Riva above the marina

Riva occupies the level above Rose Bay Marina on New South Head Road, in Sydney's eastern suburbs. What it looks out on is the working part of the bay: moored boats, ferries crossing, the far shore behind them. That is the reason the room is laid out the way it is, long and open along the water. The interior takes the Italian Riviera as a reference and handles it as an influence rather than a copy, with vintage detailing, warm light and nothing that shouts.

The materials are soft and the colours gently sun-faded: woven rattan, linen on the tables, tones the light has already been through. It reads as a room assembled over years rather than fitted out in one go. A private dining space opens off the main room with the same treatment and its own view of the berths. Below, boats come and go all afternoon. Above, the sound is conversation, glassware and whatever the bar is shaking.

The cooking is coastal Italian and it leans on three things: pasta made by hand, seafood, and produce that changes with the season. Plates are meant for the middle of the table, and a group that orders across the menu eats better than one ordering a course each. The wine list puts Italian varietals and their regions first, with Australian growers to answer them, while the bar keeps to aperitifs, vermouths and the flavours of the coast.

Five days a week, Wednesday to Sunday, and lunch is the bigger of the two services. It opens at midday midweek and half past eleven at the weekend, with no hurry to turn a table before three. Dinner is the shorter one, from six. Between them the room takes couples, a table of eight, a birthday, and groups of up to 24 eating from a set menu. Beyond that the floor is hired whole, for as many as 140 guests.