Crisp white-cloaked tables, a stylish, smart restaurant interior and a water vista that shows off Middle Bay and Pearl Harbour make for a glamorous setting for lunch at modern-Italian restaurant Ormeggio at the Spit. From beginning to end, service is attentive, swift and informed. The first page of the wine list has barely been turned before the sommelier glides to the table to offer recommendations from the globe-trotting list. An a la carte menu, while not devoted to the classics, still feels authentically Italian.

Vitello tonnato, the traditional Piedmontese pairing of veal and tuna, is tender raw veal dressed with thin slices of radish and dotted with pine nuts, croutons and tuna mayonnaise. Salted cod, a dried, cured fish known as baccala, is poached in milk to soften, and the silky fish is then served under a creamy potato mousse quirkily described by the waiter as a “cappuccino”.

The aptly named ‘stressless Sunday’ menu is a weekly-changing 5-course degustation. Staff recite each dish, ingredient and preparation without faltering.

Soft housemade sourdough served with a creamy, smooth cream cheese-like ricotta is dotted with punchy chives and black pepper. Vegetables are shown the same respect as seafood, and pasta is in its element. A piquant goat’s cheese mousse is shrouded in different textures of mushroom and followed by a restorative mushroom and shallot broth that acts as a palate cleanser. Expertly prepared tagliolini is bound by a scampi bisque, oxheart tomato and the unusual and surprising addition of toasted walnuts for a truly memorable bowl of pasta. An elegant dessert is a nod to the classic tiramisu, a perfect quenelle of mascarpone gelato resting in a bed of coffee and chocolate crumble.

Must eat dish: handmade tagliolini with oxheart tomato, scampi and mixed nuts
Instagram: @ormeggio