Just the right degree of comfort at Culina et Vinum

The whole idea of comfort food makes me feel uncomfortable. I get that different food has nostalgic or sentimental value for different people, but as Wikipedia points out, eating steak, mashed potato and chocolate ice-cream is a response to emotional stress, and a key contributor to obesity. It's even referred to as self-medication.

A far less stressful take on comfort food and self-medication can be seen on the menu of the new Culina et Vinum in Elizabeth Bay. Grain Bakery bread, chicken liver parfait, meat, pickles and cheese.

Tagliatelle with cacio e pepe, saffron risotto with cuttlefish, pork belly with cauliflower. Treacle (tart?) with buttermilk sorbet, cheeses and jam.

It's a clever, please-all menu that Naomi Lowry, a chef with roots in Britain who has worked her way around the Sydney traps from Pilu to Popolo, calls "cherry-picked European".

It's also a clever, please-all place to be in; with Studio Messa's design turning what has been a rather awkward semi-submerged space into something dark-walled and green-leafed.

It allows for an easy welcome, bright kitchen, bustling bar, dark nether regions, a back wall of blackboard, and a sunny little tabled terrace for weekend breakfasts.

Waiters – of whom there seem to be a never-ending supply – know how to keep the comfort levels coming, under co-owner Abhinav (Abhi) Mahadevan, son of Abhi's and Aki's Kumar Mahadevan.

The creamy, light, loose brandade of salt cod ($14) served with ash-black Melba toast is an ace starter to share, maybe with a Cinzano bianco with ginger ale, cucumber and lemon ($14).

There's pepper-cured mackerel ($17) with an ajo blanco of emulsified olive oil, garlic and almonds as well, but the hunk of fish I try has its issues; the flesh so lightly cured it wrestles with the knife and tastes more raw than cured.

On arrival, saffron risotto looks too busy for its own good, the soupy rice topped with strips of cuttlefish, cherry toms and sea lettuce ($27). But once you get your fork in there, it all comes together very nicely.

There's a box-ticking pork belly, of course – boned, pressed, and teamed with cauliflower puree, crumbs of blood sausage and slices of fresh apple ($34) – but the main course that really hits the spot is spatchcock, ($36).

Roasted to a healthy tan and jointed, it comes with a pile of wilted kale, broad beans, and the most perfect baked and caramelised onion, still in its skin. Clean flavours, contrasting textures, seasonal relevance – it's not really that hard, is it?

Adding the Latin "vinum" to the name shows commitment to the drinking side of things, and the wine list is a contemporary but not cliquey commute through Euro and Oz boutique labels, including a juicy, unfined and unfiltered 2015 Fikkers Two Bricks (hehe) Sangiovese ($64) from the Yarra Valley.

Dessert gets a deconstruct, but there's still comfort to be had in grandma's scones ($16), a Christmassy amalgam of scone crumbs, vanilla mascarpone and house-made ricotta, strawberry jelly and fresh strawberries.

There's a good neighbourhood feel about Culina, and genuine warmth from the moment you walk in.

OK, it's not exciting; but nor is it boring. It's just pleasant food and wine in a nice place. Is that enough? Depends on your stress levels, I'd say.

The lowdown

Culina et Vinum

Vegetarian Mostly cheese-based (taleggio croquettes, burrata with radicchio and fennel; cacio e pepe tagliatelle)

Drinks Martinis, lagers and single malt whiskies, plus close to 20 wines by the glass from labels old and new.

Go-to dish Roast spatchcock, blackened onion, broad beans, brassicas, $36

Pro tip You can match your weekend breakfast to a marmalade breakfast martini.

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