Tucked into Regent Place shopping centre near Town Hall, Bistro Nido mines the common ground between France and Japan’s food cultures.

In other hands it could be a case of cross-continental confusion, but the result is a menu fusing the best of both worlds without feeling forced: fluffy bread from Pyrmont’s Pioik bakery with umeshu butter, for example, and rock oysters topped with shiso jelly.

Skewered pork jowl is gorgeously caramelised over coals and paired with tongue-tingling sansho pepper; yielding octopus and beef-fat potatoes are brightened with the fermented tang of yuzu kosho – a sweet spot between Japanese umami and Gallic classicism. (Naturally for a bistro, there’s also steak frites, one of few classics to play it straight, simply glossed with beef jus.)

Neat flourishes in the cocktail list, including a punchy wasabi foam atop a fizzing melon concoction, continue the creativity. There’s charm aplenty here.

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