Becco: Italian, Aussie rules
A year is a lifetime in the restaurant world, where diners’ attention spans are as short as an Italian espresso and loyalties switch as often a seasonal menu. But after nearly a decade, Becco continues to draw the Melbourne crowds with its unchanging formula of simply fabulous food and faultless service all wrapped up in a sleek, inner-city package. The contemporary Italian menu runs the gamut from stuffed olives and antipasti, to a trad gnocchi and the somewhat left-of-centre Wagyu Scottish beef filet. But take it from the restaurant’s hordes of regulars - the city’s well-dressed movers and shakers - and dine out on tender chilli flour dusted calamari and unforgettably tasty crumbed veal cutlet.