Merchant Osteria Veneta

Merchant nails that tricky blend of casual and sophisticated, with typical Italian brio and eager-to-please service. It's a lively drop-in-anytime place, for coffee and biscotti, an after-work aperitivo or for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Stand at the tiled bar to sip prosecco and enjoy Venetian bar snacks of saffron-laced arancini. Or snaffle a stool by the open kitchen for a simple lunch of char-grilled fish, perhaps firm-fleshed hapuku with delicate parsley and anchovy aioli. Hungry? Wave away the 10-section menu and indulge in the well-priced San Marco's Feast, letting the chef decide what's good on the day. This might be bigoli pasta with blue swimmer crab and grilled radicchio, or custardy polenta from a machine that delivers 10 kilos a day of the 'soft-serve' Veneto speciality. The meat course could be braised rabbit leg, given a pleasing sweet-tangy lift with sultanas, onions and pinenuts, while dessert might be white chocolate and mango bavarois, rolled in toasted coconut.