South Yarra Trattoria

South Yarra Trattoria represents good honest, Italian-Australian food like few others in Melbourne. This kind of old-school and down to earth restaurant is long vanishing from the streets, so head to South Yarra’s Toorak Road near the corner of Tivoli Road (there’s a tram stop right nearby) and do what the locals do: book themselves in for a rustic and satisfying lunch or dinner of hearty Italian classics.

South Yarra Trattoria is about as plainspoken as it gets when it comes to Italian restaurants in Melbourne – and that’s what we like. The service is friendly, the food is generously apportioned, delicious and affordable, and you’re likely to find a good number of the older Italian-Australian generation local to South Yarra and Toorak Road nursing a glass of good vino with friends over a long and languorous lunch – this kind of patronage is always a good sign when it comes to an Italian restaurant. It’s BYO, too!

South Yarra Trattoria’s menu is classically-structured, as you might expect from one of the few traditional hold-outs in Melbourne’s inflated and rapidly gentrifying Italian restaurant scene. Start simple with the pate de chef, the artichokes in vinaigrette or the soup of the day. You can also get yourself a half or full dozen oysters Mornay, Kilpatrick, natural or with the house sauce – perfect for sitting outside on the verandah with a glass of Italian white wine on a sunny day. Pasta, gnocchi and risotto are up next, with classic Italian beef, poultry, veal and seafood dishes to follow. Don’t leave without a shot of coffee and a sweet – and don’t forget that South Yarra Trattoria has a good kids’ menu that avoids the usual condescension.