Fancy

A mature and satisfying restaurant culture needs buzzy newies but it also needs restaurants like Matteo’s. For 20 years, Matteo’s has balanced consistency and innovation, striving for high standards ahead of saturation coverage. Proprietor Matteo Pignatelli grew up in the northern suburbs, making pizzas in his family’s takeaway shops; he’s a genial presence here and in Melbourne’s broader hospitality scene. He’s watched them come, he’s seen them go, and through it all, he’s welcomed diners into his glamorous restaurant, a sprawling and venerable villa that once housed the legendary Mietta’s.

I won’t ever know what it feels like to be Sophia Loren, but I reckon the closest I’ll get to it is here, at Rosetta, where the glamorous, plush surrounds and sensual food are so overwhelming that I had to retreat to the toilets to practice batting my eyelashes. Unfortunately, my optical antics prompted a kindly lady in the powder room to enquire if I’d poked myself with a mascara wand. Ah well, at least the waiters still regarded me as though I’d just flounced off a yacht in the Riviera, thirsty for prosecco and hungry for linguini or love.