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The vibe
It’s 6pm on a breezy Wednesday night when my husband and I wriggle into our tan banquette in a cosy corner of Rovollo, and the place is jumping. The 75-seater Italian restaurant spills out onto the 25 Martin Place courtyard overlooking the iconic tower and podium designed by visionary architect Harry Seidler as part of the former MLC Centre.
The venue is elegant and intimate – so much so that we can hear snippets of the couple’s conversation at the neighbouring table.
“It feels a bit like Campo de’ Fiori,” whispers the woman beside us.“Or a scene from The Matrix,” counters my movie-mad husband, referencing the nearby Lloyd Rees Fountain that features in the 1999 film.
I was in Italy just a few weeks earlier, so there’s nowhere I’d rather be than at this table, with this guy, in this city. I don’t feel like I’m missing out because I’m in Martin Place rather than a Roman piazza. It’s still La Dolce Vita.
There are so many couples in the restaurant tonight it feels like a scene out of The Lovers (which recently finished its run at the Theatre Royal Sydney). Cast your eyes up towards the ceiling to admire the mural hand-painted by Ell Wilkinson, partner of Andrew Wallace, co-founder of Esper Group (also behind Mille Vini). There’s also a dramatic Moya Delany pendant made from repurposed parachute silk, and a show-stopping bar topped with a slab of Calacatta marble.
The food
Executive chef Cami Feliciano (ex-Woodcut) makes the pasta at Rovollo in-house daily. And although it’s the main act, the bluefin tuna crudo almost steals the show. It’s fresh and summery, with the sweet acidity of tomato combined with umami-rich kombu and bottarga that bolster the dressing clinging to the raw fish. It’s a lovely composition – a vibrant work of art.
We’re also off to a good start with the steak tartare. The creaminess of finely chopped beef served with a cured egg yolk is balanced with a punchy kick of horseradish and the crunch of potato crisps.
The mains bring it home. As a side, the butter leaf salad is a value-add alongside the rich gnocchi. The plump little pillows arrive slathered in a pulled wild boar and Napoletana sauce that’s hearty and homespun.
When the waiter wheels the roving cheese trolley – brass with walnut trim – to our table, he is met with a quiet round of applause. It’s a grand entrance and one that befits the restaurant’s location near the refurbished Theatre Royal. Wielding a blowtorch, the waiter sets the $2000 round of Parmigiano Reggiano alight before twirling the strands of pasta in the earthy, hollowed-out bowl of melted parmesan and plating up the cacio e pepe like a pro. This rich and delicious dish embodies all that makes the #italiansdoitbetter hashtag a thing.
To finish, the pannacotta – with its trembling wobble and inky spoonful of cherry and bergamot compote – also strikes a chord.
Drinks
Esper Group’s head of bars Alissa Gabriel won the prestigious Bacardi Legacy Cocktail Competition in 2025, and the drinks list deserves to be the toast of the town. You could start with a rollicking ride around Italy with the list of cocktails that promises a ‘journey through Italy in seven sips’. But it’s a school night. So we make a vow to return for antipasti and aperitivos ahead of our night out to see Back to the Future: The Musical the following week.
Instead, we enjoy a few wines by the glass from the 250-odd list of top drops from around the world. Piemonte is the region of Italy where my late father hailed from, and we toast to that Italian heritage with a few glasses of the Viberti Filebasse Chardonnay, which is fresh and elegant and a great match for the crudo. The 2023 Vigneti Brichet DOC Monferrato Nebbiolo is also from Piemonte, and it has the necessary elegance and depth to balance the robust flavours of the rich and earthy wild boar and Napoletana sauce.
Time Out tip
Rovollo is perfectly positioned to enjoy the lovely Italian ritual of a post-prandial passeggiata, thanks to its proximity to Harry Seidler’s architectural masterpieces. Sign up for a guided tour with Sydney Architecture Walks before or after you dine at Rovollo.