Roma is Melbourne’s hot new Italian, with extra-large pastas and a shrine to antipasti

With 100 seats, morning to night service, and three dining spaces, there’s a lot going on at Roma, restaurateur Con Christopoulos’s newly opened homage to the city of Rome. And, hey, it’s hard to condense millennia of history into one venue. But beyond the ornate decor and the menu’s focus on organ meats, Roma is more defined by a commitment to traditional Italian service and simple cooking.

Co-owner Giovanni Patane (formerly of Supermaxi) records bookings by hand in a thick red book and keeps tables aside daily for walk-ins. “There’s no such thing as a sold-out venue,” he says.

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The menu draws from both key Roman recipes and London institution The River Cafe, known as much for its Italian fare as its respect for produce. That’s what attracted executive chef and co-owner Matt Wilkinson (ex-Pope Joan, Circa, Vue de Monde) to the role, despite never having run an Italian kitchen. He brings a produce-driven sensibility, while head chef Anthony Thalassinos (ex-Park Street Pasta, Grossi Florentino) handles the Italian foundations.

The venue, set beneath Collins Street’s glass towers, is split into three: the front terrace, concealed behind mid-century-style shutters; the main dining room with geometric ceiling detailing, wide leather seats (no wobbling on too-small chairs here) and wax candles; and a back terrace overlooking Russell Street. Furnishings are almost entirely vintage Italian, save for timber JBL speakers imported from Japan.

There are a few ways to use the venue. Mornings are all about the terrace, where Roma’s breakfast menu makes a convincing case for the return of brunch after years of overwrought cafe dishes. It eats like the best version of a hotel breakfast: fresh juice, good bread, and eggs cooked various ways without seed oils. Wilkinson, a Cobram Estate ambassador, has collaborated with the olive oil company on a custom oil used throughout the kitchen.

Rome comes to the fore at lunch and dinner. Dried pasta, extruded through gold dies for a porous texture that’s a sauce magnet, is imported from Italy and used in canonical dishes such as bucatini all’amatriciana, already a signature. Another pasta of chicken liver and mushroom (paccheri alla Baronessa) is inspired by a version Wilkinson ate at Trattoria al Moro in Rome. In the spirit of old-school Italian eateries, portions are generous.

There’s also a fresh ravioli made with nettles Wilkinson has been refining since his Circa days, tossed in caper and sun-dried tomato sauce.

Perhaps most interesting is the embrace of offal, central to Roman cooking but still uncommon in Melbourne dining rooms. Lamb brains, chicken giblets and pork liver meatballs nod to Testaccio, a working-class Roman neighbourhood where residents learned to make use of less desirable parts of the animal.

“Rome’s a romantic city,” Patane says. “But there was also great misery, and out of that was born beautiful food.”

In true Italian style, there’s a bit of theatre to any visit. Meat is displayed in a glass fridge, seafood is stored on ice in chrome drawers that face the dining room, and a marble antipasti table anchors the room, piled with items such as anchovies, mozzarella, fresh tomatoes and cured meats. Guests point while a waiter makes up their perfect plate.

“We’ve all gone to a restaurant where you start smashing the bread because you’re hungry,” says Wilkinson. “This table is designed so you’ve got food straight away.”

Dessert is simple: sliced fresh fruit, perhaps pear or persimmon; crostata baked by former Supermaxi chef Rita Macali, Patane’s wife; dessert wine from Lazio (the main wine region in focus) and gelato churned in a Carpigiani machine that lets in less air for a creamier texture – allegedly the only one of its kind in Victoria. Flavours range from pistachio to wild cherry, also served from the takeaway window alongside porchetta rolls and osso buco pies.

Open breakfast Monday to Saturday, lunch and dinner Tuesday to Saturday.

120 Collins Street, Melbourne, romamelbourne.com.au