The Good Food guide to Melbourne’s top 10 hatted Italian restaurants

Whether it’s an inner-city power lunch powerhouse or a swish find on the city’s fringe, here are Melbourne’s molto bene Italian stallions.

From basement stayers to new players, these Italian restaurants serve up sophisticated snacks, perfect pasta and service that’s old-school in the best way. We’re talking establishments where white-jacketed waitstaff dish up hospitality with a capital H, others where the pace is furious but balls are never dropped. Whichever you choose, you’re guaranteed an experience that our critics have rated good enough to earn a Good Food Guide hat.

Editors’ note: This top 10 list is taken from the 2026 edition of The Age Good Food Guide, but honorable mentions must go to these restaurants awarded hats after its October release: Bar Carolina in South Yarra, now helmed by Karen Martini; Il Bacaro in the city, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary; and storied Bourke Street dining room Florentino, now under the stewardship of Rebecca Yazbek’s Edition Group.

It’s barely 5pm yet the padded barstools are full, a turntable spins vinyl and the warm woody room has a convivial hum. “It’s a very busy place,” laughs one of the charming young staff who keeps the place purring. Devotees of this Scopri sibling (another hatted Italian) love its well-executed classics – from skewered saltimbocca to tiramisu – paired with largely Italian wines. There’s an exemplary fritto misto of calamari, whiting and prawns; griddled sweet peppers from the owners’ farm with salty ribbons of lardo; and the signature spiral of pappardelle ripiene stuffed with field mushrooms.

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Owner Caterina Borsato rattles off daily specials at antique marble-topped tables at her basement power-lunch hub; today it might be goldband snapper crudo with a trifecta of citrus and a persimmon sauce. The menu displays an Italian awe for the seasons, but there’s always rabbit, perhaps on the bone in a light white-wine braise boosted by green olives. A meticulous list of 600 wines spans approachable to aspirational, with plenty by the glass and half-bottle, although no one’s counting how many glasses they’ve had. What is worth counting is the chefs’ hats (up from one to two), and its 30 years of weekdays-only trade.

In another CBD basement, Cecconi’s zhooshy room is contemporary, but the welcome and service are old-school in the best of ways. Your ricotta agnolotti might come dolloped with porcini foam and nettle puree, but the flavours are true. Linguine plays a much straighter bat with a nicely cooked