Casa Nova Italian Restaurant and Bar Toronto

Casa Nova is Toronto's waterfront Italian, at 24 Victory Parade on the edge of Lake Macquarie, and it is one of the few places on this stretch of the lake where a dog can join you for a proper dinner rather than just a quick coffee. It is listed as pet friendly for outdoor dining, and the outdoor tables look straight over the water.

The dog setup

Dogs are welcome at the outdoor tables overlooking the lake; inside is off limits except for assistance dogs, per standard NSW food rules for dining areas. Staff are used to dogs at the lakeside tables and will usually sort out a water bowl on request. The catch is demand: those outdoor lake-view tables are the first to go, especially on sunny weekends, so book ahead and say you are bringing a dog when you do. Breakfast through dinner trade means you can pick your window, and weekday evenings are noticeably more forgiving than Saturday nights.

The food and the vibe

The menu is full-service Italian: woodfired pizza, handmade pasta, and starters that reviewers keep coming back to, arancini in particular. Spaghetti marinara, beef lasagne, gnocchi and oysters all feature regularly, and the vegan options are more than a token column. There is a full bar, and the lake view draws a date-night crowd alongside families, so the tone shifts with the hour: casual lunches through to slower evening sittings.

Getting there and parking

The restaurant sits on the Toronto foreshore at Victory Parade, with street parking along the waterfront and a larger public car park just off Wharf Road. Toronto is about half an hour from Newcastle via the lake's eastern shore, and the foreshore position means you can even arrive by boat if you are doing Lake Macquarie properly. The lakefront path runs straight past the door, so there is no need to drive between the walk and the table.

While you're out there

A tired dog makes a much better dinner guest, so take the foreshore path for a leg-stretch first, or put in a proper off-lead run at Carey Bay Dog Exercise Area, a few minutes down the lake. For the coffee end of the day, Tinto Espresso Bar and Infuzion Cafe pours on a sun-drenched deck on the same foreshore, and Harry and Lola's at Speers Point is famously dog-forward, treats and all.

More options are on the NSW restaurants index and the Toronto destination page.

Max: This is a restaurant, not a cafe stop. Do the foreshore walk first and arrive with the edge taken off.