Some restaurants just have a certain energy about them; when arriving at The Wolfe there is an overwhelming sense of being welcomed into someone’s home.

Beautiful black wrought-iron doors lead into a contemporary-meets-classic bistro with white-panelled walls, dark-brown tables, pale-grey chairs and a red copper floor. On the fringe of Brisbane’s CBD, The Wolfe has marked its territory at the start of suburbia with style.

A welcome return for chef/owner Paul McGivern (Rapide and Manx) is embodied in a modern bistro with food that is in one breath familiar and honest, the next throwing caution to the wind with adventurous combinations.

Look out for some of Brisbane’s best service. Affable, considered and with plenty of personality, it mimics the fun, eclectic and thoughtful wine list where one can even order a big Burgundy-style chardonnay, The Wolfe ‘From a Farr’, produced by the chef and best friend Nick Farr.

Sweet spanner crab is tossed with salt-baked beetroot, chilli and piquillo. Kohlrabi – pickled and soaked in squid ink – moderates rich skate wing and rich and plump lamb sweetbreads. Brown puffed buckwheat crowns spot-on suckling pig, and then pickled muntries make a great bedfellow for a luxurious sheep’s milk sorbet.  

If you’re talking great locals, The Wolfe makes a solid case for pack leader.

Must-eat dish: Sheep’s milk sorbet, pickled muntries, tofu skin, nashi