Real food. Honest food. Elevated everyday eats. All descriptors used to define dining that celebrates stellar produce and provenance. This was the ethos of Mike McEnearney’s original Kitchen by Mike canteen in Rosebery.

He took this approach uptown at his table-service diner No 1 Bent Street in 2016. Now the site has been reborn as Kitchen by Mike 2.0. The banquettes have gone and a glass-encased buffet has been installed. You join the queue and pick a wine from a list that’s diverse if a little pricey – compared with the food anyway – then choose from the just-prepared produce du jour and you’re away to find a table and enjoy a top-notch, value-for-money meal. There’s something familiar and comforting about the combinations, a casual flair delivered with a helping of generosity. I can’t recall a McEnearney meal that failed to deliver all of that.

Plates are stacked with wonderfully smoky wood-fired roast chook with harissa and fioretto cauliflower, perhaps, or fillets of rich blue mackerel topped with tapenade balanced on a bed of rocket and fennel. Pine mushrooms, meanwhile, are given time by the fire, then lathered in a curry butter. It’s the dish of the day. A cabbage, apple and walnut slaw is a bit pedestrian, but a kale spin on Caesar salad is surprisingly pleasing. A slice of apple tarte fine with a spoonful of Chantilly (for just $5) is just lovely.

The staff are nice, though tables could be cleared a lot quicker, and they should engage with the diners more and let them know the modus operandi as they arrive – many newcomers find it confusing.

McEnearney has placed a bet each way. By night Kitchen by Mike reverts to regular à la carte dining, much like No 1 Bent Street – a far cry from the daytime canteen. Whichever way you play it, it’s the kind of real offering Sydney could do with more of and I hope the city types join the queue.

Hot tip
If you don’t like queues go for dinner

Must-try
Pine mushrooms in curry sauce