Five To Try: New Italian Restaurants Inspired by Everything from Roman Trattorias to Nonna’s House

Melbourne isn’t short of Italian restaurants. But recently, we’ve seen a string of great newcomers from hospitality legends to first-time operators. Say buon appetito at these five new spots.

Roma, CBD

Roma is a glamorous yet understated dining room off Collins Street decked in green marble, intricate chequered stone floors, vintage Italian lamps and chandeliers. It’s from legend Con Christopoulos (Supper Club, The European, City Wine Shop, Siglo, Kafeneion and many more), who is joined by chef Matt Wilkinson of Pope Joan fame, front-of-house gun Giovanni Patane (who ran Supermaxi for 12 years) and drinks guru Warwick Harty, who’s worked at Christopoulos’s venues on and off for 30 years.

Together they’ve built the purest interpretation of a Roman trattoria we’ve yet seen in Melbourne, a city where Italian restaurants tend not to worry about regional boundaries.

The menu features a classic trippa alla romana, or tripe simmered in tomato and wine, alongside rose veal chops, pork Scotch neck and lamb shoulder chops from the grill. Beef fillets are sold in 100-gram portions that encourage customising your plate. If you’re keen for a good fish – baked whole rock flathead, for example – head over to the ice-filled drawers by the kitchen and take your pick.

Christopoulos is enamoured with the version of Rome chronicled by director Federico Fellini in films like Roma (1972), and the restaurants that have survived since then. His favourite is Trattoria al Moro, founded in 1929 and famously frequented by Fellini. Roma’s white lattice ceiling is an homage to al Moro’s.

Other references abound, if you know where to look. The distinctive grille on the terrace facade was lifted from a Roman house briefly featured in Sergio Leone: The Italian Who Invented America, a documentary about the famous spaghetti Western director. The cutlery is the same type used at the Fendi Hotel, where Christopoulos stays in Rome. Then there’s the Italian-made crockery he calls “out of control beautiful”, sourced from 291-year-old company Ginori.

Spaghetti Club, Richmond

For a restaurant named Spaghetti Club, Mamas Dining Group’s new Richmond spot has surprisingly few spaghetti dishes on the menu. The total count comes in at just two: spaghetti vongole, a dish of spaghetti cooked with clams, and squid ink spaghetti with tomato, prawns, salumi XO and pangrattato (toasted breadcrumbs). Rather than lean heavily into the name, the Swan Street restaurant traverses Italy with dishes including 10-hour baked ziti, pork chop cotoletta and tiramisu.

Leading the kitchen is Michael Flemming, whose resumé includes Totti’s Bondi and Press Food & Wine in Adelaide. He takes inspiration from co-owner Lucas Gugliandolo’s paternal grandfather’s recipes, including maccheroni alla norma (a Sicilian eggplant pasta) and his nonno’s bechamel-heavy lasagne, and makes use of the open-flame oven with charred broccolini, steak with pepper sauce, woodfired focaccia with curried onion, and wood-grilled spatchcock with corn custard.

The homey room nods to Gugliandolo’s grandparents’ house without feeling too old-school. Orange tiles and yellow-tinted windows that are directly influenced by the Gugliandolo family home are counterbalanced with modern touches, including a slick marble counter that wraps around the open kitchen.

The Florence, CBD

In 2012, Matteo Bruno opened The Meatball & Wine Bar on Flinders Lane. “I said to the landlord a long time ago, ‘if upstairs becomes available, let me know’,” he told us recently. In 2025, it finally did. Now, he’s reworked the former office space into Italian wine and cocktail bar The Florence.

The venue trades until 1am, with the kitchen running the full stretch – a late-night offering that’s becoming increasingly rare in the city. Food is designed to be eaten with a drink in hand. Expect slow-braised beef croquettes, spanner crab blini and a handheld take on vitello tonnato. The latter riffs on the Piedmontese classic, layering tonnato sauce, pickled capers, fried caperberries and thinly sliced Wagyu (in place of the typical veal) into bread from Ned’s. 

The cocktail list, developed by bar manager Cameron Rogers, who lived in Pistoia for just shy of a year, leans into Florence, too. There are five changing styles of Negroni (believed to have originated in Florence), including a piccolo version. Plus, a blood orange and vermouth-spiked Spicy Margarita and a Pepperoncini Martini, a Dirty Martini that uses pepperoncini brine in place of olive brine.

Nonna’s House, Fitzroy North 

Hamish Vaccari spent a large part of his childhood at a modest brown-brick home at 550 Nicholson Street in Fitzroy North – his nonna and nonno’s house. His nonno died when Vaccari was 16 and, in 2022, his nonna passed away at 98. Two weeks later, Vaccari honoured their legacy by converting their garage into an Italian sub shop – Nonna’s House – serving sandwiches using family sauce and meatball recipes.

The family sold the home, and Nonna’s House closed in late November 2024. Earlier this month, the restaurant reopened on Nicholson Street in Fitzroy North. 

The new 118-seat space still has an old-school charm reminiscent of Vaccari’s grandparents’ house. An exposed brick wall adorned with family photos and trinkets is an appropriate nod to the original venue, kitsch amber light covers hang from the ceiling, and there’s even a couple of mini chandeliers from Vaccari’s nonna’s living room. Out the back you’ll find a small courtyard with new picnic tables reminiscent of those in the original backyard.

The menu is similar to the original. Meatball subs, chicken parma, pesto mushroom rolls and bolognaise or carbonara sauce-topped fries all return. Vegan mozzarella is an addition that can make the eggplant parma roll completely vegan. There’s also a new chicken cacciatore sub and a sausage-and-peppers roll that Vaccari says will continue to improve as he tweaks the recipe.

Cambio Vita, Malvern

The building on the corner of Glenferrie and Wattletree roads in Malvern has long been an Italian restaurant. Assaggi opened in the space in 2009, Made in Casa took over in 2023 (before relocating to Toorak Village) and, last month, it became Cambio Vita. The new restaurant is from university student Shaan Danaro and her partner, chef Stefano Di Lella, who met while working together at DOC, Danaro front of house and Di Lella in the kitchen.

Here, the focus is on simple food and old-fashioned hospitality where everyone is made to feel welcome. Drop into the neighbourhood spot for pasta dishes made using Island Pasta including pappardelle with beef ragu, squid in linguine with tomato and prawns, and an unfussy spaghetti pomodoro. And woodfired pizzas with easy toppings; highlights include a red-based pie with ’nduja, silverbeet and prawns, and a white-based four mushroom and provola number. 

Additional reporting by Nick Connellan, Quincy Malesovas and Scott Renton.