Former Sagra owner Nigel Ward opens Passeggiata in Waverley

When Nigel Ward told Good Food last year he was "building the restaurant I want to go to" we didn't realise the former owner of Darlinghurst's Sagra meant he was actually jumping on the tools.

But Ward offers a splinter by splinter tour of Passeggiata, the Waverley restaurant he opened this week.

He had some help. Like proper tradies and designer Tim Leveson, who helped turn walls into towering archways with an interior that takes its cues from the late Fellini era and possesses a brighter colour palette than a Pucci pantsuit.

"The building is the perfect width," Ward says of the Bronte Road terrace. He searched long and hard for the location for a Sagra sequel, toying with Chippendale before settling on a burgeoning strip with Feather & Bone and Frank's Deli for neighbours.

He's squeezed a lot of brass and bar into Passeggiata's wide five-metre wingspan of pressed-metal ceilings. And Ward is there for the long-haul, having purchased the building.

If the dining surrounds – comfortable and the music volume low – are Ward's idea of the type of place he likes to eat, the menu doesn't stray far from what Sydney has come to expect from him at Sagra, and a later stint as head chef at Uccello.

The menu will constantly change, but Passeggiata's first week saw swordfish crudo with blood orange compete for attention with spanner crab tagliolini, chicken sotto mattone and pappardelle with braised goat.

His dessert pitch is more quality over quantity, it's either tiramisu or a fig leaf pannacotta with mulberries.

Passeggiata is a tardis Ward will activate slowly. Upstairs he'll just do large groups and functions until Christmas. The backyard is sprawling enough to accommodate vine-covered suburban dreams, but for the moment remains a distant project. The rest is already here.

Open Tue-Sat dinner; Fri lunch.

318 Bronte Road, Waverley, 02 9184 7747, passeggiata.net.au