In this Italian-hearted city, excellent pizza and pasta always have a place above dining fads and trends.

Take Windsor’s Tipico, a thoroughly modern Italian bistro from two young guns with runs on the board – Andrea Da Como, formerly of DOC and The Builders Arms, and Marco Scalisi, late of Ti Amo and Tokyo Tina – but where classic flavours rule and tradition is something to revel in, not disrupt.

The fit-out is sleek, its epicentre a hulking terrazzo concrete bar where your Aperol spritz, espresso martini or fruity nebbiolo will emanate from.

Alongside house-made pasta and 12 pizzas from chef Daniele Colombo’s kitchen, there are must-order beef and veal meatballs topped with a fresh burst of tomato sugo and slices of parmesan, and crisp-fried curls of calamari to swipe through squid-ink mayo.

Mains extend to a veal cutlet with a chunky crumb or blushing-pink organic saltbush lamb rump with Jerusalem artichokes.

Back to those pizzas. The bases manage to be at once light, crunchy and chewy, and land fabulously blistered from the 380-degree oven. Ours, with broccoli bits and juicy nubs of pork and fennel sausage nestled in creamy fior di latte, was comfort plus.

A side dish of baby carrots with goat’s milk yoghurt and slivered almonds also hit the bullseye.

End sweet with the chocolate mousse, its intense rich whip tempered with hazelnut crumb, berries and biscuit bits, or a buffalo milk pannacotta with the subtle lilt of chamomile and honey.

Service is breezy yet attentive, and sparkling water is gratis. There’s also a well-considered kids’ menu. Since opening in June, Tipico has been ticking the boxes for both style and substance.