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Canberra's best restaurants: Italian and Sons

Catriona Jackson

Italian and Sons kitchen staff at work.
Italian and Sons kitchen staff at work. Jeffrey Chan

Top 20 restaurants, Food and Wine Annual 2014: number 3.

When Italian and Sons opened in 2009, it gave us the kind of cool, bustling eating that Italians do better than anyone else.

A gleaming, crowded place, the menu is deceptively simple, taking full advantage of the wood-fire oven that sits at its heart. Pizza, pasta, a dish or two of the day, and a range of starters that you could easily make a meal of are about it. But what pizza, what pasta!

House-smoked swordfish loin with pink pepper corn, sage and lemon.
House-smoked swordfish loin with pink pepper corn, sage and lemon. Jeffrey Chan
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You might start with a house-smoked swordfish - wonderful raw fish, as fresh as it gets, with an edge of smokiness, tender pink peppercorns sage and lemon. Next, perhaps, a dish of delicate tortellini stuffed with buffalo mozzarella and silverbeet, adorned only with sage and nutty burnt butter.

Pizza bianca (white) arrives blistered and topped simply with globe artichoke, ricotta and rosemary. Pizza rosso (red) diavolo, is feistier with wood-fired peppers, salami and chilli.

As you might expect, the wine list is international with an impressive array of Italian wine. It is also on the pricey side, but sports an entirely drinkable house wine as well.

If you go on a Tuesday, the roast suckling pig is sticky and fall-apart tender, simply served with cavolo nero and stone-fruit mostarda - Wednesday is salt-crusted beef with horseradish. People go to Italian and Sons for a great meal and great night and they get it.

Italian and Sons
7 Lonsdale Street, Braddon. 6162 4888. italianandsons.com.au
Owners Trimboli family; chef Pasquale Trimboli
Lunch noon-3pm Tuesday to Friday; dinner 6pm-10pm Monday to Saturday.

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