Julietta is a new Italian spot in South Yarra that nails the kind of neighbourhood dining you want to linger over cosy, pasta-forward, and genuinely welcoming.
The intimate 35-seat restaurant comes from the team behind Mamasita and sits on the corner of Toorak Road and Chambers Street. Owner Joss Jenner-Leuthart says the idea was to create a trattoria you’d be glad to stumble across while wandering Milan’s older streets—and that’s exactly the mood inside. Think 1960s–’70s Italian influences, with hand-finished walls, lime-washed ceilings, vintage brass lighting and deep burgundy banquettes that make the room feel comfortably “lived in” from day one.
In the kitchen, Executive Chef Jimmy Garside (also from Mamasita) keeps the focus where it should be: pasta. The menu centres on eight handmade dishes, from a classic cacio e pepe lifted with green peppercorns, to a richer baked pasta with nduja, vodka and stracciatella. For something lighter, there’s prawn ravioli in lemon and tarragon butter.
Before the pasta arrives, antipasti set the pace. Burrata with pine nut agrodolce, potato fritti with saffron aioli, then dessert finishes things off with a coffee semifreddo and amaretto caramel.
“We’re not trying to overcomplicate it,” Garside says. “It’s about doing things really well, pasta at the centre, with dishes that feel familiar, but still worth coming back for.”
Drinks follow the same confident, unfussy approach. The 80-bottle wine list leans heavily Italian, and Beverage Director Eduardo Conde has built a cocktail offering around a dedicated negroni menu. A standout is the Andalucian, made with shiraz gin and cream sherry.
Julietta is aiming to be the kind of local you return to, somewhere you can settle in, order another glass, and take your time. It’s open Wednesday to Thursday from 4pm, and Friday to Sunday from 12pm, at 220 Toorak Road, South Yarra.