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Sud

Lenny Ann Low
Lenny Ann Low

Warm, busy and handsome: Sud restaurant in Concord.
Warm, busy and handsome: Sud restaurant in Concord.Brianne Makin

Italian$$

We are 10 minutes into visiting Sud and the small girl at the table has been kissed twice by waiters, serenaded by another and dubbed "our princess".

She takes it in her stride, whipping in a warm olive and sitting in a cupboard.

Sud, which means south, has lots of cupboards. This warm, busy and handsome southern Italian restaurant's rectangular space is lined with plywood box shelving holding Italian oils, tinned tomatos, pasta, panettone, condiments and cutlery. One has room for a small girl and no one minds her resting there.

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The capricciosa pizza with ham, olives, mushrooms and boiled egg.
The capricciosa pizza with ham, olives, mushrooms and boiled egg.Brianne Makin

Sud seats 160 and is the brainchild of Paolo Gatto, a Sicilian already lauded for Gatto Matto, his four-year-old restaurant in Five Dock. Its newer cousin, sitting on a corner in Concord, is divided between a long interior space and an outdoor area with a marquee-like roof and ivy growing up the wall. When we visit, a birthday party for an evidently very popular, balloon-loving 80-year-old is in full swing out there.

Inside is cosy and full of couples and family groups sitting on US Navy-style aluminium chairs and padded banquette seating at grey tables. The bustling open kitchen is framed by exposed brick, more produce-bearing shelving and a window showing a bevy of hanging cured meats.

A highly glamorous, life-size image of Sophia Loren reposes on the bathroom door, and nearby is an equally vivid photographic wall mural of a retro-red Vespa parked in a village street. Diners near it look as if they are sipping prosecco in a small Italian laneway while waiting for their capocollo di maiali.

Home-made cannoli with vanilla or ricotta custard.
Home-made cannoli with vanilla or ricotta custard.Brianne Makin
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​Our capocollo di maiali has already arrived and is waiting patiently for its turn. First we eat a plate of arancini, crispy, piping hot golden balls filled with ragu and peas.

Another entree winner is alivi​ ncaminati​ cu pani - warm, oven-baked black olives with nduja calabrese and sardines. The calabrese, a spicy, spreadable pork sausage, hits the tongue like a richly chilli-flavoured firecracker. Balanced with the aromatic olives and the soft sardines, it's a dish to savour.

The capocollo di maiale is slow-cooked pork neck with baked potatoes, caramelised red onion and oil, lemon and oregano sauce (salmoriglio). On paper this suggests a "meat so tender it melts" scenario. It's not that, but full-bodied, tender and well paired with the zesty sauce.

The stars of our mains are two pizzas, including the capricciosa, with tomato, fiordilatte mozzarella, ham, olives, mushrooms, boiled egg and peas. When it arrives it looks like an aerial shot of a wildflower-covered summer meadow. A speckled field of top-notch pizza, it is swiftly dispatched. 

The siciliana also features fiordilatte mozzarella plus potato, sausage and rosemary. It is marvellous, the dough light but not dry. We drag the soft crust through the rich pizza sauces left behind and quaff our glasses of Sud's house red.

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The small girl, long since emerged from the cupboard, is stuffed but joins in for some home-made cannoli with vanilla custard. Everyone noodles their tongues inside the sweet pastry tubes to get the custard before chewing the crisp shell contentedly.

When we ask for the bill, the serenading waiter returns to farewell the princess. "You will come again and sit in the cupboard?" Oh yes. And relish earthy street food fuelled by spice, cooking expertise and southern Italian warmth.

THE LOW-DOWN
THE PICKS Alivi ncaminati cu pani, capricciosa pizza, cannoli 
THE DRINKS Compact, well-chosen list of wines, classic cocktails and beer, plus fine "shakerati" milkshakes
THE LOOK Modern rustic bistro with warm plywood interior and industrial-style fittings
THE SERVICE Attentive and lovely

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Lenny Ann LowLenny Ann Low is a writer and podcaster.

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