Food should be innovative and, yes, food should be delicious. And sometimes, when you set aside the casual eatery to fine diner divide, when you weigh up the food in front of you and the buzz around you, the wonderfulness of the entire meal, you realise you’re at a truly splendid place. And so it is at Emma’s Snack Bar, where the room sparkles with that particular magic of many people having a good time and eating particularly great food.

Many cheap eats in Sydney’s inner west, the west, the far west, are delicious. But here, on the border of Enmore and Stanmore, sitting alone among Enmore’s brick houses, is a small nook (and miniscule kitchen) turning out renditions of traditional Lebanese and Lebanese street food that raise the city’s casual eating game.

Start with spicy hummus topped with crispy garlic and chilli, and the baba ganouge, memorable for being fresh eggplant roasted over a fire and mashed lightly with tahini and garlic, and extra pita bread for scooping. The tabouli is parsley and citrus heavy, and it’s some of the best in the city. Ladies fingers come as a trio, flaky and stuffed with cinnamon-fragrant lamb, pine nuts, pomegranate molasses giving a pleasing sour stickiness.

Kids eat with adults here, and the long central table feels like a big family feast. Fries come with garlic mayo and crunchy felafel breaks open to a creamy centre. Order the Moorish chicken a toasted Lebanese flatbread stuffed with charred and tender chicken thigh, a zig zag of garlic mayo and tangy spices lifting it above the usual game.

Emma’s leaves you wishing you were a local here but, judging by the room packed with families from 5.30pm and a hipster set who feast before a gig at the nearby Enmore Theatre, we’re prepared to travel across town for dining this delicious.

Must eat dish: Moorish chicken with garlic sauce
Instagram: @emmassnackbar