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A Tavola

Terry Durack
Terry Durack

Grand centrepiece: A Tavola has it's namesake on show and in use.
Grand centrepiece: A Tavola has it's namesake on show and in use.Fiona Morris

14/20

Italian$$

A Tavola wouldn't be A Tavola without the tavola. When Eugenio Maiale opened his Abruzzese-accented Darlinghurst eatery six years ago, the long, green serpentine marble communal table running the length of the front room became the focal point and the place to be.

It's the table that people gather around; the table that gets covered in flour every morning as the pasta is made on it; the table that's the heart and soul of the place.

A similarly broad and handsome marble table takes pride of place in the new A Tavola in Bondi. As in Darlo, there are conventional tables, too, but they're not the point. Only at the big share table do you feel you're eating Italian food, with Italians, in Italy.

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Go-to dish: Pappardelle con ragu di manzo e rafano, $34.
Go-to dish: Pappardelle con ragu di manzo e rafano, $34.Steven Siewert

A Tavola and its Darlinghurst near-neighbour, Gelato Messina, are the first food tenants to take up position on the ground floor of Boheme, the flash new commercial and residential development on the site of the old Hakoah Club. Others still under wraps include Maurice Terzini's new pizza place, and China Doll group's China Diner.

Not only is there a similar marble communal table (even longer, at 10.4 metres), it's overhung with the same gleaming coppery orb lights.  Even the crowd looks familiar, as does popular A Tavola frontman Ennio Di Mario.

The walls, too, are lined with blackboards displaying the consigli, which charmingly translates as ''advice'' on daily specials from head chef Luke Randall and his team. Tonight, these run from grilled tiger prawns with borlotti beans to gnocchi with peas and mushrooms and squid ink tagliolini.

But if I can give you some good consigli of my own – it's all about the pasta. Be guided by the wide, flat ribbons of fresh pasta drying in front of the open kitchen, and order the pappardelle – tonight, it's with beef ragu and fresh horseradish ($34). The pasta has that lovely elasticity and absorbability you only get with freshly made pasta, and the ragu is full-on, dense and rich.

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A first course of soft polenta with dressed crab ($19) from the additional short menu card is blonde-on-blonde pretty, the shreds of Fraser Island spanner crab sea-sweet, mingling with the soft white polenta to create something quite special.

Other non-pasta dishes are not as convincing. What you want when you order milk-fed lamb shoulder with sage, farro and asparagus ($36) is not a long restauranty platter of seared lamb backstrap next to shreddy mushy, slow-cooked lamb next to a pile of grains. Similarly, what you want from brodetto di pesce ($38) is a tomatoey stew of fish, scampi, mussels and clams that isn't so overwhelmed by the intensity and acidity of the sauce.

The wine list is resolutely Italian with some powerful "riserva" wines running all the way up to a Giacomo Fenocchio Barolo at $180, and a few natural wines including an intense, throaty, organic Il Civettaio Montecucco 2007 Sangiovese blend ($75).

Regulars end, as they do at Darlinghurst, either with the cremina ($14), a coffee cup of lush, layered chocolate, hazelnut, Italian nougat and salted caramel ice-cream; or with a queue at the nearby Gelato Messina.

The irony is that while it's all about the table here, the black metal chairs aren't immediately conducive to comfort. But when another couple join the long communal table, all four of us immediately engage in conversation. By the end of the evening, we know each other's football teams, best holidays, favourite wines; the most intimate details of lives well lived. These are the real pleasures of the table.

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THE LOW DOWN
Best bit
The table, of course
Worst bit
The chairs
Go-to dish
Pappardelle con ragu di manzo e rafano, $34

tdurack@fairfaxmedia.com.au

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Terry DurackTerry Durack is the chief restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald and Good Food.

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