Well it’s not quite a restaurant or a cafe, and it’s not even a canteen really. In fact, A1 Canteen is more like an Australian diner, but don’t let its come-as-you-are casual nature fool you. The drinks – wine, beer and cocktails – are top notch; the service is as enthusiastic as a hound on a fresh trail. Plus the food is big on flavour and beautifully executed at a price that won’t pull down your pants and pinch your wallet.

Housed on the ground floor of the Old Rum Store in Chippendale, it’s opposite big sister restaurant Automata, and has all the hallmarks of a Clayton Wells experience. Relaxed environment and best-in-class produce bolstered by solid technique and food presented simply on the plate. These are elevated everyday eats and will have you yearning to return before you’ve finished your last morsel.

At breakfast, curried scrambled eggs folded like silk sheets accompany textural sausages made by LP’s Quality Meats.

At lunch you’ll need to pick between a cracking roast chicken, lettuce and mayo sandwich or the magnificent muffuletta – olive salad, mortadella, provolone, ham and artichoke – sliced from a larger sandwich to show the cross-section of ingredients.

At night it becomes more Aussie bistro and delivers a smorgasboard of A1 produce. Tua Tua clams are lathered in anchovy butter, whole flounder flourishes with espelette pepper and curry leaves, while charred-on-the-outside-and-ruby-on-the-in Black Angus hanger steak lands in a puddle of mushroom butter.

Must-eat dish: Muffuletta