The Italian

The Italian boys who have opened The Italian in Willoughby have gone on record as saying they want it to be like "an affordable trip to Italy". What with Qantas now flying to Rome for about $1500 economy, it's probably an achievable aim.

Mind you, they've spent a bit themselves setting it up. Daniel Sofo, who owns the Firefly bracelet of tapas bars at Walsh Bay, Lane Cove and Neutral Bay, has teamed up with Firefly's Walsh Bay manager, Adam Lyons, and installed his own brother, Olivier Sofo, in the kitchen. They've also attracted two young Italian pizza makers to work the wood-fired oven.

It gets pretty wild here on a Friday lunchtime, with a tribe of women sporting ocelot, leopard and tiger prints on bags, boots and loosely knotted scarves. I wouldn't dare suggest this gender majority has to do with the fact the staff are all personable young men of varying stages of Italianness but, according to my wife, it doesn't hurt.

It's pleasant enough in the schoolroom-size square of a room anyway, with its rustic, brown woods, bentwood chairs, long bottle-lined, marble-top bar, exposed brick walls and tall windows thrown open to a small street-side terrace. The Italian has imported itself into one of the north shore's growing number of interesting new food precincts, amid Harris Farm, High St Bistro, the crowd-pulling, coffee-pushing Dose Espresso and cute new Tokyo-pop Japanese all-rounder, Gochiso.

With a name like "The Italian", you sort of know what you're in for when you arrive, and sure enough, the menu lists antipasti, insalata, house-made pasta, and 16 pizza options featuring both rosso (with tomato) and bianche (without).

A bowl of mixed warm olives and wood-fired fennel grissini ($10.50) is an easy, lazy way to start, the grissini rolled long and needle-thin, with a good crisp-then-soft bite that augurs well for the pizza dough. Salumi misti ($15) is an equally obvious first course, the local Quattro Stelle prosciutto, culatello and mortadella arriving freshly sliced but a little cold still, with sourdough on the side.

The Italian is clearly trying to position itself above your normal neighbourhood tratt with its open kitchen and modern outlook. Bookings are online only; there is no BYO, and it does some smart things with wine, like featuring an Italian grape variety of the week. Today it's sangiovese, with three different examples by the glass, including a solid, if unremarkable, chianti from Fattoria Casabianca, at $10. The mainly Italian wine list runs all the way up to the Grattamacco Bolgheri Superiore Super Tuscan for $190; not exactly your first choice with a bowl of pasta perhaps.

As it happens, the rigatoni al pastore ($22), a Calabrian shepherd's pasta with pork sausage, fennel and ricotta, is a victim of my expectations. I wasn't expecting the pasta to be wholemeal, the sausage to be firm and sliced instead of soft and crumbled, and the dish to be in such need of seasoning. Then again, an insalata di cavolo nero ($16) is fabulous; a mound of finely shredded, lightly bitter, dark green leaves mingled with green beans tossed with the richness of pecorino and pinenuts. Too many pinenuts, perhaps, but a great late-winter salad that's almost a meal in itself.

The pizza, my knee-jerk favourite of prosciutto and rocket ($23), suggests these young Italians are on a mission to keep things light and healthy. The fine, large round of dough is lightly daubed with tomato, not overloaded with mozzarella, and baked until puffy at the edges. Another minute in the oven would have helped the base remain crisper longer, but the lightness of hand is welcome.

Then there's a rustic, oily Sicilian eggplant caponata strewn over a slab of golden polenta ($18), and slightly pasty mamma's own meatballs in a classic Napoli sauce ($11). To finish, it has to be tiramisu ($10) of course, made to the original recipe of the restaurant Le Beccherie in Treviso, published in 1981 (which makes it younger than Australia's remarkably similar chocolate ripple cake. They copied us!) And yes, it's very lush, rich, creamy and sweet. Tiramisu, in other words.

Service is breezy and helpful, and the focus on wine is a big plus. Seasoning overall seems to be hit and miss, but it's a lively room in which to dine, and a handy spot to know in the lower north. Not Italy exactly, but sufficiently reminiscent to make you go to qantas.com.au and check the price of those fares again.

tdurack@smh.com.au.

The low-down

Best bit The lively Italian tratt buzz.

Worst bit Some hit-and-miss seasoning.

Go-to dish Prosciutto, rocket and parmigiano pizza, $23.

The Italian

Address 191 High Street, Willoughby; phone 9967 5469 (takeaway),  theitalianwilloughby.com.au.
Open Lunch, Thurs-Sun; dinner, Tues-Sun (bookings online only).
Licensed Yes, no BYO.
Cost About $70 for two, plus drinks.