There’s something satisfying about eating with your hands. Perhaps it triggers the tastebuds before the morsel even makes it to your mouth.

Sure we had cutlery at Sotto Sopra, but when the first dish arrived – baccala mantecato, a golden chickpea pancake filled with delectable whipped salt cod – we felt compelled to pick it up, taco-style, and let it drip down our fingers. Bread rolls, laden with garlic and topped with fried rosemary were just as appetising, but not everything hits such heights.

Sotto Sopra is the casual sibling of award-winning Ormeggio at the Spit and has given those even further north a taste of chef and co-owner Alessandro Pavoni’s precise take on Italian.

The name Sotto Sopra means upsidedown and the space reflects that. The kitchen and bar sit on a mezzanine level overlooking the dining room below.

Guests perch at communal tables or along a wooden bench leaning on large cushions pressed against the glass wall that curves around the perimeter.

Although well executed, the food doesn’t always meet expectation. A sea urchin emulsion is slightly jarring amid the crunch of crostini and mild, creamy, milk-fed veal tartare.

Cacciucco pie is more like a seafood soup, with octopus, prawns, mussels and white fish wading in a tomato broth beneath a thin pastry top.

Meanwhile, stunning fillets of Port Lincoln sardines seem a bit lost on a pungent black garlic and chilli spaghetti mancini that reminds me of a Mee Goreng. The textural give of paccheri scoglio (thick textured pasta tubes) is pleasing when lathered in a sauce made from prawn heads.

For dessert, a large, solid slab of tiramisu ticks all the boxes.

Still, with genuine Italian staff and an all-Italian wine list, this newbie may put Newport on the culinary map.