At laneway eatery The Hardware Club, sliced avocado is blanketed in caramelised Bunnings-esque onions and sprinkled with pine nuts to recreate Venetian bar snack sarde in saor (marinated fried sardines).

Head chef Nicola Dusi initially struggled to sell the dish, so ditched the ’dines and added the avo. Talk about a crowd pleaser.

You’d be forgiven for thinking the Italian restaurant, previously Ciao Pizza Napoli, has been open for decades and not two lockdown-riddled years, as it runs like a well-extra-virgin-oiled machine. The place bustles with customers perched on bar stools navigating the long list of imported Italian beers, others tucked away dreaming of the Amalfi Coast and devouring fresh pappardelle coated in a zesty lemon sauce.

Dusi reinvents classic dishes inside this cosy 65-seater. He pops a taleggio-stuffed sandwich into a jaffle press to craft the ultimate lunchtime snack: a cacio e pepe toastie. His ravioli with saffron cream almost resembles dumplings demolished in Chinatown, each pasta parcel packed with tender ossobuco.

After a frothed Frangelico sour or a glass of Montepulciano D’Abruzzo, try a tipple of homemade limoncello and raise a glass to one of the city’s lockdown triumphs.

To read our full list of reviews for Victoria, head here.