First look: Neil Perry's Rosetta Sydney

Neil Perry has opened more restaurants than Queen Elizabeth has launched ships, but the opening on Tuesday August 15 of the Sydney spin-off of Melbourne's Rosetta Ristorante is a special one for the chef.

"We looked at the site for Rosetta (before UPG's acquisition of Perry's restaurant group) and liked it, but then partner David Doyle didn't want to get involved," Perry reflects.

Serendipitously, UPG snapped up the site, with plans to open its own Italian restaurant, Stella, before Perry came into the fold.

The veteran chef has nabbed one of his early Rockpool alumni, Richard Purdue, to be head chef on the project.

The two have collaborated on a menu that tips its hat to the original Rosetta, transplanting a few of its dishes, and bringing back the delicious torta di Verona, a dessert birthed at Taylor's restaurant in Surry Hills in the 1980s.

"Rosetta in Melbourne is a little more northern, this is more southern Italian," Purdue says.

The talented chef promises plenty of fresh seafood on the Rosetta menu.

The sprawling restaurant eases into a Harry Seidler building, its interior updated and styled by Melissa Collison with an Amalfi Coast inspired palette of emerald green and sapphire blue.

"It also has an outdoor bar, which I think is really going to go nuts," Perry says.

Mon-Sat noon-3pm, 6-11pm; Sun noon-3pm, 6-10pm.

118 Harrington Street, Sydney, 02 8099 7089, rosettarestaurant.com.au.