Italian you know and love at Passeggiata

You've been here before, but you haven't. Your first visit to this new neighbourhood trattoria in Waverley will bring a sense of deja vu (I'd translate this to Italian but deja vu in Italian is apparently "deja vu"), of something already seen, something familiar.

It could be the spanner crab tagliolini, with its echoes of Lucio's in Paddington, which closed in 2021 after a mighty 38 years.

Or crisp, fried school prawns that trigger memories of Sunday lunches at Sean's Panaroma in Bondi Beach. Or ricotta ravioli with cherry tomatoes in a repeat performance from Sagra, which opened on Stanley Street in 2015.

None of this is altogether surprising, given that Passeggiata owner and chef Nigel Ward cooked at Sean's and Lucio's and opened Sagra in 2015, as well as head-cheffing at The Ivy's Uccello. Adding to the sense of the familiar is former head sommelier of Lucio's, Dirk Bromley, expertly pouring Italian wines behind the bar.

Sit down, and your friends will be at the next table, or at least on it. Fried zucchini flowers. Kingfish crudo. Pappardelle with braised lamb. Negroni, Aperol spritz, soave, verdicchio, pinot grigio, chianti and primitivo. Nothing alien, nothing untoward.

And yet … nothing that isn't special, either. The underlying philosophy that hand-made beats bought-in means the focaccia ($10) is a stand-out in its freshness, lightness, large open-weave innards and crisp, crackly top.

It goes with everything, even those crisp, fried school prawns ($25), scattered with fried parsley and served with prawn head aioli.

There's not actually much meat in the little fellas, but the salty head-to-tail crunch is enough.

Pasta is hand-made daily, and forms the backbone of the menu. That spanner crab tagliolini ($36) changes course from Lucio's, served here as fine ribbons of eggy pasta that blush red with fermented Calabrian chilli, adding warmth without being too pushy.

Ravioli ($32) is gentle and summery with a good fat/acid balance, the ricotta mild and sweet, tomatoes sharp, and pasta fine enough to be silky.

Time to pause and look around. It's a sweet place to be; narrow, not too big, and glowing sunny yellow, with a quirky curve of banquette colonising the windows to each side of the front door, held open by a brick wrapped in cotton and tied with twine.

Designer Tim Leveson has layered panels and tiles along walls and bar leading to a split-level kitchen, with a second dining room upstairs open to the balcony.

Ward and Belfast-born head chef Ryan Crothers offer only a couple of mains: "pesce del giorno", and chicken sotto mattone ($42), literally, chicken under a brick.

The free-range Camden Valley Farm chicken is brined, boned, flattened and grilled under a 1.6-kilogram metal fish weight from Josh Niland until the skin is crisp, sent out with some pan juices and nutty, soft, new-season garlic. It's an open invitation to add a bowl of desiree potatoes ($15); twice-fried, garlicky, crusty, chunky.

The kitchen shows restraint, but still insists each dish stands in its own shoes. So buffalo mozzarella ($26) is sent out fully dressed; strewn with olive oil, shaved bottarga and slivers of raw artichoke heart, with the crunch of pangrattato making each mouthful more interesting.

A platter of lightly cooked mussels comes hiding a spring stew of broad beans and fresh peas, with a few little fried polenta nuggets riding along for fun.

You may have guessed the dessert choice already, and yes, it's tiramisu and panna cotta; the latter ($15) delicate and trembling, elegantly infused with fig leaf and paired with fat mulberries.

See what he did there? Elevated a stock-standard Italian dish by making it a seasonal one instead.

Passeggiata isn't a walk on the wild side of Italian cuisine, but a leisurely stroll through the classics and favourites, with familiar sights, sounds and smells along the way.

Ward went all-in and bought the property, so there's a sense this is his dream restaurant. The locals clearly think it's theirs, too.

The low-down

Passeggiata

Vibe Simple but elevated Italian neighbourhood tratt

Go-to dish Mussels primavera, fried polenta $29

Drinks Peroni, aperitivi and Dirk Bromley's well-priced, all-Italian wine list

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.