Romance in the air at Pino's Vino e Cucina

When it comes to a romantic dinner out, everybody loves Italian. Clearly, this dates back to 1955, when a certain mutt called Tramp took a gorgeous golden cocker spaniel called Lady out for spaghetti in Disney's Lady & The Tramp, and they had what can only be described as a bella notte.

They could have come to Pino's, actually, a very romantic little trattoria at a roundabout in Alexandria. Young co-owners, former Black Star Pastry chef Matteo Margiotta and Diane McDonald, have transformed a corner pizza shop into what looks and acts like a warm, woody wine bar, with joint head chef Matteo Boschiero Preto joining after the opening in January.

Add flickering candlelight, tiered ranks of bottles behind the bar and a short menu of southern Italian food and it's total date night material.

Like a lot of date nights, however, it's a bit up and down. "Up" is anything ordered from barman Antonello Arzedi, especially a lovely Americanello of vermouth, Campari, pomegranate and London soda ($18) devised by London cocktail maestro Salvatore Calabrese. It's also a daily special of olive ripiene ($9), the plump green olives crumbed and deep-fried until bronzed, stuffed not with pork but lamb, making them taste even more Abruzzese.

A board of different meats and cheese from the pizzicheria (the Roman term for salumeria) list also makes a great opener. Choose any three ($30) or five ($45) and prosciutto di Parma, mortadella and pecorino, say, will come with terrific house-made grissini, tomato-tinted puffs of gnocchi fritti and grilled sourdough along with caperberries, pickles and some gratuitous fruit.

Strangely, it's the house-made pasta that takes it down. House-made tortelloni ($28) is filled with mushroom duxelles and served with a coarse, creamy walnut pesto. I assume it's designed for vegetarians, but they deserve more than thick pasta and bland flavours.

Tonnarelli with mussels ($24) is the closest thing to the cinematic spaghetti that brought Lady and her adoring Tramp to their first kiss. You can't go wrong with pasta in a nicely rich tomato sauce, although it's very '70s, encircled by a barricade of mussels that miss out on the sauce. One shell is badly cracked, and should never have made it onto the plate.

Swordfish is a good, light order, the pan-fried fish ($32) tasting clean and lean, teamed with a delicate little salad of parsley, fennel and radish. A small bowl of well-dressed panzanella ($10) feels meagre, with just two token cubes of crisped rye bread among the tomatoes.

A simple, nonna-like, torta di mele, or apple cake ($14), is all spice, sweetness and light.

There's a short but interesting list of Italian, French and Australian wines that includes a luminous Gelso della Valchetta Lilium Chardonnay from Rome ($13/$63) that balances freshness with notes of peach and citrus.

Pino's has already been dubbed "everyone's favourite new Italian", but I haven't fallen for it quite as hard. Confusion seems to reign in the kitchen (there have been new chef announcements, claims, counterclaims and retractions on a weekly basis), and the cooking has been erratic, flitting between professional and homely.

Let's hope it all settles down and becomes a sweet little neighbourhood spot that earns the love.

The lowdown

Best bit Great wine bar atmosphere.

Worst bit That bill sneaks up fast.

Terry Durack is chief restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Heraldand senior reviewer for the Good Food Guide. This rating is based on the Good Food Guide scoring system.