You probably take this historic city pasta bar for granted. I hope its new owners don’t, too

Very little has changed, but there’s something off just now about the vibe at Cellar Bar, a Bourke Street fixture for a bowl of pasta with a good glass of wine.Would Melbourne even be Melbourne without Cellar Bar? The dark slip of a room in Bourke Street is such a familiar sight, we probably take it for granted. Overshadowed by its larger and flashier siblings (and neighbours), Florentino Dining Room and Cafe Florentino, it has nonetheless probably been a fixture in more people’s lives over its 70-plus years than those fancier joints: a place for a coffee meeting during the day that has more gravitas than your average cafe; a place to stop by with friends after work for a wine and a gossip; a place for a quick bowl of pasta when you’re looking for sustenance over pomp but quality is a priority.Cellar Bar is now overseen by Edition Group (along with those other two venues) following the sale of the business by the Grossi family in 2025. Earlier that year The Age published sexual harassment allegations against Guy Grossi and his staff. Grossi has denied the allegations. Little of its menu or purpose has changed, and since it would be a crime to alter the wood-panelled walls, dark wood bar or gorgeous parquetry floors, the room has also remained untouched. The wine list is still listed on a chalkboard that servers bring to your table, squeezing in among the close-quartered jumble of chairs, and the classics on the menu haven’t gone anywhere.Chef Michael Greenlaw, who also oversees the other two Florentino restaurants, offers a handful of seasonal pastas alongside those classics. You can get a very cold mini martini, or a spritz made with fino sherry, pineapple, elderflower and mint, alongside a generous bowl of piping hot, perfectly crisp chips. The wine list offers mostly Italian labels or Italian varietals grown by Australian producers, and almost everything is offered in glass, 500ml or full bottle pours.Saffron risoni with ossobuco.Simon SchluterRestaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox.Sign upAntipasti include a few snacks that are good for more casual drink-but-not-dinner dining, such as fritto misto or chopped raw salmon with horseradish-tinged ricotta and pickled onions. Squid ink and truffle salami, made in-house, showcases the kitchen’s talent with charcuterie, looking almost like goth stained-glass and tasting of deep umami.From there, it’s pasta of your choice. It’s hard to go wrong – lasagne is classic, warming, not the greatest in the city but completely acceptable. The seasonal side of the menu will showcase more of the kitchen’s creativity, but it’s all rooted in tradition. A saffron risoni topped with a generous portion of ossobuco is zapped with gremolata, making an intensely rich dish taste fresh and exciting. And you’ll occasionally get a hint of the smarts at the heart of this larger operation – perhaps the best thing I ate during my visits was a winter panzanella salad with creamy butter beans, snappy green beans, artichokes and capers.And yet, there’s something off about the vibe at Cellar Bar now, something that feels less like an important, historic pasta bar and more like a train station cafe in Italy: disjointed, a little stressful, a bit out of control. Service is one part of it – many times I’ve eaten here, the floor staff seems to comprise one seasoned employee who is overwhelmed, and one very (very) green staff member who wanders around looking bewildered, and who the veteran has no time to train because they’re busy running the entire room.A seasonal panzanella salad with butter beans, green beans, artichokes and capers.Simon SchluterWhatever systems there are in place cater well to one specific type of customer, and that’s the person who comes in, orders a bowl of pasta and a glass of wine, then pays and leaves. Because of this, lunch runs much more smoothly than dinner, since that’s much more likely to be the MO of a lunch customer.At night, if you go for a full entree-main-dessert progression, you’ll face long waits between courses, lots of uncleared plates, lots of drinks that take forever to order and then arrive. (Plenty of people still come in for the pasta-wine-leave scenario at night, too, and it seems to work well for them, though they might have to go looking for someone to pay.)Neglect is an odd thing to feel in a room like this. Part of the joy and comfort of so many of our historic restaurants is the sense of belonging, of being taken care of. It’s not always smooth, or even particularly polite, but even in the more casual pasta houses, things tend to chug along to some kind of drumbeat. Solo diners sit around the bar.Simon SchluterThe ownership here is still relatively new, and it may be that the fine-dining side of things (certainly at Florentino Dining Room) is, counterintuitively, more in the wheelhouse of Edition. But I’d hate to think that Cellar Bar is getting neglected in the upheaval, because it’s just as important as its swankier brethren.I’m putting it down to growing pains, to a big company with lofty goals and many, many balls in the air. But I’m also hoping that Cellar Bar gets the oxygen it needs to be as good as it can possibly be. We need luxe dining, but more of us need a warm bowl of pasta on a cold night, with a good glass of wine, in a room that’s convivial. It’s one of the things that we, as a city, do best. Cellar Bar is a restaurant that should do it better than anywhere else.The low-down Atmosphere: Very Italian, very Melbourne, very dark and cosy Go-to dishes: Panzanella ($16); risoni with ossobuco ($28); salmon crudo ($18) Drinks: Lovely, short wine list, mostly Italian; spritzes and Italian-leaning cocktails Cost: About $115 for two, excluding drinks Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.From our partners