Sydney's Bar Grazie channels all our favourite Italian restaurants into one

This is Barry McDonald's 19th restaurant. I think I'll say that again. This is Barry McDonald's 19th restaurant.

Of the 18 before it, there were some beauties – the Paddington Inn with Steve Manfredi; Bistro Lulu with Luke Mangan; Cafe Nice with Josh Niland as head chef; and the original Cafe Sopra, which opened upstairs at Waterloo's game-changing produce store Fratelli Fresh in 2004, and was followed by five more.

There have been failures as well, of course, and good times and bad. But if this is a redemption story, then it's a great setting for it. Bar Grazie is McDonald's most serious restaurant since the Fratelli Fresh group sold to the Urban Purveyor (now Pacific Concepts) team in 2016.

Designed by George Gorrow and Steel & Stitch, it's a wood-panelled, strategically lit, almost subterranean space, showcasing a come-hither central bar, home to cocktail maestra Ana Page.

McDonald says it reflects an American/Italian dining aesthetic, but I get Melbourne/Italian; a hybrid of Caffe e Cucina, Il Bacaro and Florentino Cellar bar.

That's if you can find it. It's intentionally discreet, hidden behind curtained windows with little signage to advertise its presence.

The low profile seems to suit the power-broking crowd here, and the clubby, members-only atmosphere is aided by the fact that everyone here seems to know everyone else, either through business or around the 'hood.

The food is part of the deal; the kind of familiar Italian comfort food that you don't have to worry about or talk about. It's food that brings people closer, greases the wheels of business, and appeals to everyone. Insalata Caprese, pasta alla bolognese; everyone's favourite default Italian.

Head chef Jarrard Martin teamed up with McDonald two years ago at Cafe Giorgio in Potts Point, after time at Rockpool, Uccello and Mary's Underground. He can play it safe and steady with a pleasant chicken saltimbocca alla Romana ($32) or ramp it up with lobster with champagne sauce (market price).

Vitello tonnato ($26), the classic Piedmontese dish of finely sliced cooked veal coated with tuna mayonnaise and capers, is balanced with acidity yet still rich and lush, spiked with tiny capers and lemon segments. Add a side of rosemary focaccia ($9), for obvious reasons.

McDonald began as a provedore of premium fruit and veg, so heirloom tomatoes populate the Caprese salad ($18), and the melon slices that accompany folds of prosciutto ($26) are actually ripe.

That said, it's pretty meaty overall, from floppy, ridged tubes of rigatoni with a tomatoey lamb ragu ($32), to a sizzling 800-gram bistecca alla Fiorentina for two at $160. Great to share, this giant rib-eye ticks a lot of boxes for its richly marbled meat (grass-fed Angus mb2+ score from Pinnacle Beef), sliced into ruby-coloured fingers and reassembled against the crusty bone.

There's a good, earthy flavour to it that doesn't require the salsa verde, and the rubble of twice-cooked, salty, crisp-skinned spuds is moreish. Steak, potatoes, red wine. Can't go wrong, really.

Wine, in fact, is a strong point of both decor and experience. Each day, three or four bottles are opened and poured by the glass, like a beefy, organic 2018 Tuscan Giusti e Zanza Nemorino shiraz, merlot and sangiovese ($110).

The constant bustle is softened by tablecloths, linen napkins, and the sort of older waitstaff who act like predictive text. Start telling them your order and they will finish the sentence for you, because they've already worked out what you should have.

Had I left it to them, odds are they would have suggested the tiramisu, a Cafe Sopra staple, but I go for a slightly icy blueberry and mascarpone semifreddo ($18) instead. Which is fine, but it isn't tiramisu.

The old-school nature of Bar Grazie gives it a timeless quality; I hear several people say it could have been here forever.

And in a way it has, forming itself from all the other incarnations before it, channelling all our favourite Italian restaurants into one.

The low-down

Vibe Cosy, wine-lined, upscale Italian tratt

Go-to dish Vitello tonnato, $26

Drinks Four Italian beers, four spritzes, classic cocktails with a twist by Ana Page, and a hefty list of Italian and French wines

Terry Durack is chief restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald and senior reviewer for the Good Food Guide.