Pasta Prego

The Verdict

Spearheaded by childhood best friends Lorenzo Fantarella and Issac Varano, Pasta Prego is South Yarra’s newest pasta bar situated on Chapel Street. Inspired by their Nonni’s (grandparents) Napoletana and Campanian heritage, the second-generation founders are serving up takeaway Italian pasta dishes with homemade sauces.

The idea for Pasta Prego came along when Lorenzo and Isaac identified a gap in the market—takeaway pasta— when struggling to muster the motivation to prepare home-cooked pasta dishes after a long day at work. 

“ I just wanted my mum's pasta, so I was just trying to find a reasonable price point for that for everyone else,” Lorenzo said. 

Pasta Prego celebrates its heritage using only the finest ingredients and sauce recipes from their Italian relatives, including its signature pork fennel sausage with red onion and rosé sauce which is marinated in-house as well as its beef Ragu slow-cooked over a day that sees locals returning for more of Nonna and Nonno’s cooking. 

While the pasta bar has the classics such as Napoletana, Carbonara and pesto alla Genovese down pat, it also offers a crowd-favourite chicken alla vodka. Pasta Prego’s customers can also choose their desired sauce and pasta from the menu. 

“We cook our sauces fresh in the morning, the smell of the sauce tends to bring people in,” says Isaac.

While Pasta Prego is predominantly a takeaway establishment that strives to deliver “high quality at a very reasonable price” for ravenous locals to take home after work, it can also accommodate 16 people in its inviting window bench seats located both indoors and outdoors. 

It's still early days but once Pasta Prego settles down following the hectic opening rush, you can expect monthly pasta specials and even non-pasta dishes like a mushroom truffle risotto in the near future. 

Pasta Prego is open now, check out more over here. 

Image credit: Pasta Prego (supplied)