In Australia we love our pubs, but we’re starting to love quality pub restaurants just as much. The reimagined Dolphin Hotel is testament to this wonderful pub-food movement by delivering a multi-experience venue, featuring four defined spaces – a public bar, wine bar, cocktail lounge and dining room – embodying style, substance, sophistication and a smashing good time.

Seasoned restaurateur Maurice Terzini (Icebergs Dining and Bar) has breathed new life into this monolithic beast with a chic monochrome design manifesting as crumpled white cloth wrapped around pillars and walls reminiscent of a Christo installation, and striking graffiti-style illustrations on furniture and fabrics. It’s a smart, vibrant space where staff bounce around with swagger.

Wine director James Hird’s (The Wine Library) drinks list balances the peculiar world of wine with some stellar table drops to give diners something to quaff as they share the Italian-inspired feast by executive chef Monty Koludrovic and head chef Dan Medcalf.

You can grab a wine and a pig’s head sandwich or kingfish carpaccio in the wine bar, or step into the dining room proper for a more substantial feast. Antipasti includes delicate ricotta and herb croquettes, and lightly battered squid on rocket aka calamari sant’Andrea.

West Australian scampi shines in a generous risotto, while blue swimmer crab entwined with spaghetti reveals its sweet side. Oven-roasted whole flathead lands simply adorned with sorrel puree and herb butter. Then there’s chicken cacciatore, a boneless rib-eye and eight, hand-stretched northern Italian-style pizzas – the pick of the crop being pepperoni with agrodolce peppers and mozzarella.

The Dolphin is exactly what this list of food sums up – feasting with friends and bags of fun.

Must-eat dish: Spaghetti with blue swimmer crab, fine herbs, white wine and lemon
Instagram: @thedolphinsurryhills