Reviving great things from the golden, romantic era of restaurants, Bert’s captures the essence of what it means to indulge yourself without the need to suit up in your Sunday best. Perhaps Merviale’s most important restaurant in years, the refurbishment of the space at The Newport makes it feel as if you’ve been transported to a dining room in a 1930s murder mystery. The sun-drenched Bar and Brasserie combines class with a genuine sense of casual. Olive green booths, chandeliers, double white tablecloths, marble, cane, and a floral flourish throughout the dining room benefits from the theatre of a big old open kitchen – with a seafood smorgasbord on display to whet the appetite, while the bar gifts a panoramic picturesque perspective of Pittwater.

The wine list runs as deep as the deep blue outside, and the cocktails are top notch, but make sure you spend plenty of time spoiling yourself on the culinary musings of executive chef Jordan Toft. The key here is a menu heavily backed by seriously solid French and Italian technique, but smart enough to keep things simple on the plate. If you’ve got no budget requirements, start with 50g of Siberian caviar served simply with brioche and cultured butter. Pork and game birds bind together between pastry layers in a gorgeous pâté en croûte, live pipis pop in a tumble of vermouth and lemon myrtle, and whole snapper succumbs to a sharp salsa rosa. Ranger’s and Brooklyn Valley beef stars on the wood-fired grill, but head directly to the double rib pork chop for two – just save room for the mandarin soufflé.

Must eat dish: Hand-picked mud crab, Basque style