Relief isn't an emotion usually associated with dining but it's palpable at Riserva. "Finally, we have a wine bar that gets us," you can hear the locals saying.

And that relief easily converts to exuberance once the experience is rolled out for them, warmly, confidently and respectfully, by hospitality lifers who love wine, food and the look on a customer's face when they put their knife and fork down and say: "That was good."

Riserva lets you play it any number of ways. Prop at the bar for a few oysters (Coffin Bay, a steal at $2) and a glass of sparkling on the way home. Pop in to grab a bottle or two for the home wine rack and stick around to test your options with some salumi. Roll up for a can't-be-bothered-cooking mid-week regroup with your main squeeze. Book the back room for a birthday dinner or book-club knees-up and let the food roll. Double date with your mate over great steak and barolo.

Chef Andrew Marasco runs a simple but classy Euro bistro menu and executes it with aplomb. The food is designed to promote a warm glow, not make conversation screech to a halt.

There's salmon, blushing in its Campari cure and scattered with diced red onion. Salted cod is soaked in milk and mixed with potato to create a mild, Malvern-friendly version of baccala. Mushroom risotto is stirred with water chestnuts and truffle oil, bringing fresh crunch as well as intense forest flavours.

Veal cutlet is coated in a bright, herby crumb and cooked to perfect golden. Steak is topped with Cafe de Paris butter so it's caressed with mustard and fat at every bite. 

Millefeuille is a creamy stack of sweet wafers and pretty berries. No wheels are reinvented, many appetites are sated.

The wine list – almost entirely European with a couple of Yankee interlopers – is a passion project of the owners Gian Chiaravalle (owner of Moorabbin corporate lunch spot Otto Lane) and Frank Ciorciari (owner of powerhouse Sette Bello in Glen Waverley). The pair have known each other forever and the idea for a wine-focused eatery in the eastern suburbs has been fermenting a long while. Add manager Anthony Silvestre (ex-Kettle Black) and all the hospitality angles are covered: the smarts, the suave, the passion.

Along with a handy selection of oft-changing wines by the glass, a fancy Coravin machine means that wine can be poured without removing the cork – it's extracted via a needle and the oxygen replaced with argon. This means that premium bottles can be offered by the glass without the risk they'll spoil before the bottle is empty. If you want to wrap your lips around a fine bordeaux without dropping $500, this is your chance.

At a more workaday level, the friendly folk will happily pour you a sip of this or that before you commit to a glass, letting you turn an evening tipple into a liquid learning journey. Team that with enjoyable eats and you'll be wanting to Riserva a return visit pronto.

Rating: Three and a half stars (out of five)