Verde

Owner and chef Antonio Ruggerino hails from Calabria, where family and hearty fare matter most, and he's brought that approach to this cosy yet chic little eatery. Verde's upstairs bar is adorned with Ruggerino's vintage poster collection and the downstairs dining room is all warm, dark timbers and glass doors opening onto the street. Start with antipasti, perhaps snowy, milky buffalo mozzarella with ripe tomato and basil or fried zucchini flowers filled with spinach-flecked ricotta. Mains centre on homemade pasta, meat and fish. spatchcock is roasted to golden crispness and served simply with chopped eggplant, grape tomatoes, olives and aioli, while nicely cooked barramundi, its crunchy skin satisfyingly salty, rests on green lentils braised with spinach, celery and parsley. Light-as-clouds meringue sandwiching chopped banana and mascarpone with butterscotch sauce and vanilla gelato is texturally frenetic but hits the right flavour notes.