I also have to let that dog wander away a bit.” Not too far though, he adds with a laugh, or “you lose your dog”.

Whether they have a firm grip on the lead or are letting the dog race off, this new restaurant wave has a binding thread. “We’re Italian. We talk with our hands. We sometimes turn the music up a little too loud,” says Orazio D’Elia. “But that’s how you know something’s going on. Italian restaurants aren’t just about food.”

Try these…

Pellegrino 2000, Sydney

No-one plays tastebud tricks like chef Dan Pepperell. In his hands, a basic plate of eggplant fritti is the most crisp, most flavourful eggplant fritti you’ve ever eaten. A dish of octopus and chickpeas has a buttery, lemony elevation that amps its humble main ingredients to unheard-of heights. And that’s before you even get to the wonton-wrapped prawn ravioli. Take a tip and book months in advance to try his tiny corner trattoria in Surry Hills.

Fontana, Sydney

The band from Sydney’s beloved pop-up, Don Peppino’s, is back together again and they’re doing simple, sexy, regional Italian con brio in Redfern. Make sure you order the freshly made ricotta plus the ceci e tria chickpea pasta (a Peppino’s crowd favourite) and round things off with a glass of amaro at the bar.

Enoteca Ponti, Sydney

Lasagne spring roll? If you find yourself wondering if that sounds delicious or monstrous, this boundary-pushing Potts Point wine bar from the team behind Bistro Rex has the answer. Pastas play more by the rule book, including a gorgeous wild boar pappardelle.

Osteria Renata, Melbourne

South Melbourne’s Park Street Pasta & Wine won the hearts of locals with a short menu of fresh pasta and excellent Italian drops, and now Prahran has a taste of what the team can do. There’s not as much pasta but what there is you should order, particularly anything filled. The kitchen also does a cracking rump cap bistecca.

Di Stasio Pizzeria, Melbourne

It’s impossible to imagine Rinaldo “Ronnie” di Stasio putting a foot wrong and with his newest venue in Carlton, it’s clear he’s in fine form. It’s casual, colourful and a crowd favourite, with perfect pizzas crafted by chef Federico Congiu. Despite the name, there’s plenty more on the menu, including bright Roman primavera stew and decadent Sicilian pastries.

Figlia, Melbourne

This modern Lygon Street bistro in Brunswick East from the team behind the city’s beloved Tipo 00 offers a solid snack menu – Tassie scallops skewered and barbecued with a bubbling bagna cauda are not to be missed – plus excellent pizza and secondi in a cool industrial space.

Ramona Trattoria, Brisbane

The chance to try chef Ashley-Maree Kent’s handshaped pasta and pizza may lure you to this homely trattoria in Coorparoo but it’s the welcoming family atmosphere that makes you stay. The menu is comfortingly classic and delightfully executed: in short, it’s everything you want in a neighbourhood Italian joint.

Peppina, Hobart

Another restaurant that redefines hotel dining, chef Massimo Mele’s Peppina, inside the glamorous Tasman hotel, takes Italian to elegant heights without losing any of its signature conviviality. The generous octopus salad already has tonnes of fans, as does the rich ricotta cavatelli, a puddle of indulgence studded with pancetta and stracciatella.

Eightysix South, Canberra

A baby sibling to its Braddon counterpart, this affable eatery in Woden is all about cleanly executed share plates – cool crudos, buttery pastas – plus a zippy little wine list. The “super quick lunch” menu is the exact excuse you’ve been looking for to get out of the office on a Friday afternoon.

SEE ALSO: Melbourne's Best Under-the-radar Restaurants