Otto Ristorante Sydney

Few Sydney restaurants can notch up a decade in business and still pack 'em in. On a sunny day, boats bobbing alongside, Otto is as popular with arts, business and media luminaries as it is with air-kissing ladies who lunch, and about as good as Sydney gets. There's a cracking wine list, razor-sharp service and, with a broad, internationalist approach to Italian food, the kitchen is capable of great moments. Battered zucchini flowers filled with creamy salt cod is one of those, while a caprese salad is transformed by rich, creamy mozzarella and tomatoes that taste like a lazy summer's day. Spaghettini with scallops, cherry tomatoes and zucchini ribbons has good constituent parts but was ultimately plain, ditto gnocchi with braised beef cheeks, broccolini, radicchio and testun di barolo cheese. Dessert is a return to form. pineapple bavarois with passionfruit custard and yoghurt sorbet with oats, freeze-dried raspberries, coconut and shaved almonds is as artful as it's just plain delicious.