Sunda

Sunda isn’t the restaurant it was when it opened in 2018. The shared tables are gone, there’s an eight-seat bar and, notably, a new chef. Nabil Ansari, who worked his way up the ranks, splashes butterflied tiger prawns with a kind of jungle curry elixir: lemongrass, ginger, shallots and galangal sizzled in brown butter.

Idli, the steamed rice and lentil cakes drawn from his Indian upbringing, are ideal sponges for the aromatic sauce. But South-East Asia still dominates the menu. Rojak, the fruit and vegetable salad, is made here with pineapple, star fruit, sorrel and a rubble of macadamia.

In another local flourish, soybeans grown in NSW are turned into a mild tofu pudding topped with oolong syrup and white strawberries. This is still the place for punchy flavours drawn from a broad sweep of cuisines and cultures.