You kind of know you are onto a winner when the owner of a restaurant builds the wood-fired pizza oven himself, and happily that’s not the only authentic thing about Italian eatery Ladro.

With two Melbourne venues in Prahran and Fitzroy, Ladro has plucked up-and-coming chef Niko Pizzimenti from Sicily (via basement restaurant Caterina’s) to head up the kitchen, as well as enlisting fellow Italian Piera Pagnoni for fresh pasta-making duty. Since owners Sean and Ingrid are both designers, the restaurants look as spiffy as you’d expect. The Prahran outpost has an urban warehouse feel of tile and brick, coupled with some nice touches – such as the 1970s light fittings from the former Czechoslovakia. Even the toilets (dunnies?) have had some welcome thought put into them.

Also worth mentioning are the bees, housed – or should that be hived – on the roof as part of the Melbourne Rooftop Honey project and adding to the restaurant’s commitment to locally-sourced produce. Sweet as…