Osteria Oggi is newly opened in Pirie Street, Adelaide, in a stretch of new eateries. The restaurant is deceptively large. Walking in the front door there’s a long concrete bench stretching right to the back with some seating along it and a bar behind. At the end, around the corner, is a large light-filled room with long communal tables and booths nestled into the wall.

The Italian menu offers small plates, cured meats, pasta, risotto (although only on Tuesday nights), sides, desserts and share plates (lunch only).

The menu was very appealing with a wide range of choices, which made it difficult to decide what to have for lunch.

We decided on two pasta dishes.

First was the squid ink gnocchetti with squid, saffron and crustacean cream. The dish looked beautiful with the black gnocchetti offset by the slim strands of squid. The gnocchetti was cooked al dente and the squid was tender. And I could taste the silky olive oil used in the dish. The gnocchetti quickly soaked up the crustacean cream.

We also ordered the tagliatelle, beef ragu and roasted bone marrow. Both dishes were an ideal serving size for lunch. The beef ragu was very tender, with a good sprinkling of pepper and cheese on top. The dish was served with a spoon, to scoop out the marrow from the bone.

For dessert I had the panna cotta with honeycomb sauce. The vanilla bean panna cotta had a perfect wobble and offset the richness of the honeycomb sauce.

Although this time we didn’t have any wine, we noticed the wine list did feature many wines from Italy, with a few from South Australia, other regions of Australia and New Zealand.

Our waiter was attentive although she was unsure of what soft drinks were available and was unable to explain how one of the desserts was presented, but that can be learnt in time.

I look forward to returning soon!