If you were wondering how serious The Star is about its Queen’s Wharf food and beverage venues, Cucina Regina might be a good indication.

In terms of new concepts for Brisbane, so far there’s been the sky-high dining of Aloria and ultra-refined sushi of Sokyo; both are pitched as upmarket experiences.

The Italian at Cucina Regina (sister venue of Sydney’s Cucina Porto and the Gold Coast’s Cucina Vivo) is designed to be more approachable – The Star Brisbane director of culinary Uday Huja uses the word “accessible” no fewer than eight times during our interview – yet, a week out from opening, with the restaurant and its menu of pasta, pizza and steak very much finalised, Huja and his team are giving themselves another week to get everything right.

“The brief was to create a trattoria-style restaurant,” Huja says. “We have some beautiful artwork and colour in the place, and light because we’re right on the river.

“It’s a bit of a premium feel, but we don’t need a white tablecloth – those days are kind of gone. It’s the food on the plate and the quality of the drinks and the service and engagement you have – that’s the really important part.”

Regina is indeed a looker, with design studio Tom Mark Henry lending it elegant timber and tiled floors, fetching coloured-pane windows and beautiful wall art. And Huja speaks with a lengthy US-trained eloquence about the importance of hospitality, about the restaurant’s mostly Italian kitchen team – led by exec chef Davide Incardona – and about how stepping into an Italian restaurant (or any restaurant, really) should feel like stepping into someone’s home.

“This style of food is such a convivial, sharing experience,” he says. “They’re in our house, and we need to create that environment, where we feel comfortable and they feel comfortable. It’s about engaging with people and creating those experiences, [like they’re] your mum, your dad, your aunt, your uncle.”

Cucina Regina’s menu is split into small plates, pasta, pizza and mains from the pan or grill. It’s as accessible as Huja says, but the restaurant isn’t shy about celebrating local produce: the beef is from Stockyard on the Darling Downs, the veal from Northern Rivers Meats, the eggplant from the Lockyer Valley. All the pasta is made in-house – no small feat for a 160-seat restaurant.

“There are a lot of great operators out there and people have figured out that having a local connection is important, so that’s important for us too,” Huja says.

For starters, you might order wagyu beef bresaola; porcini mushroom arancini; burrata with confit cherry tomatoes, black salt and crisped basil; or fried calamari with a dill aioli.

The pasta menu for the most part keeps it classic with a spaghetti marinara, a rigatoni carbonara, a fettuccine lamb ragu and the like. The pizza (cooked in an Eagle Farm-made Beech stone-bake oven) is the same, with a diavola, margherita, capricciosa and gamberetti all present and correct.

For mains and from the grill there’s a chicken cotoletta; a veal scallopine with creamy marsala, field mushrooms, lemon and garlic potatoes, and broccolini; woodfired tiger prawns with brown butter and crisp capers; and a 40-day dry-aged 300-gram scotch rib fillet with lemon and garlic potatoes.

The drinks lists are super tight, with just a clutch of signature cocktails, and a focused wine list that favours Italian vino or vino made in an Italian style.

The way Huja tells it, the simplicity is designed to get out of the way of the hospitality of the venue, which soon after opening will include a dessert cart peddling tiramisu, crema catalana and cannoli.

“It’s about making sense as an Italian restaurant,” he says. “What would an Italian experience be? What would the flavour really be? How would we plate it up? What is nonna’s pasta? It’s taking that and translating it for our local guests.”

Cucina Regina opens next Friday, November 15

Open Mon-Tue 5pm-late, Wed-Sun 11am-3pm, 5pm-late

33 William Street, Brisbane, 1800 888 899

star.com.au/brisbane/eat-and-drink/signature-dining/cucina-regina