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MELBOURNE | Il Caminetto is a beautifully designed pizzeria and pasta bar located in Moonee Ponds. The restaurant claims to be home to Melbourne’s first ever wood fired pizza oven, which made us very keen to accept an invite to sample their offering. The menu is traditional Italian, paying homage to traditional recipes from the city of Matera, and caters for vegan and gluten free diners as well as lovers of meat.
Il Caminetto has the feel of a southern Italian eatery and took us back to our Italian travels when we walked through the door. The space is warm and inviting, with the wood fired oven in full view and an Italian terrazzo cocktail bar. Sipping on Aperol Spitz on tap while watching the chefs prepare your Italian feast is a perfect way to kick off proceedings. For those wanting some wine instead, there’s a great variety of local and Italian wines.
Where possible, the produce is sourced locally, and we loved that the staff were committed to being planet conscious.
The pizza dough at Il Caminetto, amde using stone milled flour imported from Petra, Italy, is rested for 72 hours. This helps make the pizza bases light and fluffy. For a starter, we had the pleasure of sampling the stracciatella which combined oven baked heirloom tomatoes with basil, grana padano and pizza. For mains, we couldn’t go past some pizzas. We had the Bianca Gamberi, which is topped with stracciatella, prawns, pancetta and parsley. Delightful.
Along with pizza there’s also a very decent selection of homemade pasta dishes on offer. We tried the spaghetti al pomodoro a modo mi. Al dente spaghetti topped with fresh tomato confit, garlic, stracciatella and olive dust. A light, umami laden choice that hit the spot. The beautifully presented and delectable desserts are also well worth trying. We recommend the Tartufo Pizzo Calabro – hazelnut gelato with a dark chocolate heart, as well as the Calzone Nutella.
As a nice touch, we noticed that our takeaway containers (yes if you can’t eat all your food you can take leftovers home) were made from sugar cane and the take-way coffee cups are all biodegradable. The restaurant was buzzing on the weeknight we visited, full of locals and regular customers which created a great ambiance. Combined with the absolutely delicious food, it was a great night.
Il Caminetto
114 Pascoe Vale Road
Moonee Ponds
Victoria 3039
Australia
Telephone: (03) 9370 6884
E-mail: [email protected]
Website
Open
Mon – Thu: 5:30pm to 9:30pm
Fri – Sun: 12:00pm to 9:30pm