Is there any point talking about the pretzel at 10 William St anymore? As far as Sydney food goes, the dish from the much-loved Paddington local is as near iconic as Tetsuya’s confit ocean trout. So let’s not talk about it other than to say; if you can improve on excellence, it’s possibly gotten even better since they began using local bottarga made by chef-turned-producer Giovanni Pilu. But there are other things worth talking about here.

Without dwelling on the downside to a restaurant that doesn’t take reservations, if you’re planning a Saturday night out, be prepared for a long wait – it’s been known to be up to 3 hours.

However, it’s a place where patience pays off: service is incredibly swift, the kitchen, headed up by Enrico Tomelleri, churns out the food at a very decent pace and it’s difficult to criticize the long wait times once you are devouring a bowl of spaghetti chittara in the cosy bar.

The luscious egg pasta that hails from Abruzzo is coated in a creamy sauce flecked with zucchini and pipis. The pasta is made with confidence and skill, a lovely match for the elegant seafood sauce. Scallop and n’duja is a surf ‘n’ turf combo at it’s best – the soft bite-sized aperitivo is a mouthful of the spicy spreadable Calabrian salami on toast with a fat, sweet scallop nestled on top.

A rich goat ragu clings to silky ribbons of hand-cut pappardelle and nettle. And it’s not just the food that satisfies – an excellent wine menu lists varieties stretching from Lazio, to Languedoc, to local homegrown favourites.

Must eat dish: scallop and n’duja toast