It’s true – we eat with our eyes first. When a sharp-looking waiter decked out in well-fitting blazer and tie wheels an antique trolley to our table and lifts the cloche to reveal the special – a volcanic rock spit-roasted Golden Plains porchetta – its crackling and pinkish flesh are all I can think about while perusing the menu. It’s a temptation mere mortals cannot resist.

Rolled and stuffed with rosemary, garlic and served with baby cos and jus, it turns out to be a must-order dish at the new Roman-focused La Rosa.

Yep, after six years as a casual pizza, pasta and wine bar, restaurateur Nino Zoccali (The Restaurant Pendolino) has given his Strand Arcade eatery La Rosa a Roman renovation. And the changes are stunning.

He acquired the talents of chefs Pablo Tordesillas Garcia (Ortiga Brisbane) and Joseph Giuffre (The Restaurant Pendolino) and took them on a face-stuffing trip to Rome along the coast and hinterland of the Lazio region. He installed a volcanic rock Roman grill and rotisserie to celebrate Australia’s best proteins from both land and sea. Though La Rosa has always had a slight Roman skew in food, as well as an extraordinary wine list that celebrates Italian regions as much as varietal, this is a full hat tilt to the techniques and ingredients of Italy’s capital.

Sit in the dimly lit dining room at double-white tableclothed tables set in rows and embrace some classic, often-forgotten silver service that somehow still delivers a smart wine bar sensibility too. It’s super professional, but not stuffy.

The Roman-style pizzas are light, malleable and slightly charred on the bottom. The classic margherita has a deep, rich tomato sauce and a few sweet basil leaves piled in the centre. A refreshing salad of zucchini flowers, almonds, onion, fennel and artichoke is brought together with quail eggs and organic gorgonzola.

Meanwhile butterflied and grilled Spencer Gulf king prawns get an earthly embrace from pureed walnut. Elegant ravioli pillows filled with ricotta and pecorino are simply garnished with black pepper. Sage, cavolo nero, pine nuts and lemon burnt butter provide the ideal base for rich fillets of Eyre Peninsula leatherjacket that’s wrapped in lardo and roasted. Absolutely beautiful.

Then cumquat and bite-sized pieces of biscotti decorate a light, creamy ricotta and Italian meringue finale.

It’s easy to get caught up in the joy and energy of the new wave of Aussie venues that have shed their formal, finer dining skin for a more relaxed one, but we should never let go of the majesty of eating out either. By looking into the past, La Rosa Roman Grill looks set for quite a fantastic future.