It’s a Saturday night and The Log Cabin Hotel is heaving. Cars overflowing onto footpaths heaving. At the entrance, a crush of 20-year-olds are having their IDs scanned to get into the bar. It’s perhaps the last place you’d expect to find a fine-diner, but upstairs, Sinclair’s is quietly going about its thing.

That means serving thick slices of Sonoma sourdough with whipped wagyu-fat butter and Katoomba honey, offsetting the depth and richness of a grilled LP’s pork sausage with pickled fennel, or taking grilled octopus in a subtle dan dan direction with the a lick of Aleppo pepper and savoury sesame paste.

Chef Scott Mills is fiercely committed to Nepean produce, and even more committed to his ironbark grill, where large-format steaks with impressive crusts are the signature. But there’s finesse here, the whole show held together by a floor team as diligent as the security out front. Now where’d we leave the car?

Good to know: See those diners toasting their own house-made marshmallows over the wood grill? They’re here for the chef’s table, offered for up to six guests on Fridays and Saturdays.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.