Just in case you thought you were still at Mark Best's Marque, which occupied this street-side space for 17 years, there is a big and none-too-subtle sign on the wall proclaiming Zambo.

No, not Zumbo, the macaron maestro. I rather wish that former Pilu at Freshwater head chef Matteo Zamboni had called his first restaurant by his full name, Zamboni, instead of risking confusion with Adriano Zumbo, but Zambo it is, and Marque it ain't.

The once dimly lit room has been brightened and freshened by Matteo and his wife Claudia; the tablecloths whisked away and new brass filigree Italian lighting installed in the shape of tubular downlights and table candle holders.

Having honed his craft at Mod Italian temples such as Carlo Cracco in Milan and Heinz Beck's La Pergola in Rome, Zamboni is not about to go for the casalinga meatball and risotto audience of next door's Besser. Instead, his menu is full of dishes that promise one thing and often end up delivering another in an intriguing and slightly loose-cannon approach.

The mezzi rigatoni all'Amatriciana, for instance – listed without reference to the recent earthquake that virtually destroyed the historic town of Amatrice – is also severely deconstructed. The short, strictly al dente tubular pasta is served in a pale pecorino foam, with a little cellophane bag holding dried tomato, guanciale and pecorino dust to sprinkle over the top. It's intense and mouth-filling, but I'm not convinced it's better for being different.

Not so with The Pie that Wanted to be a Pizza ($9 supplement). While the title is presumably inspired by Massimo Bottura's famous Potato Who Wants to be a Truffle, the result – a fusing of Napoletana pizza fritta and an Aussie party pie, stuffed with the tomato sugo, mozzarella and basil leaf of a pizza margherita – is original, not to mention as cute as hell.

Unsurprisingly, steak "pepe verde" is not your average pepper steak but a sliver of slow-cooked, sous-vide oyster blade topped with a delicate peppercorn sauce, snow pea julienne and asparagus, flanked by crunchy kale crisps. Lots of textures, fun to eat.

Neat little ravioli filled with red pepper and topped with pot-roasted mussels, smoked grated egg yolk, tangy quandong and crushed peanuts is another unlikely combo. An olive oil-poached rainbow trout with beetroot sauce, anchovy, prune and double-shelled broad beans (always a delight) has a distracting aftertaste, and pan-fried mulloway with zucchini puree, chickpea "tofu" and lemon myrtle and a superfluous dashi and caper broth is also creatively busy.

For dessert, panna cotta stops being a cliche when flavoured with green pea instead of vanilla and topped with an amaretti crumble, desert limes, dried pineapple and freeze-dried plum. An all-Italian wine list is condensed but very useable, with a fresh, delicate 2015 Civettaio Vermentino from Tuscany fronting up well to most dishes.

Zamboni may be making life hard for himself by having only set-price menus – along with additional supplements – but he's a young chef with a refreshingly different, avant-garde attitude. I'd be curious to see what happened if he went further down the Italo-Australian path to develop something uniquely, um, Australiano. The success of the pie/pizza suggests it could work a treat.

THE LOWDOWN

Best bit: The care, effort and charm.
Worst bit: Some dishes feel over-thought and over-wrought.

Terry Durack is chief restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald and senior reviewer for the Good Food Guide. This rating is based on the Good Food Guide scoring system.