Mietta's Review
Rita Macali and her partners have by luck and good management hit the spot. Dead Centre. Their little pizza place in Fitzroy has become the place to be in the middle years of the first decade of the 21st Century. The food, thin crust designer pizzas (up to $20) a roast of the day ($25) and a few pastas, is very good but nothing compared to the buzz which is amazing. In its first year of opening this was truly a phenomenom.

Other published opinions
Age Good Food Guide 2010 Score: 15/20

Gourmet Traveller 2010 Australian Restaurant Guide "Ladro has emerged as a dough deity, stoking up the wood fire six nights a week to a packed house of devout followers. This trattoria serves up consistently good, simple fare in one of the coolest (and noisiest) digs in town"

Age Cheap Eats 2009

Age Good Food Guide 2009

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2009

Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide "Pizza fads come, pizza fads go. Yet there's nothing ephemeral about this original exponent of the pizza renaissance that gripped Melbourne several years ago. It's difficult to pinpoint a singular attraction: are the crowds here for the hip decor? Or is it for what are arguably the best pizze in town: thin, misshapen, woodfired discs with artisan toppings such as flor di latte, field mushrooms, porcini and thyme, or green olive paste, mozzarella, capers and rocket"

Herald Sun Simon Plant, 13-09-08 "Sicilian sea salt and pepper grinder? Yep. Looks as if it's business as usual at Ladro ... which is heartening because change has been whirling around this firm Fitzroy favourite. ... Quietly, Ladro has also restructured. Co-founders Sean Kierce and Ingrid Langtry run the show now - after original chef Rita Macau left the business earlier this year - and far from making changes, they are consolidating the very things that put this defiantly cool trattoria on the map: wood-fired pizzas, smart service, and affordable prices."

Age Cheap Eats 2008

Age Nicole Bittar, 10-9-2007

Age Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 15/20

Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide "Fitzroy's professionals and post-grads continue to pack into this youthful take on the trattoria, rendered coolly in cement and marble"

Age Cheap Eats 2007

Age Cheap Eats 2006

Age Good Food Guide 2006

Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide * "Now that Ladro-mania has settled, and jamming into the 45-seater space is not the problem it used to be, we can see this little trattoria for what it truly is. Which is what it always was before hype got in the way: a youthful and hospitable inner-city eatery, where the principles of fine food are applied to seemingly uncomplicated, peasant-like cookery."

theage (melbournemagazine) Hot John Lethlean Sept 05 "One reason the street is on the foodie radar at all is the cute little Gertrude Street Enoteca, a fancy name for a wine bar. This is as good a place for a chat and a glass of Italian wine as you're likely to find. The other is, of course, Ladro - across the road - which erupted like Mount Etna itself some 18 months ago, spewing forth a clever style, wonderful product and charming personality that everybody wanted a slice of. Pizza was the new foodie currency at the time, and here was a proper chef with an Italian name and a wood oven in a cool little Fitzroy space producing the most sublime examples."

Age Good Food Guide 2005 score 15/20

Gourmet Traveller 2005 Restaurant Guide * "Rarely has simplicity been so joyously expressed as with this little Fitzroy phenomenon. The spare interiors, the unadorned furnishings, the T-shirted staffand the pure, straight-from-the-heart food of Rita Macali have all made this a most difficult-to-get-into restaurant."

Age Cheap Eats 2005

Age Cheap Eats 2004

Herald Sun CityStyle Best of Melbourne 04 Best roast "Yes, yes, the pizza here is the best in Melbourne, but that doesn't mean you should ignore Rita Macali's exquisite daily roasts."

Age A2 Jane Faulkner

Age Take 5 John Lethlean 22/8/04

Age,A2,12/6/04,Matt Preston

Age Cheap Eats 2004

Herald Sun, citystyle, 6/4/04,Stephen Downes,Score 16/20,'Just about everything was right except the way Ladro handled our booking.Bread was not served automatically in this heavily pizzarised place,but we were asked if we wanted it and fine chunky slices arrived.Many vegetarian choices are available.The wines available are sensibly priced.'

Age Agenda, 21/3/04, John Lethlean

Herald Sun, Weekend, 31/1/04, Bob Hart,'Melbourne's Greatest Dishes','She flavours it exquistely, cooks it ingeniously, and serves it simply...Life quite simply, doesn't get to taste better than this.'

Age, 28/12/03, John Lethlean

Herald Sun, Weekend, 13/12/03, Donna Coutts,'Best Cafes'

Herald Sun, citystyle, 16/12/03, Donna Coutts, score 17/20

Age, Epicure, 25/11/03, Matt Preston

Age, Epicure, 11/11/03, John Lethlean, score:17/20

Herald Sun, Weekend, 11/10/03, Bob Hart