Cheap Eats 2009 - 3 Stars. Best in Class
Winner in the 2009 Age Cheap Eats Guide.
There's spag bol and then there's handmade rigatoni with slow-cooked lamb ragu. They may look alike but at Bar Santo you'll understand the difference. This modest restaurant is all warmth and simplicity, morphing from beachside breakfast spot to lunch-on-the-run thoroughfare to romantic dinner destination with a flick of the tablecloth. Splendid staff serve up southern Italian fare such as buttery linguini with seafood in a wine and herb sauce, intense tomato risotto with gorgonzola, or penne with veal sausage. Meat and fish specials challenge the Cheap Eats tally but the (essential) zesty lime and passionfruit panna cotta doesn't.

Cheap Eats 2008 - 3 Stars. Best in Class
Winner in the 2008 Age Cheap Eats Guide.
Distracted by Fitzroy Street's human menagerie, you might miss this unassuming little place. But for faultlessly executed southern Italian fare served in intimate surrounds, seek out Bar Santo. Start with dainty polenta cakes topped with a rich mushroom ragu, or polpettone di tonno, a herb-flecked tuna 'meatloaf' daubed with tangy aioli. Some mains are beyond Cheap Eats orbit and the menu is brief. But orecchiette in a balanced sugo tossed with broccolini and spicy salsicce, or four-cheese ravioli in sage and butter remind me that it's better to do few things very well.

Mietta's 2006
Right on the curve of Fitzroy St where diners can look out onto trams groaning around the corner partially obscuring the palm trees near the Palais. Well done Italian food at very reasonable prices make this one of St Kilda's better destinations. Warm candle-lit ambience at night. http://www.miettas.com/Australia/Victoria/St_Kilda/Bar_Santo.html