A George Livissianis-designed room on a Potts Point corner, with its large arched windows and rustic pared-back walls, is the beautiful setting for this top-notch Greek by chef Jonathan Barthelmess. The room is filled with the smell of lovely charred things and the menu has us wanting to order everything.

However, there’s something irksome about being sold to by wait staff, being almost supersized. We’re told of the marron and spaghetti special, which we decline, and our waiter pushes it again as we’re ordering. When we order wine, he recommends the most expensive glass on the menu at more than $20 a glass – “it’s definitely the best wine”. One of us orders it and the other doesn’t, but, when the bill arrives, it appears we’ve both ordered it. We let it go, but it’s an awkward experience.

Other staff seem charming, accommodating and knowledgeable and the food is, thankfully, distractingly delicious. Smooth taramasalata comes in a small pot topped with salmon roe, the mullet roe dip creamy, with soft charred triangles of pita bread to eat it with. The Apollo’s famous saganaki cheese arrives bubbling in a small cast iron pan, golden, crispy, stringy and chewy in a puddle of warm honey. But the dish of the meal is the barbecued octopus; two long charred tentacles with small wedges of potato on a spoonful of softest chilli-spiked capsicum. A small Greek-style barbecue chicken is tender and cut into pieces, and it’s good, though a little pedestrian. We eye the oven-baked lamb shoulder, with its generous dollop of lemon yoghurt, on the next table and have ordering envy. “Next time,” we say. Because despite the small hiccups, The Apollo is a cheerful, beautiful and downright delicious place from an extraordinary team, and we’ll be back.