If it’s not the best restaurant group in Australia, it sure as hell mounts a solid case for it. The Porteño Group (Porteño, Bodega, Bodega 1904, among others) has an uncanny knack of delivering restaurants Sydney needs. The new CBD outpost of Newtown’s Continental is no exception.

It epitomises the group’s signature attention to detail in the polished food, design and all-are-welcome ambience. And while the original has given Sydney the deli it dreamed of – with killer cold cuts, cheeses and tinned seafood and cheeky canned cocktails (hello, Mar-Tinny) and reliable Mediterranean-leaning bistro fare – the CBD incarnation offers all that but in a more complete restaurant package.

The drinks list, by Michael Nicolian and Joe Valore, is worth the visit alone, while chefs Elvis Abrahanowicz and Jesse Warkentin have created a menu that’s similarly alluring yet enticingly different to the Newtown original. And although the food suits sharing, it leans more towards single dishes. It’s a bob each way, but still knockyour- socks-off delicious.

Among the smaller plates, slices of nectarine play off thick-cut kingfish crudo doused in a vinaigrette spiked with ’nduja, while stracciatella and dill form the tasty base for three iterations of cucumber (fresh, pickled and fermented). Just-cooked swordfish, in one of the heftier dishes, might come with gribiche, lemon brown butter and green beans, and the ever-changing roster of pasta dishes might include squid-ink rigatoni teamed with pork sausage, broccolini, cuttlefish and bottarga. Good lord, it’s good.

Where the original feels like a wine bar with cracking food, this is more like a restaurant proper, with the trademark smart-casual service (albeit with bar-level ebullience). And, sure, the crowd here is more suit than inner-west hipster, but, as this group proves time and time again, everyone is welcome at its table.