Bottarga

The story

Bottarga Brighton, Melbourne: Modern Italian with Asian Twist

Bottarga is a modern Italian restaurant in Melbourne, at 198 Bay Street, Brighton VIC 3186, and it received a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence in 2024 for its wine list. The restaurant moved to Bay Street from Martin Street, where it began with fewer than twenty seats.

Federico's cooking

Chef Federico has more than a decade of culinary craft behind the stove, with earlier kitchens including Vue de Monde, Matteo's and Scopri. The menu draws on Italian, Asian and modern Australian influences, using native and wild ingredients and house-made elements. The Tiger Prawn Culurgiones are the dish singled out in the 2026 Australian Good Food Guide.

The room and the wine

Guests sit close to an open kitchen, where the flames and sizzle are part of the meal. Somi runs the front of house and curates the wine list, which leans toward Italian and Australian producers and includes rare bottles from across the Mediterranean. The house sparkling wine is a 2019 vintage made by the traditional method, with fruit from Piper's River in Tasmania.