Berta

What's the difference between a wine bar with food and a restaurant with wine? Not a lot these days, when you can go somewhere such as 121 BC in Surry Hills for dinner, and drop in to Monopole in Potts Point for a glass of bubbly, or vice versa.

Little laneway-living Berta, sibling to Vini and 121 BC, has always had a big focus on both wine and food, with Vini group wine buyer Giorgio De Maria ensuring an aggressively regional Italian list, and founding chef O Tama Carey upholding an equal obsession with militantly seasonal Italian food. Since Carey left late last year, however, the place has been in a bit of a muddle, with pop-up appearances by Chui Lee Luk and Chris Manfield filling in until new head chef Jamie Irving settled in.

It appears to be business as usual, as Irving stays true to the ideal of a contemporary, Italianish, wine-friendly menu, ranging from small plates to share plates, through salumi​, polpettone​ (meatballs), pasta and risotto to less Italian, more Surry Hills offerings such as scallop, fennel and herb salad, and pork belly with jerusalem artichokes.

Crisp, dry, warm pillows of gnocco fritto​ served with beautifully fatty, silky, soft slices of prosciutto di San Daniele ($12) is a Berta classic for good reason, particularly with a glass of Carla Benini's Sassotondo Rosato​ ($15), vibrant and fruity with Tuscany's ciliegioli​ grapes. Celeriac fritti ($7) are not celeriac fritters, as you might expect, but a tempura-like treatment of the thick, bushy leaves – a brilliant use of something often thrown away.

Berta's food has always had a casual, strewn style, but now, it's a jumble out there. Delicately hot-smoked ocean trout is broken up and tossed with cress and pickled shavings of zucchini and radish ($20) – a pleasant enough hotchpotch. An unexpectedly cool dish of cauliflower and sprouts (sprouted seeds rather than brussels sprouts) is a clutter of ingredients lying flat on a small plate.

The only pasta on the menu tonight is one I don't feel particularly confident about: pappardelle​ with skate, capers and brown butter ($34). Big, broad strips of pappardelle are more suited to meaty sauces than delicate fish, surely. Yes, surely. The house-made pasta needs more than clenched knots of fish, wilted greens and little discernible sauce. A risotto of porcini and orange ($32), on the other hand, is an overly saucy brown puddle of rice, the orange more noticeable than the mushroom.

I love the sense of discovery you get when you drink something you have never heard of, and the staff are well briefed enough to match-make wines with food and people. A silky, fragrant, juicy-fruited 2014 COS Frappato​ varietal ($89) from Sicily goes swimmingly with a decent, winey braise of beef short ribs ($34) on a rubble of 'nduja-flecked celeriac fingers and cavolo nero​. And there's a pie! A proper little pot pie ($16), topped with golden, sugary pastry hiding a gooey, dark crimson mix of rhubarb and blueberries, with a bowl of creamy, classic vanilla-bean ice-cream. It has a sense of completeness that other dishes lack.

Like a group of strangers at a party, they need a catalyst, something to bring them together, so wine becomes the thing you enjoy the most here – the thing that inspires, satisfies and intrigues. Berta is still a warm, welcoming, buzzy inner-urban dining experience, but for me, it has shifted along the spectrum to be wine first, food second.

THE LOWDOWN
Best thing The blackboard list of wines by the glass.
Worst thing Really narrow tables for two – like really narrow.
Go-to dish Blueberry and rhubarb pie with vanilla-bean ice-cream ($16).

Terry Durack is chief restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald and senior reviewer for the Good Food Guide. This rating is based on the Good Food Guide scoring system.