Though they’re spinning Molto Italian as a “modern seaside trattoria”, the bits of Lake Burley Griffin’s Kingston foreshore crammed with new apartment blocks aren’t quite the Lago di Garda, let alone the Amalfi Coast. Still, globalisation has served to narrow the culinary distance between our national capital and Rome, or even Darlinghurst. Canberrans are welcoming the novelty and brilliant simplicity of cacio e pepe – al dente spaghetti turned at the table through pecorino and sprinkled generously with black pepper. Elsewhere on the menu, less is more with great wood-fired pizze, topped with San Marzano tomatoes and pleasingly little else. And Florentine traditions are followed in a 600 gram or kilo hunk of rare bistecca. Bentwood chairs and stained wooden tables, high ceilings, a long bar and open kitchen keep things as relaxed and breezy as possible this far from the sea.
Molto Italian, Element Building, Eastlake Pde, Kingston Foreshore, ACT, (02) 6140 7039
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