Italian food is one of the Gold Coast’s favourite cuisines. Whether it be a bowl of pasta tossed with seafood, a pizza straight from the oven or a gelato on a hot summer’s day, we love the camaraderie and comfort that comes with Mediterranean style.
Italian food on the Gold Coast is intertwined with the history of Italian families who migrated to Australia for better opportunities. Some came after the war, while others emigrated in the 1970s or following the Naples earthquake of 1980.
Some opened restaurants and brought us comfort food – Italian style adapted to the Aussie palate.
But there’s a new wave of Italian food hitting our shores, some traditional with the best ingredients prepared simply and well, others putting a modern twist on classic dishes to make them their own.
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More Gold Coast takes a look at restaurants that give us a fresh take on Italian food:
Balboa
1069 Gold Coast Highway Ph: 07 5659 2282
Balboa, the latest venture of Avvia owners Ehud (Eddie) and Cherie Uzan, is a classy venue, oozing Italian sophistication.
its vaulted ceiling studded with exposed beams and a chandelier, a stairway takes us to the mezzanine level overlooking the huge bar. This is ‘rustic Italian’, transporting us away to another time and place.
Wood-fired pizza is made to order in the Napoli-sourced oven and pasta is handmade daily. You can choose antipasti to start, such as Fiori di zucca ripieni (Zucchini flowers with ricotta, anchovies and eggplant), roast octopus, or Affettati Misti (Italian and Australian salami hanging on a stand, accompanied by burrata, olives, pickled vegetables and caponata).
Then you can move on to pizza, primi (pasta), gnocchi, risotto or secondi (mains) with sides. The dishes are simple Italian classics, well done and packed with flavour. From pizza bianchi with caramelized onions, slivered potato, fior di latte, pancetta and truffle oil, to luscious Linguini de gamberi (pasta with prawns), and the rich Chestnut gnocchi served with black truffle, sage and Grana Padano, plates are divine.
Beef carpaccio, roasted baby beetroot, balsamic, horseradish, fried capers and parmesan from Rivea
Pizza from Gemelli
Spaghetti marinara from Fellini Ristorante and Bar
Baritalia
Chevron Renaissance Shopping Centre, Surfers Paradise Ph: 07 5592 4700
Baritalia lies in prime tourist territory opposite the Clock Tower in Surfers Paradise, but it’s a restaurant that locals should not ignore.
When Melburnians Simon Vella and Stacey Cameron took over Baritalia in 2010, they slowly began to transform Baritalia into their vision.
It’s an all-encompassing journey through rustic regional Italian cuisine: antipasti, house-made bread, local king prawns with roast chilli and garlic, porchetta, pasta tossed through with chunks of fresh seafood, pizza with prosciutto and fresh buffalo mozzarella, mainly made in house.
With the kitchen staff originating from all around Italy, the chefs take turns choosing their own regional dishes to try as specials, putting their own spin on each dish to make it their own.
Spaghetti with seafood at Rivea, Pacific Fair
Buca Di Bacco
24-26 Queensland Ave, Broadbeach Ph: 07 5592 3636
Dining in ‘The Cave of Bacchus’ sounds perfectly decadent. Named after the legendary place where the demigod Bacchus ascended to divinity thanks to his invention of wine, it’s fair to expect good food and wine, and that’s just what we get.
“We serve comfort food, the way it’s made at home,” owner Heba Hilali tells us.
Hilali and chef Christopher Norris (ex-Elston, Rocks on Broadbeach and PointBreak Bar & Grill), have devised a menu that not only covers Italian staples, but also delves into far lesser known Italian street food suitable to share. Many sound simple enough, but they’re beautifully presented with boutique sauces and oils, dehydrations and soils to add flavour and intrigue.
Crumbed Barossa Valley camembert is plated up with a ‘dragon skin’ tapioca dehydration, beetroot reduction, pressed quince and green basil oil, while grilled jumbo tiger prawns sit amidst a garden of Italian crudités, green pea paper and chilli aioli.
If that doesn’t take your fancy, why not try the truffled beef carpaccio which comes with basil emulsion, shaved king oyster mushrooms, enoki, basil oil balsamic pearls, red garnet microherbs and pomegranate seeds.
Italian mozzarella cheese with a soft creamy heart served on toasted bread with a salad of heirloom tomatoes and extra virgin olive oil
Fresh figs wrapped in prosciutto oven baked in a light gorgonzola infused cream reduction
Porchetta from Delizioso
Cicchetti
Capri on Via Roma, Isle of Capri Ph: 07 5526 8868
Impeccably stylish and welcoming, Cicchetti is one of the city’s most elegant casual dining restaurants.
Diners are seated at handmade Australian blackbutt timber tables looking across to the expansive open kitchen. Overhead, 100 rose gold spheres suspend from the ceiling creating a warm and inviting atmosphere, while over the marble-fronted bar hangs a magnificent custom-made Australian chandelier.
Cicchetti’s menu is full of familiar dishes: homemade pasta, authentic pizza, starters and mains which tempt the tastebuds.
Recently Cicchetti scored a major win for Best Pizza Restaurant in Queensland at The Savour Australia Hostplus Awards for Excellence 2016, adding to their one glass status in The Gourmet Traveller Wine Awards 2016.
“We knew our pizzas were good because our customers are always telling us they are, and we couldn’t ask for anything better than being recognised as the Best Pizza Restaurant in Queensland,” co-owner Marco De Vincentiis says. “With so many styles of pizza available on the market, we pride ourselves on serving authentic Italian style pizzas.”
Read our full restaurant review here
Linguini Allo Scoglio at Delizioso
Cucina Vivo
Jupiters Casino, Broadbeach Island, Broadbeach Ph: 07 5592 8100
Fresh and bright, there’s a distinct seaside feel to the spacious Cucina Vico venue – a breath of fresh air with a flood of natural light.
Seating 250 people, the restaurant boasts a huge pizza oven which forms the centrepiece of the décor and plays the role of the restaurant’s fiery, beating heart. It’s the tool which cooks not only the pizzas but also the seafood and meat for the restaurant’s dishes, leaving in its wake the lingering textured flavours of wood smoke.
The menu is comprised of rustic dishes to share – hands in, chins dripping – deliciously similar to the way they’ve been cooked for generations.
The menu features Antipasti del Salumiere beautifully arranged on a wood platter; black mussels (Cozze al Forno) spiced up with minced pork sausage, garlic, tomato and white wine; and
Tagliolini Marinara, with ribbons of pasta dotted with seafood still smoky from the pizza oven – modern takes on Italian classics.
Pizza from Delizioso
Pizza making at Cucina Vivo
Pizza from Cicchetti
Delizioso
The Strand Shopping Centre, 72 – 80 Marine Parade, Coolangatta Ph: 07 5536 9855
Delicious by name, delicious to the palate, Delizioso opened in The Strand in early 2016, bringing modern Italian dining to Coolangatta. Snapping up an upstairs possie overlooking the beach, owner and multi-award winning head chef Brad Nascone says it’s a view that won him over at first glance.
Developing the venue with General Manager and Sommelier Nick Dempster, Brad has followed the same feel as their Bulimba restaurant, opened in 2011: heritage and warmth achieved through an intimate space, vintage posters and photographs on brick feature walls, lowered wood ceilings, highlights lit by chandeliers, comfortable seating, and tableware chosen to complement each dish.
His signature dishes also cross over both restaurants: pizza (from a stone hearth Beech oven), pasta, and contemporary mains such as Porchetta with truffled mash, apple purée, rich gorgonzola cream and jus (Brad’s dish featured in the book ‘Flavours of Queensland’).
Many dishes can be ordered gluten or dairy free, including gluten-free pasta. It’s these traditional dishes with a contemporary twist that have seen Brad featured in Gourmet Traveller and on The Today Show.
Tiramisu at Buco di Bacca
Double Zero
2/2715 Gold Coast Highway, Broadbeach Ph: 07 5526 8635
Double Zero has the feel of a semi-industrial working kitchen, with the white-tiled dome of the Stefano Ferrara M 130 oven overseeing the restaurant like a Madonna. Fired only by wood, the Ferrara reaches 400 degree heat – an essential element in the making of a true Napoletana pizza.
“Making pizza is a science,” co-owner Matthew tells us. “And we’re trying to craft our pizzas as they would be made in Naples; in a modern way based on Napoletana techniques.
“It’s all about the quality of ingredients and the attention to detail. Our Costantini tomatoes are already twice-cooked. We only use accredited ‘00’ flour, and our pizzaioli has been making pizzas for many years. In fact, everyone who works in the kitchen is Italian.”
In 2015 Double Zero gained the status of being the first accredited Vera Pizza Napoletana Association (V.P.N.) pizzeria in Queensland.
Read our full restaurant review here
Mamma Elena butterflied sardines
Deep fried ravioli from Baritalia
Pizza Bianche from Balboa
Gemellini
2247 Gold Coast Highway, Mermaid Beach Ph: 07 5575 1418
Nobby’s ‘Little Twin’ is a more relaxed and intimate venue than its older more worldly Broadbeach sibling Gemelli.
A deep narrow space, the restaurant stretches in past the bar and high-seat dining to more comfortable tables, all eyes drawn to the kitchen, the huge pizza oven vying for focal point with an overhead charcuterie cabinet holding legs of prosciutto hanging languidly from its ceiling.
Divided into Antipasti, Pizze, Pasta and Dulce, the one-page menu carries no grand surprises. Then again, it doesn’t set out to do that. It’s essentially a pizzeria, pimped up with the Italian regional favourites we’ve come to love, cooked from nonna’s recipes.
Here we see the place heritage holds in the heart of the founders: arrosticini from Abruzzo, polenta topped with eight-hour-cooked beef cheek ragu; magnificent arancini filled with asparagus, pea and reggiano and fabulous pizza, pasta and bomboloni.
Read our full restaurant review here
Ristorante Fellini
Marina Mirage, 74 SeaWorld Dr, Main Beach Ph: 07 5531 0300
Fellini is the most critically acclaimed Italian restaurant on the Gold Coast.
Its most recent accolades include Queensland’s Best Italian Restaurant (Savour Australia Restaurant & Catering Hostplus Awards 2016), the official Ospitalita Italiana seal from Italy’s Chamber of Commerce for preserving truly authentic Italian cuisine, and the coveted certification of the Eccellezene Italiane.
The restaurant’s owners bring generations of traditional family cooking to the table, as well as professional efficiency and Mediterranean charm. A founding member of Marina Mirage twenty years ago, the restaurant looks out through the open windows to sweeping views across luxury yachts and the Broadwater beyond.
Pasta is freshly made in the family’s adjoining premises, Pastificio Fellini, where co-owner Raffaele prepares ravioli and tortellini with duck and crabmeat stuffing, spaghetti, fettuccini, or specialty squid ink conchiglie and saffron linguette.
Antipasto Della Casa (imported cured meats, grilled vegetables, imported cheeses & bread) from Gemelli
Bomboloni, balls of donut spilling over with a Nutella and mascarpone filling from Gemellini
Arancini Balls from Double Zero
Rivea Italian Dining
Pacific Fair, 2 – 32 Hooker Boulevard, Broadbeach Ph: 5570 1488
Shopping centres are our new lifestyle destination so it’s hardly surprising that the highly successful Ridgeway group should place its latest restaurant in ‘The Resort’ at Pacific Fair Shopping Centre.
Open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Rivea is a casual outdoor venue with more than a touch of class.
Executive Chef Mark Giles (ex-Peppers Soul Seaduction) gives us a modern take on traditional Italian dishes. While some dishes such as the veal and pork meatballs in Napoli sauce, and the spaghetti with seafood dressed in olive oil, chilli, parsley and lemon remain traditional, other dishes benefit from a modern twist, giving new interest without losing integrity. Beef carpaccio arrives topped with a garden of baby beets, fried capers and parmesan, and bruschetta is topped with a smash of peas laced with mint and grana parmesan.
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