Mietta's Review
Ronnie Di Stasio is famed for his extreme behaviour in much the same way as his mentor Paul Lynch was in his younger days. It's what originally gave his eponymously named cafe it's buzz. If they (the customers) mattered enough Ronnie would have them dancing on the tables. Today it's a much more sedate scene as well-heeled diners enjoy the discreet and attentive service at St Kilda's premier Italian restaurant. It should be noted that here the service can vary with the importance of the client and the anticipated size of their tip. Of course, fine food, wine and service inevitably come at a premium price. The lunch special offers good value.
Other Published Opinions
The Age Good Food Guide 2013 Score: 16/20
Gourmet Traveller 2013 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: 2 Stars "Please take your seats, ladies and gentlemen, the show's about to begin. While food and drink represent the soul of Cafe Di Stasio, dining here comes with an unmistakable sense of theatre, the restaurant's white-jacketed waiters all graduates of the Italian school of charm and hospitality"
Age Good Food Guide 2013 Score: 16/20 Two Hats
Gourmet Traveller 2012 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: Two Stars "Enduring quality and sharp service set this decades-old stalwart apart from Melbourne's plethora of Italian restaurants. In a moodily lit room, maitre d' Mallory Wall directs the daily theatre that is Di Stasio"
Age Good Food Guide 2012 Score: 16/20, 2 Hats
Age Good Food Guide 2011 Score: 17/20, Two Hats
Age Good Food Guide 2011 Score: 17/20, Two Hats
Age Good Food Guide 2011 Score: 17/20, Two Hats
Age Good Food Guide 2011 Score: 17/20, Two Hats
Age Good Food Guide 2011 Score: 17/20, Two Hats
Age Good Food Guide 2011 Score: 17/20, Two Hats
Age Good Food Guide 2011 Score: 17/20, Two Hats
Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2011
Gourmet Traveller 2011 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: ** "For more than two decades. Di Stasio has been a beacon for the dining cognoscenti. They know that behind the slatted blinds is a softly lit room where immaculately professional waiters deliver robust Italian dishes from chef Steven Rofe and expertly match his food flavours to a bottle from the mammoth Italian-focused wine list"
Age Good Food Guide 2010
Gourmet Traveller 2010 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: ** "The near-legendary Cafe Di Stasio's stuccoed walls and levitating Bill Henson portrait, its streamlined (and unashamedly preferential) service and perpetual twilight ambience elicit an almost Pavlovian response in its loyal regulars"
The Australian A List, 50 Great Australian Restaurants, John Lethlean, Necia Wilden, 5-09-09 "Although the enigmatic padrone doesn't spend much time on the restaurant floor these days, his strong personality and artistic sensibility haunt the joint"
The Australian "The patina of so many lunches and dinners and bottles of bubbly sprayed on the ceiling just adds to the waxy canvas that was architect Alan Powell's original, brooding design for the dining room. Bill Henson's photographic images stare down from the walls, challenging the artists, architects, advertising creatives and Prada-toting bohemians that constitute Di Stasio's core fan base."
Courier Mail Food and Wine Guide 2009 Queensland "Melbourne has more than its fair share of clubby Italian restaurants but Cafe di Stasio, along with Becco (11-25 Crossley Street (03) 9663 3000) in the city, stands head and shoulders above the others"
Age Good Food Guide 2009 Score: 17/20
Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2009
Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: ** "In a world where the term 'icon' is too readily applied, Cafe Di Stasio is a place where it can be bestowed confidently. For the past 20 years, Ronnie Di Stasio's brilliant Fitzroy Street restaurant has been mining all the things that make dining out pleasurable - flavour, indulgence, theatre - and doing them in a style that should be recorded into a how-to textbook"
Age Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 17/20
Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide "This darkly moody St Kilda landmark is, as they say, the total package. A restaurateur's restaurant, t recalls the days when the host was king and the chef stayed in the kitchen"
Herald Sun Bob Hart, 24-02-07 "In fact, after you have seen Rinaldo (Ronnie) Di Stasio prowl the floor of his eponymous "cafe"in darkest St Kilda, or watched him adjust the theatre of the place from his corner table, the conductor analogy will make more sense. But then it's not just what a great restaurateur does, but why. And in Ronnie's case, it's to do with passion."
Age Good Food Guide 2006 score 17/20
Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide ** "With its bare concrete walls and custard-orange lighting, Cafe Di Stasio offers a brooding and intimate space. Bill Henson's imposing photography evokes a sense of uncharted territory, but you'll be easily coaxed along the Di Staslo culinary journey. It centres around several signature dishes and a daily lunch special which favours natural, simple flavours over fashion"
Age Sunday Life, Australia's 20 best restaurants Mathew Evans 05 "St Kilda's 18
Age Good Food Guide 2005
Gourmet Traveller 2005 Restaurant Guide "afe di Stasio has achieved almost a cult status on St Kilda's increasingly respectable Fitzroy Street."
Take 5 John Lethlean 22/8/04
Age Melbourne Magazine 15/12/04 John Lethlean
Age Cheap Eats 2004
Age, A2, 1/5/04
The Foodies' Guide 2004,Allan Campion & Michele Curtis,'Perhaps the most advertised deal in Melbourne at $25 for 2 courses and a glass of wine,every day,year round.'
Sydney Morning Herald GFG 2004
Age Good Food Guide 2004 Awards-2 hats, score 17/20
Age, A2, 20/3/04
Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide Australia 2004, 2 Black Stars, Excellent wine list, Good vegetarian options,'has mellowed and matured like a fine wine.Its simplicity and dedication to exacting professionalism assure its status as on Melbourne's elite Italian restaurants.The list of dishes and specials is expounded with minimal rhetoric;the quality of food shines through without pretension.'
Vogue Entertaining & Travller March April 2003
The Weekend Australian Financial Review,15-16/3/2003, Food, Charles Wright
Age Good Food Guide 2003. Score 17/20
The Herald Sun, Eat Bob Hart, 16/3/02"