Patrons are seated along a bench facing the kitchen, where chefs Tim and Sarah Scott prepare your choice of a “short” five-course or “long” eight-course menu.

The couple – who both did their apprenticeships in Brisbane before heading for Sydney and the kitchens of fine dining restaurants such as Automata and Sepia – have 6pm and 8.30pm sittings, with matched drinks available from the clipped list that offers everything by the glass or carafe/bottle.

The menu is regularly tweaked, but the five-course offering may begin with a seriously delicious corn chawanmushi (a take on the Japanese savoury egg custard), scattered with toasted quinoa, smoked Yarra Valley caviar, discs of sour pumpkin, and grated dehydrated scallop.

Next, confit Moreton Bay squid in a coriander and chive dressing, with zucchini puree, and a scattering of herbs is terrific and every last vestige demands to be mopped up with the accompanying warm buckwheat bread rolls.

Red cabbage cooked in chicken fat sitting over horseradish emulsion and studded with lightly pickled cucumber, crisp chicken skin wafers and topped with finely grated horseradish follows, while the main course may be black vinegar-glazed sous vide Cape Grim short rib teamed with gingered cucumber and salted daikon.

The Italian classic dessert, a Mont Blanc, its peaked profile fashioned from Italian meringue, piped malted artichoke and salted Chantilly is the finale for a restaurant serving clever, inventive food with warmth and charm and, actually, genuine joy.

Exceptional dish: Corn chawanmushi