Osteria Oggi

At this bustling Italian restaurant, food is best shared and volume levels are high. It’s regularly booked out on Friday and Saturday nights. Thankfully, seats at the entrance and along the large concrete bar are available for walk-ins.

The demand is warranted. Osteria Oggi has a dream team behind it. Simon Kardachi (Press Food & Wine, The Pot Food & Wine, Melt, Proof, Maybe Mae, Bread & Bone, Shobosho) and managing partner Christopher Woodcock put the diner together in 2015, along with wine guy Tim White and chefs Andrew Davies, Mimi Rivers, Nicola Pau and Max O’Callaghan.

With this much expertise on board, it’s no surprise to learn pasta and gnocchi are made fresh on the premises each day. Generous serves of meats are wood-smoked and slow-roasted. Formaggio is presented on its own trolley.

The fit-out is something special, too. The Studio-Gram-designed space won the Robert Dickson Award for Interior Architecture (SA Architecture Awards) and the Gold Award for Built Environment (2016 Design Institute of Australia Awards).

The layout includes a dining room in the underground cellar, where you can eat King Henry pork rack and a giant, dry-aged T-bone steak from Chianina cattle, designed to share.

A round marble table carries the load and the private, split-level room is also a fully functional cellar. It’s a quiet hideaway for corporates who want some privacy or people who just want a really great feed.