Its position on Ash Street isn’t without competition, but this doesn’t appear to prove a problem for chef Nathan Sasi’s Mercado. Lunch service is packed, every table full and alive with chatter.

Sasi is manning the pass, spinning out plates to every corner of the room. Here they go beyond simply baking the bread; Sasi and his team take the ‘from-scratch’ route making cheese, fermenting, and butchering and curing meats farmed in the Blue Mountains on co-owner Steve Anastasiou’s land. With a father who was a small goods maker, it’s hardly surprising the passion and skill has been passed on to Sasi, and the plate of cured meats is truly delicious.

Moving on, the chickpea puree is smooth and creamy, topped with crisp chickpeas and served with some of the fluffiest flatbread we’ve ever eaten, while sweet scallops perch atop an earthy Jerusalem artichoke puree that doesn’t fight with the delicate scallop flesh. The entrees make the direction of this cuisine hard to pinpoint, pumpkin ravioli and sashimi sitting alongside beef tartare (2017’s most-seen dish).

Spit-roasted porchetta is presented with wonderful crackling and spicy mojo rojo (red chilli sauce) and a half rotisserie chicken served simply with lemon and aioli doesn’t disappoint. Quite rightly, the dish with the most fans this lunchtime is a Wagyu beef short-rib falling off the bone and served with a salsa slick with cubes of silky bone marrow. Opt for a fresh salad of herbs and mixed leaves or roasted carrots to counter the heavy hit of protein.

House-made cheese is a great option to finish here, but the real crowd-pleaser is the famous hazelnut mousse cake infused with Pedro Ximenez and adorned with gold leaf. It arrives as a glistening heart-shaped chocolate ganache enclosing a liquid caramel centre.

Must eat dish: Wagyu beef short rib with bone marrow salsa
Instagram: @mercadorestaurant