Itahlia restaurant — Restaurant in Melbourne

4 stars “for Sunbury”. One of the best options in a sea of mediocrity. Would be 3 or 2 (but most likely out of business) if elsewhere. Nothing here I’ve seen is actually authentically Italian. It’s 80s/90s Australianised “Italian”.

Eg Carbonara should be eggs (we can argue over yolks only, a mix or not), pecorino, guanciale and black pepper. Here it’s presumably eggs, but mostly cream, bacon (undercooked let alone not crispy), onion and garlic on overcooked pasta and if black pepper was present, it certainly wasn’t resembling coal dust. Basically bearing no resemblance.

Pizzas are fine, but “woodfired” 90s style. And even then, not even close to as good as Di Palma’s in Kew was back then and that wasn’t that good. Not remotely in the same league as your average pizzeria/trattoria anywhere in Italy, let alone Melbourne stalwarts like D.O.C. The fact they separate out a “gourmet” pizza menu shouls tell you everything you need to know. On a positive, it is far better than those shitty takeaway pizza places that still serve an Aussie with egg on seed-oil laden inflammatory poison in cardboard boxes out of a commercial oven that has been in place since 1983, of which there is fair local competition.

Have had better lasagne (by far) from Aston Lucas Gourmet at the local Foodworks.

Wine List is very poor (all $15 bottles by the glass).

Service was terrible - ignored at first, no water offered or delivered even after prompting, 2nd glass of wine didn’t come without prompting for 20 minutes (and was apparently sitting on the counter), nobody came to take the order or advised a QR code (which I diacovered hanging off the side). No pepper on the table.

This place is designed for some combination of: people who don’t want to travel elsewhere (given Sunbury is surrounded by nothing) people with no tastebuds or who like the older style average faux Italian places they grew up with people who’ve never been to Italy or a proper Italian restaurant people who just want it to be 20% cheaper, even if it means all the quality evaporates

If that’s you, great. If you’re desperate for a feed, just lower your expectations and...

this was our family favourite for a long time. I would honestly go as far as to say we were there weekly. The staff are fantastic, always have been, but unfortunately I think things have changed since the new owners have taken over. We have given it a few tries to be fair but the pizza bases are paper thin compare to what they used to be and the portion sizes in pastas are a lot smaller. my husband got the tortellini meatball, and there was absolutely no flavour to the tomato sauce. I also think it’s good to note to the new owners that the change in asking for tips on the eftpos and the surcharges on public holidays (although i understand it) may not go down well with long term locals.

best of luck anyways.

Edit - we have been back since and had the same great experience . Pizzas were better , i do think i noticed a new gentlemen making the pizzas and pasta portions were sufficient . we had the carbonara and the chicken mushroom tortellini - both full of flavour.

I did already mention to the owner ( assuming it was the owner ) that our family seen a difference however it seems things have been restored and it’s the same family friendly , flavoursome restaurant it once was...

When going to a restaurant you would expect to have an enjoyable time and have a great experience with the food. In my situation this restaurant did not live up to the expectations as this restaurant customer service was poorly executed and the food was highly unpleasant. The meals were unpleasant as the lamb tasted old and the chicken and avocado pasta left a lingering discomfort mouthfeel. As a customer I would not want to get treated disrespectfully when going to pay for my unpleasant meal, just because the staff messed up the way the orders were meant to come out to the table, e.g. my MAIN came out before my entree, I dont think it's a smart idea to criticise the customer when the staff are clearly at fault and are too entitled to apologize, on the way out we did not recive a "sorry " or a "goodbye".

Reply: from the restaurants we have been to entrees always come out first before the mains regardless, and the staff at the end was not polite in any way and just gave us attitude as if it was our fault which it was not, also thankyou for the apology though it has been 2 weeks...