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Perth’s newest Italian venue pours its first aperitivo on Thursday when it opens in Claremont on the popular Bay View Terrace. It’s being pitched as a wine-led osteria with fresh pasta made daily and more than 30 Italian wines available by the glass.

Il Santo comes from the operators behind Il Lido and Canteen Pizza, and draws on both. The brief is for an osteria rather than a trattoria, bringing a tighter menu and a venue designed for stopping in after work for a casual glass of wine, as much as for sitting down to dinner. Given Il Lido is one of Perth’s best Italian restaurants, and Canteen is one of the top pizza places, we’re excited about going in to try it out.

“We’ve had this restaurant in mind for quite some time for this space and it reflects a lot how people want to dine these days,” says operator Lyndon Waples. “Il Santo will have a tighter and simpler menu offering, more osteria and less trattoria. Quality drinks and very good snacking will be the key features, as well as a rotating pasta and main selection derived from the classics that will keep you coming back day after day.”

A pasta menu built around Italian classics

The kitchen is led by Executive Chef Nicola Lunardi, who has designed a menu that rotates through Italian classics. Lunardi’s pick on the menu is the mafaldine e fagioli, a pasta soup from his hometown with roots across Veneto, Tuscany, and Campania, which lands on the menu in time for the cooler months.

There’s a lot on the menu for share-style dining: a Shark Bay prawn sandwich with house-made tartare, mortadella skewers with quince, and local octopus with gremolata. A rotating selection of pasta and main dishes are also on the menu, either to share or to have by yourself.

The team is also pushing one ritual hard, cantucci e Vin Santo to finish. Almond biscotti dipped into sweet Tuscan dessert wine until they soften.

“This is the best way to end a meal,” says Lunardi. “You don’t just eat the cantucci, the crunchy biscotti must be dipped into the wine, and it softens beautifully. The almond flavours are perfect with the wine’s caramel sweetness.”

More than 100 Italian wines

Wine Director Michael Mori has built a list of more than 100 predominantly Italian labels, drawing on the cellar at Il Lido, which took Australia’s Best Italian Wine List 2025. More than 30 wines are poured by the glass at any given time.

“Our drinks programme is dedicated to the classics — they are classics for a reason, plus a few little twists,” says Lovell. “Get settled into Il Santo with a Lemon Drop Martini with a refreshing yuzu kick or a Milano Torino, a delicious aperitivo with Campari and Punt e Mes. My pick would be a savoury Tomatini with the beef carpaccio.”

Where is Il Santo?

Il Santo can be found at 16 Bay View Terrace, Claremont. 

The post The Team Behind Il Lido & Canteen Pizza Is Opening A New Italian Spot In Claremont appeared first on So Perth

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If there’s one thing the Kailis team know how to do well, it’s coastal dining. Think Gibney, the Shorehouse, and Magic Apple.

Their next coastal precinct takes it up a notch further. A four-metre marble statue. Custom coins placed into every guest’s hand on arrival. A walk-in wine cellar holding 4,000 bottles, with a tasting table set among them. George Kailis has just unveiled the design details for Surreo and Bar Surreo, the first two venues inside his Sorrento Beach precinct.

Kailis Hospitality Group bought the entire 1,500 sqm hospitality stretch on West Coast Drive in 2025 — described as the largest single sale of coastal hospitality real estate in metro Perth in decades. The new venues will occupy 1,000 sqm of it, with construction already underway. The plan is to open in April 2027, following a multi-million dollar fit-out by Rezen Studio, the design team behind Gibney Cottesloe. 

A coastal steakhouse and a bar

Surreo will operate as a seaside steakhouse with Basque-leaning, Roman-inspired food and design. Bar Surreo sits alongside it as a coastal bar with a substantial dining menu, its own head chef, and its own kitchen. 

“The bar and restaurant offer two different experiences,” Kailis said. “While you can use one before or after the other, we wanted to create a point of difference to provide options for guests. Bar Surreo has its own kitchen and head chef, whilst still a bar, the culinary agenda is a priority.”

It’ll be WA’s largest beachside restaurant precinct, and the only seaside steakhouse. Although George Kailis describes it as more of a grillhouse than a traditional steakhouse.

“The concept leans more toward a grillhouse than a traditional steakhouse, reflecting a menu that balances premium meats with a strong emphasis on seafood and vegetables. While Basque and Roman traditions have informed the culinary direction, the intent is to create a broader seaside o/ering, featuring seafood, house-made pasta and produce-driven dishes, with steak as the hero.”

The actual menu will be announced closer to its opening.

The story behind the name

Surreo is the Ancient Greek word for Sorrento, meaning “a coming together.” There’s a lot more to it than that: Sorrento, the Perth suburb, was carved up as a private land division in the 1900s by an Italian family who named it after their hometown. That sent Kailis down a research path through Ancient Rome and back out into Perth’s northern suburbs.

“I had many friends that lived in Stirling and Dianella, the European influence in these suburbs was awesome — columns, statues of lions — the similarities between them and this ancient Rome period we were in was uncanny,” Kailis said. “Having some authentic Northern suburbs DNA in the venue was essential.”

Bringing the Gibney design team back to do it again

Rezen Studio, the design firm behind Gibney, is handling the fit-out, with directors Rhys and Zenifa Bowring describing the bar as a grotto-like retreat with mother-of-pearl detailing and textured ceilings and walls throughout.

Inside the main dining room, a stained-glass dry-ageing room sits at the kitchen pass, where chefs will cut steaks in full view of the room. A Champagne Lounge near the entrance will seat up to 30. Three handcrafted selenite crystal chandeliers will hang above the dining space, inspired by the Greek goddess of the moon. Outside, the alfresco terrace will be the largest on West Coast Drive, anchored by that wishing well and marble statue we previously mentioned, where guests will use those custom Surreo coins they were handed on arrival.

The 4,000-bottle walk-in cellar will house a bespoke tasting table for bookable private wine tastings led by Surreo’s sommelier team.

What’s still to come

Plans for the remaining two spaces in the precinct will land later this year. Kailis has confirmed they’ll be more casual — breakfast and coffee-focused — to round out the 1,500 sqm site.

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