"Restaurants are back....

​

So here I am, kicking off my first review in a couple of months at Chiosco (kee-oss-koh), the casual seaside baby brother of Ormeggio in Mosman. Why here? Because being perched at a table on a pier surrounded by blue water and boats is as far away from my apartment as I can get. 

Because I can forget all about closed borders and pretend I'm on an overseas holiday. Because the Ormeggio team is up and running in part to support their Italian visa-holding staff through a difficult time. But mainly because I can.

Oh, the joy of having someone bring a cocktail to the table who isn't me. Why does this negroni taste so much better than any I've made in the past three months? Because someone else made it. And made it beautifully, I might add.

It's designed for maximum comfort, from the just-baked crusty cushions of focaccia with whippy ricotta to the you-guessed-it tiramisu, delivered in a perfect log of boozy, creamy sweetness.

It's all good, and sometimes great. Their vitello tonnato is the stuff of dreams, the tuna cream perfectly judged, dotted with explosions of deep-fried capers, parsley oil and toasty pine nuts.

Salt-and-pepper calamari is done with delicacy and restraint. A big bowl of spaghetti is a tangle of lightly cooked prawns in a bisque-like sauce, leavened by diced zucchini and the warm bite of chilli...."