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The palate is a curious thing. Yes, it can detect the five basic tastes: salty, sweet, bitter, sour and savoury umami. But I’ve found, over the years, that every chef leans in to each of these differently in terms of their preferences, and forms their own palate, which then drives the menu. And that’s what makes life – and dining out – interesting.

Carlotta is Melbourne’s Lucas Restaurants group’s first Canberra venture, and it has pulled out all the stops, sending talented executive chef Mark Glenn to oversee the launch. Formerly of Cumulus Inc. and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in Melbourne, he’s been in Canberra before (at Pialligo Estate), and knows the territory.

There’s a real Mediterranean-via-Melbourne vibe to his founding menu, but at heart, this is an Italian tratt, with its wood-fired oven, open grill and list of house-made pasta. Over a lunch and a dinner, I find the palate is punchy, bright, and lemony. There’s pillowy focaccia, stracciatella cheese with broad beans, prosciutto San Daniele and kingfish crudo. Crab spaghettini with lobster oil and chilli – molto umami. Slow-roast shoulder of lamb. Tiramisu.

Wood-fired breads are the go, especially fragrant roast garlic flatbread ($11.50) and a fun focaccia di recco ($24.50) from Liguria; like a flattened pizza filled with runny squacquerone and provolone. Squacquerone is, of course, the best Italian cheese name ever, meaning “watery” in the local dialect, but also, charmingly, “letting itself go”.

A mixed platter of fine prosciutto and soft mortadella benefits from a squishy, seasoned ball of Podere dei Leoni buffalo mozzarella ($36.50), which arrives from Italy weekly. Whipped ricotta is squiggled on a plate like a fat worm, drenched in vibrant green herb oil ($8.50), and sweet, fruity roast peppers speckled with Cantabrian anchovy ($11.50) are just as happy as a starter or side dish. Likewise, a fresh, fruity, floral 2023 Antonio Soave ($18) from the Veneto could act as an opener or stay the course.

Pasta is a good choice. Casarecce ($29.50) comes as an appealing muddle of short twists of pasta, beautifully cooked, with a rubble of pork and fennel sausage amplified by spicy 𝄒nduja.

There’s more than a touch of Melbourne’s Grill Americano to the long, lovely room, with its counters lined with stools, glamorous marble bar, wine cellar, and signature half-curtains along the windows. It also shares the high-energy momentum of Lucas-owned restaurants, especially at night, when it ramps up to party levels.

Things get even more punchy, fruity, salty and lemony, with the grills. Roman-inspired Margra lamb cutlets ($49.50) alla scottadito (“burn the fingers”) are damn good; their crusted fat and tender seasoned meat yearning for a glass of the rich opulent Hentley Farm shiraz from the Barossa ($16).

Most mains, such as a vast buttermilk-brined and flattened chicken a la griglia ($55.50), are best to share, or can be too much of one thing. Fries are good ($12.50), thin and skin-tipped; my accompanying salad is overly salty.

It’s the year of the trifle, it seems, and a low-line glass coupette of chocolate and cherry ($16.50) channels a blackforest cake theme. It’s a treasure trove of layered cherry jelly, Valrhona Hukambi chocolate creme, chocolate cake (divine), and braised cherries, iced with kisses of mascarpone and shavings of bittersweet chocolate.

Carlotta is the first of two newbies from Chris Lucas, with a French bistro planned for May 2025 in the former Botswana Butchery site. Not that the local Canberra dining scene needs ring-ins from interstate, but I’m of the mind that any good restaurant helps all other good restaurants. And it certainly has Canberra talking – and eating – it up.