Dining at Coda can involve the stalking skills of a hunter. Its cachet has kept it jumping since award-winning chef Adam D’Sylva and team opened in 2009. Securing a table can involve several calls and waitlists. Once you make it down the stairs off a city laneway to the buzzing dark-ceilinged room with its distressed walls and mesh lightshades, dishes are inspired by Asia, with a dash of French polish; multi-layered, they deserve exploration. Canape-style starters might include prawns wrapped in betel leaf before being lightly fried to crispness; or a single, exquisite scallop set atop creamy pearl tapioca and crowned with iridescent salmon roe. Choices to share include tender duck legs paddling in a bowl of dense yellow curry, scattered with coriander leaves and crunchy wheels of lotus root; the dish is a Coda signature, and rightly so. A final discovery awaits on the dessert list of French standards with Asian flair – sweetcorn parfait with sorbet, in which nuggets of caramel popcorn reward the intrepid.

And … Try your luck at the bar without a booking.

THE LOW-DOWN
Vibe Inner-urban cool.
Best bit Friendly bar staff.
Worst bit The wait for a booking.