One of the city's Italian dining institutions is better than ever.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS are most important in business and pleasure, but in many restaurants this simply is forgotten.

Make a phone booking, and often the person on the other end has lost their personality. Turn up for your table and often it's a case of who cares, take your ticket, we'll get to you when it's convenient.

This is not what happens at Chianti Classico. Here's one recent scenario: The day had turned rotten, the dog hit by a car, the computer had corrupted two days of work and a flu thought beaten had returned with a vengeance. Rescue was required.

A table for one in a far corner of a comfortable diner was needed, and fast.

It was an hour before lunch on a Friday. Call Chianti Classico - it's just been voted SA's most popular restaurant in the industry's peak awards. There was no way they'd have a place but desperate measures were needed. They answered. It was a friendly voice; they'd check and would love to oblige.

The voice of owner and house mother Maria Favaro came next on the line. (This call had been made anonymously as always; it could be you in similar circumstances.) She was so welcoming that the lifeboat felt like it had just arrived: ``Yes, of course, we can put you in the back corner. Just for one. Come in and we'll look after you.''

On arrival, the welcome continued unabated. The crew were dressed immaculately in white jackets. They were waiting for the mysterious latecomer. The table was ready for one. No fuss - actually plenty of fuss. The good kind. A glass of sparkling Italian prosecco was ordered and life began to be good once again.

The wine list is a stop-you-in-your-seat affair, the work essentially of restaurant manager/sommelier Duncan Vent. A book in itself, it starts with an index and finishes with a map of Italy's wine regions. In between, there are red and white Italian imports among 15 or so by-the-glass pours, and there's a more comprehensive list of Italians, reds by their regions, and a hand-selected, broad Australian choice for many tastes and also a reasonable price cross-section, maxing out at more than $1000 for a legendary 1971 Grange.

Glassware is respectful, many waters are available and if you haven't sprouted a curl of Italianesque DNA by the end of a session here, a tipple of, say, one of five grappas might help turn the tide. All this is to add to a vibrant and evolving devotion to the culinary Italian roots of owners Frank and Maria Favaro - their Veneto home, as well as further traditions of Tuscany and Piemonte - and you have the other side of what makes Chianti Classico so popular.

Toby Gush has headed the kitchen for six years and works closely with Frank in devising seasonal changes while retaining foundation dishes such as slow-cooked rabbit, or a pappardelle pasta with roasted duck meat, or zucchini flowers, so popular that they have to be supplied all year round.

The trick here is the way Gush has retained the hearty and traditional - in fact, celebrates it, via main ingredients and simple and recognisable combinations - while plating his dishes with a contemporary outlook.

Bruschetta, for instance, is more than a simple bread snack, taking on housemade bresaola and tiny sharp-bursting cherry tomatoes to be eaten with knife and fork. It suffers a tad from being a warm bread meets cold topping matter, however, but flavour-wise is a positive deli-minded opening.

More substantial are scallops with roe, attached to their attractive ribbed shells, baked in rich anchovy-tinged butter and sprinkled with a breadcrumb and parsley crunch - the menu calls it ``poor man's parmesan''. It's a barrel-chested entree, but that simply signals the wintry frame of mind the current menu is in. By the end of the month, spring will no doubt rule.

Gush already includes a daily seasonal lunch side dish, this time a brilliant mix of white asparagus, white french bean, white anchovy and quarters of boiled egg. The menu does the usual Italian crossroads of pasta and risotto, as well as main courses, a mixed mushroom fettuccine happily prepared to order without garlic. It's full-bodied, complex, earthy and served in generous proportions.

That regular rabbit comes with similar double-or-nothing appetite in mind. It's huge but, more importantly, white meaty, faintly gamy only, with signature sticky pancetta and sage-laced sauce full of oomph. A couple of gooey inside, lightly fried outside gnocchi add to the heartiness; no fancy frills here - pure comfort food. Another dish raises a few thoughts. Gush's veal involtini - lean rolls around a stuffing of pork mince and porcini - have been braised for hours by the fall-apart feel of them. They are dryish, but then they also have the flavour and texture of a perfect meatball, and come over a super-creamy soft polenta that acts almost like the bottom half of the saucing component, a light tomato braise over the top. Should these be a tad more integrated as rolls, but would they then be tougher? By the time the plate was virtually cleaned up, the answer was still not certain.

No questions, however, about the dessert department, at the high end of the Italian barometer presentation-wise but full of the same love and comfort the rest of the menu provides - a chocolate and chestnut semifreddo over caramelised apple chunks with a hand-made honey biscuit says it all. This is the essence of the Chianti Classico experience. The finest of dining ideals in all the infrastructure, packaging and presentation married with Italian-styled comfort food - crafted with finesse and generosity. No wonder it's the state's most popular restaurant.

THE RESTAURANT
CHIANTI CLASSICO
160 Hutt St, city
Phone: 8232 7955
www.chianticlassico.com.au

Breakfast: 7am-10.30am, seven days.
Lunch: Noon-3pm, seven days.
Dinner: 6pm-9.30pm, Sun-Thur; to 10pm, Fri-Sat.

Seating: 65 inside, 20 outside.
Private dining room.
Wheelchair facilities.

Owners: Frank and Maria Favaro.
Head chef: Toby Gush.

THE VERDICT
THE BILL
Entrees: $18.50-$21.50.
Mains: $28.90-$48.90.
Desserts: $14.50.
Corkage: $15/bottle.

Summary
High-end presentation and dining ideals yet with all the warmth, welcome and generosity of a traditional Italian restaurant. A wonderful wine list and hearty and well-felt cooking all continue to impress.

Score: 17/20
Score guide: Below 10: Awful. 11-12: Fair. 13-14: Good. 15-16: Special. 17-18: Outstanding. 19: Brilliant. 20: Perfect.