Tipo 00
The kitchen cooks the ox tongue for 24 hours with garlic and bay, peels it, shaves it on the salumi slicer like ham, then threads it onto skewers and flashes it on the grill before it reaches the plate.
Why go
Andreas Papadakis spent years at Vue de Monde before opening this in 2014, and the pedigree lands as restraint. Michael Harden watched a one-page menu run sous-vide, smoking, dehydrating and freeze-drying without any of it announcing itself, and he read the intent correctly: Nonna's cooking is respected and acknowledged, a kind of touchstone
(Gourmet Traveller). They bake the focaccia at the start of each service and slice it to order on the marble pass. The pasta list has turned over completely since then, running now to squid-ink tagliolini, paccheri with celeriac and hazelnut, and pappardelle with wagyu. Two chef-owners in this city name it when asked where they eat, which is the part that matters most.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the squid-ink tagliolini. Pappardelle with wagyu if you want the long-cooked end of the kitchen. Focaccia with ricotta to start. Sit at the marble bar, which is where Elias Salomonsson says to sit.
- Avoid: a conversation you need to hear at full service, and Sunday, when it is shut.
What locals & experts say
- Andrew McConnell, chef-owner of Gimlet, Cutler & Co, Supernormal and Marion, on where he takes out-of-town visitors:
I like to take them to Tipo 00.
2 - Elias Salomonsson, executive chef at Circl, March 2026:
Tipo 00 hands down. I could eat pasta in every shape and form, and sitting at the bar there with a couple of glasses of wine and a bowl of perfect pasta is pure joy.
3 - Michael Harden, Gourmet Traveller, 2015, in the plus and minus box: plus,
A reliable formula made fresh
; minus,Serious noise levels when full.
1 - What is missing: no critic reachable on 1 August 2026 has reviewed it since 2015. The venue displays four accolades on its own site, including an Age Good Food Guide Best New Restaurant for 2016, and none of them was verified here.
Good to know
- Where: 361 Little Bourke St, in the CBD, with its sibling Osteria Ilaria at 367.
- Sites: one. The group also runs Osteria Ilaria, plus Grana Deli and Figlia on Lygon Street in Brunswick East, all under different names, so nothing in this entry is at risk of belonging to a sibling.
- Timing: Monday to Saturday, 11.30am to 9.30pm. Closed Sunday.
- Booking: recommended, taken online. The bar takes walk-ups and is the better seat for one.
- Sourcing: the kitchen states that all its seafood comes from Australian waters.
- Food safety: Safe Food Victoria's register of convictions, updated 21 July 2026, does not list this business or this address. Victoria publishes court convictions under s.53D of the Food Act, each held for twelve months, which is narrower than a UK hygiene rating.
Verdict
must-visit — Two working Melbourne chef-owners send people here, eighteen months apart, unprompted. Andrew McConnell, who runs Gimlet, Cutler & Co, Supernormal and Marion, says this is where he takes visitors from out of town. Elias Salomonsson of Circl picks it hands down and tells you exactly how to eat it, at the bar with a couple of glasses of wine. Nothing outranks that except Jeff's own eating, and it is rare to get two independent votes on one room. The cooking earns it. Andreas Papadakis came out of Vue de Monde and runs sous-vide, smoking, dehydrating and freeze-drying across a one-page menu without letting any of it show, which is how a 24-hour ox tongue ends up shaved thin on a slicer and grilled on a skewer. The focaccia is made at the start of each service and cut to order on the marble pass. It is approachable, walk-up-to-the-bar Italian at CBD prices rather than a ceremony, which is the register Jeff's standard rewards. Book, and expect it loud.