Pino’s al Mare Cronulla

Pino's al Mare Cronulla — Puglian Seafood by the Beach

Pino's Vino e Cucina al Mare is restaurateur Matteo Margiotta's Cronulla home for the Italian restaurant he first opened in Alexandria, now relocated and rebuilt around the flavours of Puglia. Set inside Cronulla's Old Library building on Surf Road, a former Methodist church dating back to 1908, the 190 seat dining room pairs floor to ceiling windows and tall exposed beams with handmade terracotta tiles and sconces shipped in from Italy, alongside olive trees that nod to summers spent on the Puglian coast.

In the kitchen, executive chef Cristiano Patacca and head chef Aprill Gullo build the menu around fresh, in-house pasta made daily on an imported Italian extruder, alongside a raw bar and seafood program that leans into the restaurant's coastal setting. Expect grilled king prawns spiked with house-made Italian XO salumi, yellowfin tuna on toast with lardo, and a chilled or grilled seafood platter loaded with Moreton Bay bugs, Alaskan king crab, scallops and octopus. Pasta standouts include pici cacio e pepe and maccheroni alla vodka with spanner crab, while mains stretch to whole grilled fish and a one kilo Riverina Fiorentina to share.

The wine list runs to 263 bottles and 33 by the glass, split between Italian drops celebrating Margiotta's heritage, South African wines honouring his wife's, and Australian varietals for the family's adopted home, with a private wine cellar available for guests who want to dine among the bottles. The same cellar hosts Pino's hands-on pasta-making classes, where guests learn to shape agnolotti, tortellini a petalo and cappellacci alongside the kitchen team.