To visit The Waratah and not order cocktails would be like watching West Side Story with the sound off. You can still have a perfectly fine time, but you’ll be missing out on the best part.

You’ll be missing out on co-owner Evan Stroeve’s regularly changing drinks, like a deliciously sharp Mai Tai starring passionfruit, rum and house-made cherry-pit liqueur.

Across a smart, jade-tiled street-facing bar and tiny dining room upstairs, Australian ingredients inform both booze and food. We’re talking butterflied prawns glossed with lemon-myrtle butter; rock oysters splashed with rosella mignonette; and scallops (the potato kind) seasoned in a koji marinade and topped with diced scallop (the seafood kind).

Juicy bronze-skinned chicken is a highlight, cooked under a brick and scattered with a crunch of saltbush leaves. Hold the wine and pair it with a rum, pineapple and skin-contact chardonnay sharpener instead.

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