Hobson's Bay Hotel

ROSA Mitchell has carved herself a unique perch on the Melbourne restaurant tree in the past few years. Her thoroughly appealing take on home-style Sicilian cooking has become so emphatically tied to her name that she has morphed into her own brand, a sort of one-woman pop-up restaurant known as Rosa's Kitchen, but only colloquially so she's able to pack up her concept and travel with it with relative ease.

The name Rosa's Kitchen first started being bandied about during her stint as head chef at Con Christopoulos's Flinders Lane joint, Journal Canteen. Starting as a moniker for those in the know, the name became so much a part of the restaurant's identity that a small ''Rosa's Kitchen'' sign in red neon found its way into one of the restaurant's windows.

Early this year, Rosa parted company with Journal Canteen and crossed the bay to Williamstown. She set up shop in the Hobson's Bay Hotel, a Victorian-era pub on Ferguson Street that's been given a somewhat soulless modern renovation (including a bar with murky illuminated features) that will most likely make those fond of the previous incarnation of Rosa's Kitchen's start pining for its more compact plywood and apple-green lines. That room was simply a better match with Rosa's trademark rustic food than this present one with its linen and butcher-paper-covered tables, chunky modern couches clustered here and there and a giant TV screen hovering blankly on one wall.

The good news is Rosa now has a larger kitchen in which to work, allowing her the freedom to expand her menu in terms of both size and ambition.

Bigger, of course, does not always mean better but in this case the advantages of expansion are immediately and beautifully apparent. Take the fish of the day ($30), for example: the fish (barramundi, at the moment, and a very fine, clean-tasting version it is) is pan-fried so it's crisp on the skin side and firm and juicy elsewhere. It's then placed in a beautiful, glistening brodetto (by way of Sicily and Sardinia), a dark-red broth made with fish and swimmer crab stock, flavoured with tomatoes and saffron, with a fine bed of pale white fregola lurking in the shallow depths. It's a superb dish, seemingly simple but with a finely tuned, complex flavour due to the broth, which provides a nice counterpoint to the homely, comforting chewiness of the fregola and the sweetness of the fish.

The fish is one of about six main courses - mostly meaty - which, combined with three pasta dishes, several sides (including the must-try baked fennel with parmesan, $8.50), antipasto, entrees and several desserts, shows this menu is a more restaurant-y kind of beast than in the more limited osteria-like past.

The wine list, too, speaks a restaurant-like language, albeit at very reasonable prices more reminiscent of the pub. It has a good selection of Italian labels (including some specials listed on a blackboard that, strangely, is almost completely obscured by an oversized, plant-filled urn) plus some very good Australian drinking among a collection that favours the artisan and boutique. This restaurant approach does stumble at the service hurdle. Visit on a quiet night and things might go smoothly - save for the occasional wayward drink - but busier nights can be problematic due to an overwhelmingly young and inexperienced staff.

Still, when the food is as good as this a lot can be forgiven. The antipasto plate ($17/$29) remains something of a calling card and a promise of things to come. It's a seasonally changing selection that is usually mostly about plantlife: brilliant little cauliflower fritters, chunks of beetroot tossed with shreds of baked ricotta, julienne celeriac dressed with red wine vinegar and tossed with capers, beautiful juicy green olives, fennel tossed with pieces of black olives and blood orange. In the colder months, it can have a bigger meat component that might include excellent salami and prosciutto alongside not-so-impressive pancetta.

Calamari ($19) comes in roughly cut ''rags'', brown at the edges and sprightly flavoured, tossed in a salad of chunky fried croutons, radicchio and cannellini beans, a brilliant meeting of textures and flavours that manages to come across as both robust and delicately balanced.

Comfort food-wise, it's hard to go past Rosa's version of eggplant parmigiana ($14), a voluptuously coloured and flavoured beauty, all soft and slippery textures, including breadcrumbs that are softened and moistened in the superb, deeply flavoured tomato sugo.

Also good is the penne ($22), tossed with nicely salty shredded duck meat, chunks of mushroom and parsley, and slow-braised pork neck ($26). The tender braised meat gives off lovely whiffs of the wild fennel seeds and tomato with which it shared the pan.

Desserts include a dark-chocolate budino tart with grappa olive oil ($13.50) but those in the know will understand that one of Rosa's strengths is her cake making. One of the best ways to finish a meal at Rosa's Kitchen is to mix up some of her very Italian cakes - dense, moist, not too sweet and all about fruit and nuts - with a selection of ice-cream. The rhubarb and almond tart teamed with vanilla ice-cream, or the sour cherry and walnut cake with honeycomb ice-cream are knee-weakeningly good ways to bring the meal to a happy conclusion.

The latest incarnation of Rosa's Kitchen has its ups and downs. But although the room and the service might have lost something in translation, the expanded kitchen capacity means there is so much more of a very good thing. Add a wine list that offers plenty of good things to drink but doesn't torture your credit card and there are many reasons to be cheerful. Some things might have changed but, at its heart, Rosa's Kitchen remains the same.

Where 28 Ferguson Street, Williamstown

Phone 9397 5159

Food Sicilian

Cost Typical entree, $17; main, $30; dessert, $13.50

Wine list A smart, appealing and well-priced list that spends an equal amount of time in Italy and Australia.

We drank 2007 Antica Enotria Aglianico, $40

Owner Claude Aquaro

Chef Rosa Mitchell

Value Good

Service Bumpy

Noise Lively

Vegetarian Limited - one entree

Dietary Gluten-free options

Parking Street

Wheelchairs No

Cards AE DC MC V Eftpos

Hours Daily, noon-3pm, 6-9.30pm