Molto

Molto is as close as you’ll get to Venice in the nation’s capital. The trattoria overlooks the idyllic Kingston foreshore. It’s the right spot for an Italian restaurant that celebrates both new and traditional techniques and flavours.

The pasta list is short but packs a punch. It might include layered squid ink linguine, or tortellini in a silky sage-butter sauce. But the most iconic (and theatrical) dish is the spaghetti cacio e pepe, which is served tableside into your bowl from a cavernous hollowed-out pecorino wheel.

Neapolitan-style woodfired pizzas are another draw. They’re made with fior di latte and buffalo mozzarella imported from Italy, and the crusts are voluptuous and blackened in all the right places. Go for the classic margherita or diavola.

Dessert-wise, expect timeless favourites like tiramisu or a simple trio of house-made gelato.

Negronis and Aperol Spritzes come thick and fast from the bar. Italian wines are on offer too, including a chardonnay and a refosco (a dark-skinned grape variety native to the Venetian region) made in partnership with a winery in Friuli, where owner Carlo Tosolini originally hails from.

The interior is sleek and dark, with bentwood chairs, tightly packed wooden tables and a long marble counter. The white-tiled open kitchen, complete with a large woodfire oven, clatters and hisses just beyond the dining space. Waitstaff slice salumi fresh on the countertop, near a neon sign that declares: “In heavenly pizza we crust”.