Why this Glen Iris Italian spot is the ultimate destination for a ‘proper night out’

Press PLAY for Emilia’s full review 

Grazia

159 Burke Road

Glen Iris, Melbourne

Grazia in Glen Iris has that very Melbourne habit of making you work a little for your dinner before rewarding you for the effort. Three levels, whitewashed walls, and a dining room full of people who are clearly here for a proper night out rather than a quick bite and an early Uber home.

The restaurant is named after the owner’s mum, which is a lovely touch and a very Italian touch, and there are little nods to Joe throughout the menu too, which gives the whole thing a strong family feel without getting too sentimental about it.

There’s a bit of theatre, a bit of polish, and just enough of that inner east energy to make you sit up a bit straighter and expect your napkin to be laid in your lap.

What’s interesting about the little stretch around Grazia is that the whole strip has turned into a kind of dine-around trilogy.

Next door is Grazia D’Asporto, the same owners’ more casual offshoot, doing sandwiches by day and pizza by night, which is very Melbourne if you think about it, because we never met a good idea we couldn’t spin into three separate revenue streams.

On the other side is Bar Sophia, the newer Mediterranean place opened by the Marameo team, and we ducked in there first because we were early and had to wait for our 8pm table at Grazia to be ready properly.

That ended up being a nice bit of bonus hospitality, helped along by an owner who was genuinely fascinating and happily talked us through Greek retsina like he was hosting a very stylish anthropology tutorial.

I won’t spend too long on Bar Sophia here because I do want to go back, eat properly, and give it the full treatment another time, but it already feels like one of those places that’s going to become part of the local dining gossip.

The drinks at Grazia got things moving in the right direction. I had Joe’s Punch, which sounds like it should come with a warning label but turns out to be vodka, Amaro Montenegro, passion fruit, lemon juice and Prosecco, so really it’s more “dangerously easy to drink” than “punch”.

It had that bright, slightly bitter, fizzy thing going on that works beautifully before a meal where you know there’ll be pasta, pork and probably a little bit of self-control quietly leaving the building. It set the tone nicely, which is to say, this was not going to be a dinner for people pretending they’ve just had a light lunch.

From there, the food leaned into Italian classics with the confidence of a kitchen that knows exactly what it’s doing and doesn’t need to shout about it. The scampi alla griglia was a strong start, all clean, grilled seafood elegance, which is a nice way of saying it tasted far more refined than the sort of thing you usually get when you order “just a little starter”.

The gattò di patate was one of the more interesting dishes on the table, a potato cake with creamy salted fish roe and salmon caviar, which sounds a bit posh but comes from a very old-school southern Italian tradition of using humble ingredients and turning them into something comforting and sturdy enough to survive a long family lunch.

Then came the fiori di zucca, tempura zucchini flower with lemon-scented ricotta and fig and grape dressing, which is basically Italy meeting a bit of seasonal Melbourne produce and having a very civilised chat.

The calamari fritti alla Joe was exactly the kind of thing you want from a house special. Lightly fried calamari tossed in a spicy sauce, so crisp enough to keep you interested and messy enough to remind you that this is dinner, not a tasting note competition.

The pappardelle con aragosta e gamberoni was the big crowd-pleaser of the night, and rightly so. Wide ribbons of pasta with lobster, king prawns, cherry tomatoes and lobster bisque is the sort of dish that doesn’t ask for much analysis because the whole point is pleasure, and it delivered that in full.

It had that proper “I have made a booking and I intend to use it” energy.

The porchetta, meanwhile, brought the kind of crispy, fatty, salty satisfaction that makes you understand why roast pork has survived centuries of regional pride and family arguments.

With parsnip purée, verjuice, saltbush and pork glaze, it was rich but balanced, which is a very handy trick when you’re trying to keep a room full of hungry adults from becoming emotionally attached to the bread.

The verdure saltate was the sensible friend at the table, which every dinner needs. Broccoli, asparagus and toasted almonds is not the dish that gets the loudest applause, but it keeps the whole meal from wandering off into full-on indulgence territory.

By the time everything landed, the room had that warm, celebratory buzz that only really works when a restaurant is doing exactly what it set out to do. People were waiting, toasting, catching up, celebrating, and occasionally looking over at the stairs with the expression of someone who has agreed to “just one more” and now knows they’re in for a bit of a descent later.

The verdure saltate was the sensible friend at the table, which every dinner needs. Broccoli, asparagus and toasted almonds is not the dish that gets the loudest applause, but it keeps the whole meal from wandering off into full-on indulgence territory.

By the time everything landed, the room had that warm, celebratory buzz that only really works when a restaurant is doing exactly what it set out to do. People were waiting, toasting, catching up, celebrating, and occasionally looking over at the stairs with the expression of someone who has agreed to “just one more” and now knows they’re in for a bit of a descent later.

Overall, Grazia is not pretending to be your cheap midweek fallback, and thank goodness for that. It is a bit more expensive, but it’s built for the kind of night where you want to eat well, stay a while and maybe make a story out of it.

There’s personality in the room, personality on the menu and enough warmth in the way it all comes together to make the price feel justified. In a city full of restaurants trying to be everything to everyone, Grazia knows exactly what it is.

It’s a place for birthdays, anniversaries, catch-ups that run long, and dinners where nobody minds waiting for the 8pm table because everyone knows the night is just getting started.

Images: Supplied