“Are we fine with chopsticks?” Asks Dada co-owner Kaye Park, who is hospitality personified. Whatever you need to feel comfortable, even a fork, she’ll make it happen. That’s the lasting impression at this modest restaurant surrounded by the glass and steel office blocks of Phillip: one of warmth and kindness, of good taste even among the stern government towers.

At Dada, Kaye and husband Peter Kang draw from a wide range of sources – Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam and Australia – to present a menu filled with inventive dishes paired with smart local wine choices.

Korean fried chicken with gochujang-spiked sauce is lightly fried but pleasingly crunchy; Peking pork croquette contrasts a shatter-crisp shell with creamy filling; Coral Bay barramundi with yuzu kosho beurre blanc is classic cooking flipped on its head.

And if you leave here without ordering the Vietnamese-coffee banoffee pie, you only have yourself to blame.

Best for: A culinary adventure.

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