Pompei's

With its gelato cabinet of gleaming chrome domes, outdoor tables and interior of ocean-hued tiles, this Bondi stalwart embodies why we do love to be beside the surfside - especially if it vaguely resembles Venice Lido. Charming Italian-accented waiters brandish menus boasting house-made pasta and pizza and a few meaty mains, including a crunchily crumbed veal milanese pizzaiola style, topped with buffalo mozzarella and tomato. A sausage and broccoli pizza was so-so, the broccoli steamed rather than oven-scorched, but the base was thin and crisp, the organic tomato sauce fresh and sweet. Crescents of fine pasta filled with earthy beetroot puree and swathed with burnt butter, poppyseed and sage are lovely. A cabbage and pecorino salad with aged balsamic lacked the requisite balance of acidity, sweetness and cheesiness. But there's always the stellar gelato. An after-dinner passeggiata is all the sweeter with scoops of Piedmont hazelnut or the peachiest white peach sorbet.