Chef Joel Valvasori channels his Nonna’s Northern Italian cooking and more besides into this ebullient osteria.
Before you do anything else, order the fluffy centred, crunchy crusted house bread. Tear off a corner. Smear it thickly with cultured butter. Then pile on a mountain of sugo – infused with finely diced vegetables, Venetian aromatics like sage, rosemary and cinnamon, and chef-owner Joel Valvasori’s childhood memories of after-school snacks at Nonna’s house – and you’ll find yourself wondering how anything else on the menu could possibly stack up. No simple bread course has any business being this good. But the rest of the Northern Italian dishes are no slouch either, from housemade pastas shimmering with veal and pork ragu or prawns and chilli, and the transcendent tiramisu which is coretto, or corrected, with grappa. The little details are just as impressive as the big flavours: the sprinkle of Friulano dialect on the menu, the nostalgic lace curtains, and the endlessly explorable Italian wine list. Lulu is one of Perth, no, Australia’s brightest stars. Nonna must surely be proud.
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