Granted, it’s hardly balut – the boiled bird-embryo egg found in the Philippines – but as street snacks go, at first blush Berlin’s beloved currywurst is pretty disgusting. Not the pork sausage, mind – this is Germany, after all – but the namesake tomato sauce and curry powder mix it’s doused in needs a good pilsner to wash it down. Thankfully you’ll find beer also served on the street, for this is Germany, after all.

But we’re in Melbourne so if you want a beer with your currywurst you’ll have to head indoors. Happily the beer at Messer is very good – Footscray’s Hop Nation pale ale is served by the litre –  street snack elevates it to 11. Here, the wurst is a mild duck sausage with a good meat-to-fat ratio, served with a tomato sauce with a hit of heat a bit too posh for true believers, but the fine crisp slivers of potato on top add the perfect amount of crunch. It’s a clever rendition and makes a fine motif of the new ‘Berlin diner’ focus of this year-old Gertrude Street restaurant.

The menu is still a modern Melbourne interpretation of German classics and it’s still an appealingly simple, good-looking room of blond wood and brushed surfaces.

There’s flammkuchen, a type of flatbread with a crunchy charred base tastily topped with potato, leek and super-smoky speck, and käsespätzle, the Teutonic version of mac and cheese, that has winter sorted. Unfortunately, there’s no malty saltiness to the advertised ‘pretzel crumb’ on a disappointingly chewy veal schnitzel with potato salad that needs more gherkin bite. A missed opportunity.

Service is sharp – the waitress thoughtfully left a couple of cookbooks on the table for this lone diner in case I needed company – as is the Eurocentric wine list, which leans to light, bright reds and floral, fragrant whites.

But if you’re just after a quick snack and beer, Messer’s wurst is the best.