When did pasta get so chic? Osteria Renata’s glam clientele,lounging on olive-leather benches with limoncello and blood-orange spritzes,don’t seem like the carb-loading types.

Perhaps the radiatori alla vodka is the draw,its intense tomato sauce clinging to corkscrew-like crevices of squiggly semolina. The on-site “pasta lab”,also known as the kitchen,is responsible for such lesser-known shapes,but there’s also plump tortelli stuffed with goat’s curd and pumpkin,rounded out with burnt butter and powdered sage.

Fresh mint provides a welcome reprieve to triangular pasta pillows filled with braised lamb shoulder,paired with parsnip cream and roasted ricotta. Lighter is gnocco fritto smothered in pecorino and black pepper,and oysters with amaro mignonette. A smart wine list nods to drops both trending and tried-and-tested,with a rotating list of well-priced Italian varietals on tap.

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Melbourne’s Southern Suburbs

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