There may be more glamorous and comfortable restaurants, but there's something about Di Stasio that keeps Melburnians lovin' and loyal. Perhaps it's the bow-tied, white-jacketed waiters who work the close-quartered room attentively, or the rustic Italian classics on the plate. This stayer's prosaic rectangular room is made good with glazed walls, moodily lit masks and a big Bill Henson photograph. It's often filled with upbeat diners downing Di Stasio-label wine and menu favourites like red-wine braised octopus, crayfish omelette moist with a lush bisque, or confident pastas, like oil-slippery taglierini with crab and a kick of chilli. Suckling pig is a regular, but the bolder wild boar is becoming a signature too – lean chunks braised with chestnuts and bitey raddichio. When it's busy, standards may slip a notch – wines by the glass not poured at the table, or a waiter not sure whose dish is whose. But dinner concludes sweetly, with a groggy dessert of layered apple, calvados, cream and pastry.

Open Daily noon–3pm, 6–11pm
Typical prices E $29 M $41 D $15
Cards DC AE MC V
Wine A long, deep list, strongly Italian, featuring the owner's own Yarra Valley estate wines
Owner Rinaldo Di Stasio
Chef Steven Rofe
Seats 65; outdoor seating

And … The lunch deals are an institution for frugal gourmets.