A sommelier recently suggested that one of the best times to open a bottle of champagne is when bad news rears its ugly head. The emotions we associate with champagne – the ultimate celebratory tipple – help alter one’s mindset and heal wounds, albeit for a brief moment, anyway.

Food has an incredible ability to alter one’s mood, too, and dining experiences that creep up on you to deliver far beyond one’s expectations will overwhelm with a sense of joy that is hard to quantify.

That feeling can come from a $10 sandwich or a $200 degustation – the price point is merely one element of our perception of value.

It’s not often that I eat out and conclude that I’d eagerly order every single dish again – but The Lotus Dining Group’s The Resident manages to buck that trend.

Although there are still teething problems with service three weeks in – the intent and sincerity is abundant, but everything seems in slow motion – chef Pablo Tordesillas has brought his big-flavoured A-game with a Spanish-cum-North African Mediterranean-accented menu worth celebrating.

An egoless and generous chef that took Brisbane’s food scene to new heights with Ortiga a few years back has found himself chef-in-residence at The Resident right in the heart of Sin City.

Overlooking Hyde Park – beneath a recently-refurbed former cop shop head office that now houses (wait for it) luxury apartments – The Resident’s floor to ceiling bifolds bring the outside in, giving the space a more al fresco feel than an indoor dining one. But if the weather turns, the bifolds close, and it makes for quite an awkward narrow space down business end, while the dining room proper gets an odd inside-courtyard feel.

Nevertheless, marble tabletops, teak chairs, white woods and an open kitchen provide as much theatre as the hustle and bustle on the street.

The menu is structured simply – snacks, small plates and large plates – though the sizes do vary considerably in each category, so talk it through with the staff.

Fat, sweet glimmering escabeche of mussels, partnering squid ink aioli and long, thin house-made potato crisps, make a compelling argument for compulsory consumption. Crisp potato wisps crown a slow-cooked egg and fried cuttlefish before braised-then-char-grilled Western Australian octopus tentacle comes out surrounding an ajo blanco puree kissed by sumac and garnished with slivers of grape. It’s spectacularly delicious. Anchovy and endive make for great bedfellows beneath ethereally thin petals of grilled ox tongue while chickpeas, tossed in fermented butter (smen) siddle up to surprisingly lean charred lamb breast on the bone.

What I love most though is the respect, consideration and championing of vegetable dishes. Black olive and sofrito add an exclamation to the dense, creamy kipflers and savoury, sweet runner beans. Then “all the good things” – think capers, chilli, egg and fried bread, with a splash of colatura (fish sauce) – share the love with broccoli charred over charcoal. Then tiny brick pastry triangles with rosemary overtones add crunch to kumquats, given a clean acid-kick from goat’s milk yogurt sorbet. Bloody brilliant.

The Resident follows the swag of simplified, more accessible eateries to hit the beating heart of Sydney of late, and if Tordesilla continues to bring the delicious from his culinary kick bag, perhaps we’ll see more chefs inspired to help breath new life into the cities lungs.

Try The Resident for yourself and book a table for two or more people to receive a complimentary cocktail upon arrival thanks to BOSN. View this offer at delicious.com.au/osn