Something has gone wonderfully right in your life if you find yourself at Sixpenny for lunch, when its sheer curtains diffuse natural light and the mid-century-inspired space radiates with stained timbers, bone-white walls and forest green. It’s a strong case for Sydney’s most soothing dining room, and a kitchen led by Anthony Schifilliti and Dan Puskas meets the top-shelf brief with comfort built on fermentation, clever ideas and pristine technique.

The signature mead vinegar custard dessert, with its blushing raspberry drupelets that pop like sunshine in winter, is the only tasting-menu constant, but you can always expect to start with exemplary snacks, such as a fermented rice pancake precisely layered with smoked eel, confit potato, onion miso cream and a tiny discs of golden beetroot.

Later, marron is brushed with coral trout butter and sent out with a small smorgasbord of accompaniments, including muntries compressed in passionfruit and koji-pickled choko. A floor team as polished as the stemware completes one of Australia’s most singular restaurants.

Must order: Oysters to start. They’re an optional extra, but in for a penny and all that…

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