Fratelli Fresh, 8/16 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay

Spag carbonara is the go-to dish. Non-cheesy or creamy, this is elegant home-cooked food. Please visit our blog ChopinandMysaucepan for an objective and honest review.

The retail section is fantastic. You feel like you're in Italy with the range of both fresh and packaged produce. The fruit and vegetables always look and taste amazing, and you can also get fresh loaves of bread. If you sit down to eat, the food is delicious but on the expensive side. You won't be able to get a standard sandwich here for lunch, it's a little fancier than that. The location is great, right out of the business of the CBD but still within walking distance, and opposite the gorgeous wharves at Walsh Bay. Conveniently, there's an ATM just a few metres away.

To get a true taste of why the Cafe Sopra brand has been so successful in Sydney, you need to try two dishes. The first is the rich and flavoursome duck ragu, which will soon become your pasta dish of choice. The second is the banoffie pie - a creamy banana caramel dessert that is the perfect way to end your meal. You'll come back to for the extensive Italian wine list (Nero d'avola anyone?) and the specials which take advantage of in season produce. The Walsh Bay Cafe Sopra is quieter than the others and you sometimes feel like the staff are ignoring you when you're waiting for a table, but it's the same great dishes, which instantly make up for the delay.

The food is excellent and at a very reasonable price. The wine list is also very unusual for Sydney because all wines are exclusively from Italy. We took an Italian friend who approved of the authentic Italian food. We go whenever we can.

The food was really good, fresh produce. The service however was very stale. The guy that served us was pretty rude, but that did make for some fun conversation over dinner. Worth it for the food.