Bar Barossa

A lost booking, longish wait and service that is friendly if a bit vague could seriously mar a top-shelf weekday dinner. Just as well the wine list is one of the best around. But you expect as much from a chi-chi wine bar-cum-restaurant set discreetely on the city shoulder. A gander at the floor-to-ceiling windows lined with bottles as well as a feature chandelier of a bunch of grapes, suggests the focus here is grape, specifically, wine gathered from the Barossan region, so lean on the sommelier for a nice half-bottle to spark blandish beef tortellini and pretty but just passable carpaccio. Trust it does get better by the main event, and enjoy tearing your spatchcock's crisp skin from its succulent flesh with a smother of honey glaze, or plunging fork through the high, light and flaky dome of a hearty venison pie. Round out with a finger-licking slice of banoffee pie and coffee. Expect some changes under new chef Davidson-Kelly.