Today’s restaurants can feel like TV productions with the dominant mindset that it’s the high concept that sells.

So we have "channels" delivering the "all-day breakfast" or touting "all organic all the time," and while those are great ideas, food in the service of a concept can feel rather soulless.

So it was nice to stumble upon Il Buco, an unexpected oasis tucked in back, poolside, at the Waikiki Sand Villa Hotel. How obscure is it? I was meeting some friends there, and they ended up at the bar in front, where they waited for a long time because employees didn’t even know Il Buco exists.

IL BUCO Waikiki Sand Villa Hotel, 2375 Ala Wai Blvd. at Kanekapolei Street >> Hotel, 922-4744 Food Service Ambience Value Hours: 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily Cost: About $40 to $50 for two without drinks Ratings compare similar restaurants: – excellent – very good – average – below average

The restaurant space was formerly home to decent Japanese restaurants like Them Dining and Gaan Sushi. But Japanese cuisine is ubiquitous, and the Sand Villa is not a top-of-mind culinary destination. Il Buco just might have staying power because it delivers something much rarer in Honolulu. It’s a wine bar that happens to offer a short and simple, though nonetheless stellar, bistro menu of Mediterranean specialties.

No high concept here. Just good food and drink that owners Darko Vidak and Salvatore Agresti can enjoy, even if no one else shows up.

Asked why they decided to open shop, Vidak replied, "Why not? There’s nothing to do in Hawaii."

Luckily, Agresti has in his possession a handful of his mother’s recipes from Napoli, Italy, and they enlisted the help of chef Boris Spiric, from Serbia, who honed his skills working from Greece to Italy. He wins high praise from Agresti, who says Spiric’s cooking "tastes like home."

The room is painted a deep purple, which gives the intimate space a cool, mysterious vibe. The chalkboard menu dominates one wall, and the list is no longer than a traditional restaurant’s daily-specials roster. Even so, every dish tempts and begs for repeat visits.

It starts with wine accompaniment of antipasti misti ($15 small, $29 grande), a platter of prosciutto, salami, olives and cheese. Yes, it’s cool these days for restaurateurs to cure their own meats, and that’s not the case here, but like I said, this is not a place that aims to be trendy.

Follow with a beautiful caprese ($15) of buffalo mozzarella generously topped with halved grape tomatoes, basil and olive oil.

In fact, most of the dishes hew true to the olive oil, tomatoes, basil, salt and garlic formula, with splashes of vinegar here and there. It’s a formula that has worked for centuries because it’s simple and delicious.

The majority of dishes here would be considered entree salads because, even when fish is involved, there is a generous heap of greens or tomatoes. The Insalata di Salmone Fresco ($15) is a Genovese-style salad of arugula topped with strips of grilled salmon and shaved Parmesan.

There’s no pasta involved in a dish of Pesce Fresco Alla Puttanesca ($22). The fish "of the whore" is the name of the dish originally said to have been thrown together for late-night diners from the remains of the day — olives, salt, capers and tomatoes. Here, opah was grilled and topped with the halved grape tomato-and-caper mixture, which is served more as a topping than sauce as we know it.

Similarly, juicy and fatty grilled rib-eye steak ($25) is topped with a heap of arugula and shaved Parmesan.

Meat eaters will also find satisfaction in herbed rack of lamb ($26) with a touch of vinegar, accompanied by a chilled German-style potato salad.

Finish with homemade tiramisu ($7) that is one of the best I’ve tasted in a while.

As for the wines, the Italians rule, from spumante to reds and whites from Tuscany, Sicily, Piedmont, Abruzzo, Puglia and Venice, starting at $8 to $13 by the glass.