EAT > Trattoria Emilia (Melbourne)

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Hidden away in a laneway, off another laneway you find Trattoria Emilia a traditional Italian restaurant that makes you feel warm and alive the moment you enter. The restaurant is in Gills Alley, the location formerly home to another fine Melbourne restaurant Gills Diner. It is a wonderful space with high ceilings and white washed walls that are covered in art, there are clean pressed linen tablecloths and the right glassware served for each wine. The heritage is distinctly Italian with owners Francesco, Luca (chefs) and Matteo (front of house) making you feel like you have slipped into a trattoria in Bologna rather than in the centre of Melbourne.

The warmth of hospitality is infectious too, this is our second visit and both times we ended up in long conversations with guests at other tables, perhaps that is because a dinner at Trattoria Emilia feels like a dinner party with friends and new friends in the making.

The menu offers a range that moves from generous feel good favourites to some more innovative dishes but never straying away from simple principles of delicious food, easy to eat, easy to share. Small bites range from $9 for the marinated mixed olives (a generous serve) to $14 for the Wagu bresaola, stracciatella, shaved parmigiano and black Tasmanian truffle.

Entrees are $25 with delicious dishes like Vitello tonnato (poached veal, tuna mayo, veal jus, fried capers and sage) a personal favourite and here it is served as a beautiful warm rare beef. Other entrees include a classic Pomodori (heirloom tomato salad, with smoked buffalo mozzarella and basil), and Polpo (Octopus from Freemantle served with braised silverbeet, tomato, crispy kale and smoked chilli oil)

Pasta’s and Risotto’s are $39, the Pork & Beef Tagliatelle all Bolognese was a very generous serve and extremely moorish, Tortelloni, Ravioli and the Risotto (with smoked rice, saffron and braised beef cheeks) all looked delicious as we watched the dishes moving to tables and other diners around the room all enthusiastic about their meals.

Mains are $45 and there are smart variations on pork, lamb, chicken and fish each bringing smart flavours to traditional recipes, familiar and yet not, tasty and just a little adventurous. We shared lamb and fish which were both hearty and felt like an excellent home cooked meal.

Wine List

The drinks list has some excellent choices with a range of spirits, beers and ciders from Italy and Australian independent brewers. The wine list is very smart with a very good range of Italian varietals both from Italy and Australia, but if your palate runs more to other grape varietals you are well covered as well with a number of fine French wines available at a reasonable mark up.

Unfortunately on the day we attended a couple of the bottles we were hoping to order were out of stock (excellent choice for the list included the Rob Hall Harriet’s Vineyard $96 the last bottle sold just before us), our table ended up drinking the Domaine des Maladies Chablis 1er Cru Vau de Vey Chardonnay 2020 which was excellent, followed by Irrewarra Pinot Noir 2020 (made By Farr) and then the Revello, Barolo Classico DOCG 2019 a lovely finish.

We missed the deserts but guests on the next table assured us that the tiramisu was outstanding.

The menu at Trattoria Emilia changes regularly with the seasons as different ingredients come and go, on Friday and Saturday nights there is a choice of 3 courses for $80 or the 5 course degustation fro $95 (a great choice – we did this last time), à la carte options available other times.

Food here is not fussy, this is not a place for foams and gels, rather it is hearty comfort food, the place for fresh and delicious dishes with generous hospitality.

image credit – Gareth Sobey
image credit – Gareth Sobey
image credit – Gareth Sobey

Open | Tu-F (lunch and dinner) Sat (dinner only)
Licensed | Fully Licensed
BYO | No
Wine Markup | 2.2x
Food | 17/20
Wine List | 17/20
Atmosphere | 19/20
Service | 17/20