Santini Bar & Grill is the signature dining room of QT Perth, the Art Series hotel on Murray Street whose design ambition single-handedly pulled the east end of the CBD into the modern era. Named (winkingly) for the notion of a Milanese trattoria's grandfather, Santini has since taken three Accommodation Awards for Restaurant of the Year, 2022, 2024, and again in 2026, and established itself as one of Perth's most dependable Italian addresses for groups, birthdays, and the kind of mid-week dinner that runs long without making a production of itself.
The menu, under executive chef Marco Zangari, is Italian with conviction and without fuss. Handmade pasta is the heart of the kitchen, blue swimmer crab linguine with a light bisque butter and a squeeze of lemon is the signature and, on any given Friday, roughly a quarter of the tables will have a bowl of it at some point during the evening. The cacio e pepe clam pizza, a dish that sounds like gimmickry on paper and tastes like inevitability on the plate, is the kitchen's best flex; pecorino romano, black pepper, sea clams, and a Neapolitan base that bubbles and chars correctly. Risotto with squid ink, veal parmigiana, tomahawk, and salt-crusted bistecca alla Fiorentina round out the higher-end of the menu. The 1988 Tiramisu is the dessert the room expects you to order, and you should.
The dining room is a sleek, confident piece of Italian-by-way-of-Melbourne styling, terrazzo floors, tan leather banquettes, brass accents, a long marble bar that spills out toward the hotel atrium, and a private dining room (the Di Stasio room) that seats twelve around a single walnut table. Acoustics are managed; lighting is warm without being dim; the energy levels are reliably good. The bar programme leans into classic Italian aperitifs, Negronis, spritzes, house-made amaro, and the wine list is strong on Italian regional whites, Tuscan reds, and a considered Australian back-pocket.
Service is the quiet confidence of a hotel restaurant that has earned its independent identity. The team is Italian-warm without being theatrical; they know when to let the table talk and when to cut through with a pour or a suggestion. For a team dinner with eight to twelve guests, Santini is the default Perth CBD move, the sharing format keeps everyone talking, the pasta course makes the bill predictable, and the walk back to a hotel room upstairs (if you're staying at QT) is the luxury the venue is built around. Consistent, generous, dependable, and the rare hotel restaurant that locals book for themselves.