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The budget doesn’t cause much of a ripple in Canberra’s lifestyle the week I’m here. The news that Matt Moran has opened an Italian steakhouse called Compa and a sandwich boutique called &Sando, however, is big. Canberra is well-served with locally owned restaurants, but the import of a big name like Moran is guaranteed to create waves. So what’s it like?

The room is charming. Dark wooden beams form a stark contrast against white stucco, and the long kitchen is framed in wood and mirrors, giving it the deceptively homely air of a northern Italian ski lodge or rifugio.

Hearty congratulations to whoever said no to a new fitout because this one, the former L’Americano from Coco Republic, has good bones. Restaurants make a great deal of noise about reducing food waste and promoting nose-to-tail practices, which is as it should be. But the pointless waste of ripping out an existing fitout and doing a brand new one from scratch is unedifying for all involved.

A refresh by Studio A-N takes what was light and Mediterranean into a darker, moodier feel, with curved wicker shades wafting gently above booths, heavy drapes differentiating from the bar, and cottage linen softening the windows to the street.

It’s not Moran’s first steakhouse rodeo – he has Chophouse in Sydney’s CBD – but this one has an Italian aura that makes it warm and hospitable.

Moran brings a hefty track record to the ACT, partnering here with hospitality group Fresh Collective for a corner in QIC’s redevelopment of the Canberra Centre. He and his team have developed a smart menu that showcases seven different steaks, installing chef Nick Mathieson (Bistecca, The Rover) to add some sizzle.

The supporting cast of dishes are crowd-pleasers – fried zucchini flowers with three cheeses, a side of cacio e pepe macaroni cheese – or more elevated offerings such a lightly cooked Abrolhos Island scallop served on the shell ($14), bathed in herb butter.

Salami with pickles and grissini ($19) doesn’t sound very special, but it is. The pork is from the Moran Family Farm’s Berkshire pigs, wrestled into savoury mellowness by Pino’s Dolce Vita and sent out with Zuni pickles and spindles of crisp house-made grissini.

If you’re not feeling steak-like, there’s Snowy River trout – a Canberra favourite – or casarecce ($38). The short, twisty pasta is tossed with chilli, garlic and lemon and threaded with nubbins of king prawn and flavour bombs of confit cherry tomatoes.

Montepulciano calls my name, and the Feudi Bizantini ($23 a glass) brings smoke and spice. The list leans toward Italy, but there are local gems as well, and there’s a special collection culled from Moran’s own cellar.

Steaks are served with rocket, lemon and your choice of sauce, which includes a zippy little anchovy butter. The big order is Brooklyn Valley 1.2kg Bistecca Fiorentina ($25 per 100 grams, eg $300), and the six blokes next to me share two of them with glee.

I don’t get the same joy from my Little Joe scotch fillet, with its marble score of 4+ (350 grams, $95). It has good grass-fed flavour, feels rested, and the interior is darkly crimson to my “between medium rare and rare”; order, but there’s little crustiness, and few juices. Nor is it particularly hot. I confirm later that the kitchen uses a custom-made flat grill, a la plancha, rather than the white-hot heat of coals.

Chips ($14) are good – long, flat planks dusted with rosemary salt – and there are interesting sides based on organic vegetables supplied by Living Earth Farms. Desserts are safe bets, with zuppa inglese or “Italian Trifle” ($16) being inescapably creamy, saved by tart pops of strawberry and rhubarb.

It’s not Moran’s first steakhouse rodeo – he has Chophouse in Sydney’s CBD – but this one has an Italian aura that makes it warm and hospitable, thanks to manager Tasso Rovolis, sommelier Matteo Belkeziz and a team with character, personality and polish.

With Sydney’s Matt Moran here now and Melbourne’s Lucas Restaurants coming in later in the year, Canberra is on a roll. Sorry, Treasurer Jim Chalmers, the budget just can’t compete.