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Even though the name Guy Grossi is almost synonymous with Melbourne Italian, I don’t tend to associate the chef with pizza. His legacy has more to do with pasta, with fine dining, with meats and antipasto.

So it was a bit of a surprise when the standout dish at a recent meal at Puttanesca, the new Grossi venture inside the recently revamped Clifton Hotel in Kew, wasn’t the namesake sauce cloaking al dente spaghetti ($28), or slow-cooked lamb over polenta ($38), but instead, a pizza diavola ($26). Its thin crust was blistered just so by the wood-fired oven, with enough char to create contrast with the stretchy bits. The 48-hour ferment on the dough was apparent in the tang of the whole. The sauce was bright, bolstered by its spicy salami, chilli, olive and ’nduja topping. It was one of the better pizzas I’ve had in ages.

It’s appropriate for Grossi to be flexing his pizza muscles at this particular venue, given that the main idea of the place is to be a family restaurant. Perhaps less appropriate, although very much purposeful: the name Puttanesca. You can look up the particulars of the word’s etymology if you’re not familiar, but Grossi told Good Food upon opening that he was inspired by the sex workers who lived upstairs in the building in eons past.

The back room of the Clifton has been turned into a clubby ’60s Italianate 120-seat restaurant, with an open kitchen and vintage posters – most prominently, for the 1971 film La Mortadella starring Sophia Loren. The place feels a bit classier than your average neighbourhood Italian joint, swank enough to justify a swipe of bright lipstick or a sports jacket.

Which is exactly what punters are doing: turning out in droves in their Saturday night outfits, even on a Monday. The place is buzzing, and securing a table during respectable dinner hours isn’t easy. The full menu is available in the front bar, but you’ll miss out on the service and atmosphere that help to make the place special (up front is all big screen TVs and plaid carpeting; classic pub, but a world away from that Grossi shine).

There’s a brightness and assurance to much of the food. The puttanesca theme is carried throughout the menu, including as a cured kingfish entree ($32) that’s all silky fish, punchy olives and just enough anchovy funk. The tender vitello tonnato ($28) has a smooth sauce ramped up with lemon. Mussels with olives and tomato ($32) perhaps feel a bit expensive for the serving size, not really enough for sharing properly, but they taste great.

The missteps I encountered were, oddly, the places where Grossi usually excels. That aforementioned slow-cooked lamb was woefully under-seasoned, neither the meat nor its bed of polenta appearing to have been given any attention other than to ensure good texture. The pasta sheets on the hulking Mamma’s lasagne ($28) were delicate, the bechamel pleasingly nutmeggy. But it, too, tasted a tad bland, missing some essential component that takes lasagne from passable to crave-worthy.

There’s plenty to crave at Puttanesca, however, including the cannoli ($15 for two), which have beautiful shattery shells, creamy interiors and the right ratio of nutty pistachio.

“The place feels a bit classier than your average neighbourhood Italian joint, swank enough to justify a swipe of bright lipstick or a sports jacket.”

Cocktails skew light and sweet, aside from an Italian dirty martini made with vodka ($24). The wine list is full of mid-sized Australian producers, but there are some real gems to be found among the Italian bottles, and many of those are well under $100.

Right now, if anything, Puttanesca is straining under its own success. I expect issues of seasoning, as well as some minor service glitches, will work themselves out over time. Grossi is nothing if not adept at engineering consistency across his venues. Now let’s see him roll out that pizza far and wide. And here’s hoping more of the big vacant hotels of Melbourne get revamps this thoughtful, attractive and fun.