The first thing that comes to mind about chef Mike McEnearney’s food is “honesty”. Food produced with conviviality in mind. As if you’ve been invited to dinner at a dear friend’s house – that just happens to be a damn good cook.It’s not food that’s challenging the realms of gastronomy, but it is food that delivers a full belly and happy heart.

Where he captured that with canteen structure of Kitchen By Mike, here dishes are more formed with a step or two more in the process — and of course, there’s table service too.

They’ve taken smart casual dining to the belly of the CBD.

in a wonderful warehouse shell that’s been touched up with polished concrete, Moroccan tiles, Tasmanian oak, communal tables and of course individual tables too.

There is a genuine enthusiasm and interest from front-of-house staff, and the kitchen island that separates dining room from the heat of the kitchen is as openly inviting as if you were sharing a vino in your neighbours kitchen.

Whole Port Lincoln sardines are blistered in a wood-fired oven then covered in a sweet and soured sauce of tomato, raisins, pine nuts, oregano and vinegar. Blue Mackerel is cured in orange and lemon juice and partners delicately pickled endives. Then cabbage stuffed with pork mince, mushroom and chestnuts brings a homely hug.

Whole tiger flathead wrapped in pancetta arrives on a terracotta roof tile with a neat little romesco sauce before a delicately light puff pastry and caramelised slivers of apple make for a killer apple tart.

No. 1 Bent Street is a lesson in real food on a menu driven not by technique, ego or a style, but by produce and honesty.

Must eat: John Dory fillets wood fired on the bone, asparagus