The Best Italian Food in Australia

A wood-fired kitchen with a short menu and no apologies for either, Ester is a casual Italian-leaning restaurant in Chippendale where the off-duty chef crowd fills the room most nights. The fit-out is minimal and the mood deliberately unhurried, which gives the cooking space to make its point. Locally sourced ingredients carry most of the weight, and the team lets them.

Neil Perry's Italian restaurant in Double Bay is built around the aperitivo rhythm: Martinis and spritzes arrive first, then antipasti, housemade pasta, seafood, and steak. The beef program leans into rare Australian breeds, including grass-fed Chianina, cooked simply enough that the sourcing does the talking. Ranked 27th on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list, though the room reads more like a generous Italian trattoria than a temple to beef.

Moored at D'Albora Marinas with water views in every direction, this is a fine-dining Italian seafood restaurant where the cocktail and gelato bar sits centre stage like it owns the room. The menu skips meat entirely, leaning into sustainable seafood prepared with enough technique to keep things interesting without taking itself too seriously. A Three Chef Hat winner from the Australian Good Food Guide, it draws a crowd that dresses up slightly but still orders dessert without guilt.

A 28-seat fine dining room on Given Terrace where the chef's Sardinian roots quietly run the kitchen, pulling contemporary Italian cooking away from white-tablecloth formality toward something warmer. Arancini shaped like mushrooms give you a sense of the playfulness on the plate. The footpath spills over into aperitivo territory when the weather cooperates. A two-hat entry in the Australian Good Food Guide for a room this small is a lot of weight for one terrace house to carry.

A boutique family-run Italian restaurant tucked among the eucalypts of the NSW South Coast, well away from anything you'd call a dining district. The chef's roots are in Piedmont, but his cooking has picked up detours through Singapore and the local coastal produce along the way. Three courses, a thoughtful wine list leaning organic and biodynamic, and a setting that earns its two Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hats without anyone needing to remind you.

White tablecloths, chandelier lighting, and walls hung with artwork set the tone at this Italian restaurant in North Sydney, where the menu leans on tradition without pretending the last few decades of cooking didn't happen. The room is housed in a heritage building that gives it the kind of bones a fit-out budget alone can't buy. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat.

Marble counters meet raw hardwood on the fifth floor of a North Sydney hotel, setting the scene for a wine bar and all-day Italian restaurant that leans into Italo-Australian cooking: pasta with native Davidson plum, burrata alongside local persimmon. The room is polished without being stiff, and the menu moves comfortably from a working breakfast through to sharing plates over a bottle in the evening.

Red velvet booths, blue velvet seating, and a Champagne garden facing the Esplanade, all under one roof at this Italian restaurant inside the Pacific Beach Resort in Mooloolaba. The kitchen leans into Sunshine Coast produce and seafood from the nearby port, turning them into the kind of composed, plated dishes that earned a One Chef Hat from the Australian Good Food Guide. Dress a little, linger over pasta, and let someone else worry about the drive home.

The art on the walls at Di Stasio Città isn't decoration; it's the whole argument. This upscale Italian restaurant in the CBD is a personal project from the Di Stasio family, who have been a fixture in Melbourne's dining scene for decades, filtering Venetian cooking through something distinctly Australian. The room has a museum quality that makes you sit up straighter, and the food meets it there.

An Italian restaurant set inside a converted house on the edge of Sydney's Hills District, with bushland visible from the dining room and a sommelier who takes the wine list seriously. The kitchen turns out modern Italian cooking that keeps one foot in tradition, and the room is warm enough that a long dinner here feels like a reasonable way to spend an evening. The Australian Good Food Guide awarded it a Chef Hat.

Avido, which translates as "greedy," is the name of the set menu here, and it sets the tone neatly. This contemporary Italian restaurant sits in the Hunter Valley wine country, pairing seasonal, producer-led cooking with a wine list that moves between Italian varietals and local Hunter bottles without making a fuss about either. The room runs on the sharing-and-lingering logic of Italian hospitality, which, in a wine region, is a perfectly reasonable excuse to stay longer.

Velvet booths, wine racks floor to ceiling, and exposed concrete that somehow pulls it all together: Figo is an Italian restaurant and cocktail bar in Rushcutters Bay doing the kind of old-school Roman trattoria thing Sydney never tires of. Pappardelle with osso buco ragu is the move, and the tiramisu arrives exactly as it should. A One Chef Hat from the Australian Good Food Guide keeps the regulars feeling quietly smug about their standing reservation.

The pasta here is made in-house, and the room takes itself seriously enough that you probably won't show up in thongs. Firma is a polished Italian restaurant inside Emporium Hotels on Grey Street, the kind of place built for a long lunch that quietly becomes dinner. The cooking runs from antipasti through to mains, with the precision you'd expect from a kitchen that holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat.

The corner spot in Redfern that Brooklyn keeps trying to be, Fontana is a good-times Italian diner from a trio who cut their teeth at Don Peppino's before landing here. The room runs warm and loose, the kind of place where the pasta arrives without much ceremony and nobody seems to be in a hurry to leave. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Hat, which the neighbourhood treats as a fun fact rather than a dress code.

The glass cube perched above Bondi's famous sea pool could probably serve airline food and still fill every table. It doesn't: the kitchen runs a modern Italian menu where urchin bruschetta and hand-cut pasta with clams earn their place alongside the Pacific view. Turquoise and white inside, ocean in every window, the room is almost aggressively beautiful. A One Chef Hat restaurant with genuinely good reasons to look away from the water.

White linen and polished service set the tone at this long-running Venetian Italian in the heart of the city, where the cooking stays close to the lagoon, pasta and all. The menu leans into the kind of regional specificity that doesn't need to announce itself, and the room runs with quiet assurance. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat.

Sunset views over the Noosa River set the scene at this Italian seafood restaurant in Tewantin, where white-clothed tables and cane pendants signal that the coastal-lifestyle aesthetic has been taken seriously. The Galletto family has been feeding people here for generations, drawing from Northern Italian tradition and leaning hard into local catches. The Australian Good Food Guide awarded it a Chef Hat. Order something from the water and watch the light change.

The wood-fired pizza oven sits open to the dining room, which sets the mood before anyone has looked at a menu. Molto is a lakeside Italian restaurant on the Kingston foreshore, with high ceilings and water views that make every table feel a bit more generous. The kitchen runs from handmade pasta to fresh seafood, traditional enough to feel grounded, modern enough to keep things interesting. It holds a One Chef Hat from the Australian Good Food Guide.

Dry-aged beef finished on a Josper grill is the thing to know before you sit down at this waterfront Italian restaurant on Marlin Parade. Hand-stretched pizzas and house-made pastas round things out, with local seafood woven in because this is Cairns and it would be rude not to. The views over the water do a lot of heavy lifting for the room, and the Australian Good Food Guide has given it a Chef Hat.

A neighbourhood Italian osteria a short walk from Coogee Beach, where house-made pasta and focaccia share the menu with fire-grilled octopus and the kind of seasonal specials that give regulars an excuse to come back. The room leans into trailing ferns and cane pendants, which sounds like a lot but somehow settles into somewhere easy to stay for a long lunch. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat.

A laneway Italian tucked into Exchange Place, Pinco Italo runs on the philosophy that dinner should take a while. The menu moves between comforting classics and sharper contemporary plates, all built for sharing, and the drinks list is put together with care. It's warm and unpretentious in the way that's harder to pull off than it looks, and the Australian Good Food Guide has given it a Chef Hat to prove the kitchen is keeping pace.

The focaccia and pizza dough ferments for at least 48 days before it ever sees an oven, which tells you most of what you need to know about this Coorparoo trattoria. Pasta is hand-shaped daily with local organic eggs, each shape matched to its sauce with the seriousness of a structural engineer. The room runs on the kind of unhurried Italian hospitality that makes you feel like you were expected.

Art deco prints on the walls, Nina Simone on the speakers, and fresh pasta rolled every morning: Restaurant Santino is a laneway Italian bistro in central Wollongong that holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat. The rotating pasta menu means regulars have an excuse to keep coming back, and the Amaro list and cellar wine selection suggest the kitchen isn't the only thing taken seriously here.

A wood-fired oven anchors this cozy Neapolitan pizzeria tucked into a quiet residential pocket well clear of Melbourne's centre, where the streets are low and leafy and the pace is considerably calmer. The pasta pulls as much weight as the pizza here, a combination rare enough that 50 Top Pizza handed it a Best Pasta Proposal award, alongside a ranking of 28th in the world. The kitchen imports Italian ingredients seriously and handles dietary needs without making a fuss about it.

The name is a timer: dough ferments for 48 hours before it ever sees a flame, which gives the crust at this Neapolitan-style pizzeria in South Yarra its particular lightness. Exposed red brick, an informal room, and a menu that splits into classic, gourmet, and seasonal pies, including one topped with kangaroo salami and macadamia pesto via a collaboration with Aboriginal producers. Homemade gnocchi round things out. It ranked 93rd on 50 Top Pizza World.

Roman-style pizza by the slice in a small, pretty room on one of Surry Hills' better streets, with a courtyard that fills up when the weather cooperates. The dough gets a long ferment, which gives it the structure to carry serious toppings drawn from Italian regional traditions without going soggy. Appetizers, salads, a pasta or two, and desserts round things out. The cocktail list gets more attention than you'd expect from a slice shop.

A wood-fired Neapolitan pizza shop in Cronulla, right where the Sydney suburbs give way to beach town. The family runs the floor with the kind of unhurried attention you can't hire in, and the dough, soft and properly charred from the oven, does the heavy lifting. Red pies and white pies share the menu alongside salads and a tiramisu that no one is skipping. It ranked 25th on the 50 Top Pizza Asia-Pacific list, which checks out.

A Neapolitan pizza spot on Little Bourke where the dough is properly leavened and the menu splits cleanly between red and white pies. The room is simple and the staff move fast, which suits the lunch crowd around here. Pasta and cannoli fill out the menu for anyone who needs convincing that pizza is enough. It ranked on the 50 Top Pizza Asia-Pacific list, for what that's worth to the skeptics at the table.

The wood-fired oven greets you at the door, which sets the tone for this Italian restaurant in Moonee Ponds where the menu runs from pizza through pasta to proper secondi. The kitchen leans on imported Italian staples and takes the full spread seriously, pizza and antipasti alongside handmade pasta. It ranked 29th on the 50 Top Pizza Asia-Pacific list. A children's menu and genuine attention to dietary needs make it one of the more relaxed neighbourhood options around.

Buffalo mozzarella flown in from Battipaglia sits on the menu at this casual pizzeria off the Princess Highway in Tempe, a detail that tells you exactly how seriously the team takes sourcing. The dough skips the classic Neapolitan puff in favor of something from the Cilento coast, a little crisper and more compact. Fresh pasta and a short cheese selection round things out, and the room runs warm in the way that makes you linger longer than planned.

A sourdough pizza shop in a coastal Perth suburb, where the dough follows Neapolitan tradition using flour shipped from Italy and gets a long, slow fermentation that shows in the chew. The menu stretches beyond pizza to appetizers, pasta, and salads, and the dessert and coffee selection is taken seriously. Ranked on the 50 Top Pizza Asia-Pacific list, it draws a lively crowd that seems genuinely at ease with the staff.

Marble counters, brass fittings, and a wood-fired grill visible from the dining room set the tone on Flinders Lane. This is an Italian-leaning steakhouse where Australian beef, aged both wet and dry, meets open fire with a lot of restraint and very little fuss. The room manages glamorous without stiff, and the service follows the same instinct. It landed on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list, which tells you the kitchen is serious about the meat programme.