Nina

Here’s how a meal at Nina goes. You’re going to order a bunch of small plates, like steak tartare, housemade ricotta, braised chard and white anchovies. You’re going to eat the various contents, then spend roughly the same amount of time mopping up the glorious liquids with chunks of bronzed focaccia and making bass face.

The focaccia was a must-order when Steve Harry was head chef at Napier Quarter. Then he took it to Suze, the Fitzroy North wine bar he founded with front-of-house gun Giulia Giorgetti. Now it’s at this informal pasta restaurant the duo opened together in the second half of 2026.

With all this focaccia and small plate action, it’s easy to forget Nina is a pasta restaurant with an extruder out the back. On a given day the kitchen could be making the long ruffled ribbons known as mafaldine to pair with and seasonal veggies; casarecce for a white beef ragu; and maccheroni for a simple sugo. Filled pastas are also a possibility here.

Parents will have spied the distinctly kid-friendly options here – a key way the weeknight-coded Nina differs from Suze. Still, this is absolutely a place where you can have a grown-up drink or proper night out, courtesy of tap beers, classic cocktails and a single page listing cava, champagne and lambrusco alongside Clare Valley riesling, Yarra Valley pinot noir, Burgundy chardonnay and Piedmont nebbiolo.