Cafe Nice

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. It's the perfect metaphor for a restaurant such as Cafe Nice, where the words are inscribed in gilt letters on the wall.

Indeed, the more things change at Fratelli Fresh's Provencal-themed Circular Quay business canteen, the more it remains the same. Now two years old, Cafe Nice has just completed a turn-around from being a pleasantly evoked French bistro to something more intriguing and rewarding.

Yet the horseshoe-shaped bar still fills with pre-theatres, the L-shaped dining room is still fragrant with fresh white flowers, and the reverberating voices are still punctuated by the regular whoosh of commuter trains. That particular Fratelli Fresh energy and brisk, can-do, sneaker-clad service is still there, too, headed by Nina Gravelis.

The change is in the kitchen, where young chef-to-watch Josh Niland has landed, after working with Steve Hodges at Fish Face in Double Bay and at the short-lived hotel diner, The Woods. I'm hoping he's here to stay, if the beautiful little leaf-shaped fougasse, Provence's answer to Italian focaccia, is any indication. Tucked into a white napkin and served with fruity olive tapenade, fresh ricotta and house-made tomato jam ($12), it's disarmingly simple, and just plain delicious.

Niland, 26, can't help but contemporise the menu, at the same time shifting it closer to Provence. Cue roast bone marrow tartine and braised peppers with salted anchovies on the 23-strong 'hors d'oeuvres' list. It's extremely easy to make a meal of these affordable small-to-middling dishes, unless you're set on a more substantial grilled steak, pasta, fish, or the popular roast Thirlmere chicken for two.

You've had the rich onion-topped pissaladiere, now try the equally rewarding, rich, tomato-topped Mentonnaise pichade ($6). A slab of skilfully made pork and chicken terrine ($16) comes with the crunch of pig's ear, and a soft-boiled, still gently runny, egg ensconced right in the middle, which can't be easy to do.

One of the real plusses is a very together two-page wine list, a comfortable mix of Italian and French by the glass, 350ml carafe and bottle, with a good focus on rose, as you would hope. For the quality, prices are not grasping: the rich, ripe, round 2010 Denis Pommier Chablis, for instance, comes in at $15, $50 and $68, instead of the $110 I have seen elsewhere.

Post-Fish Face, Niland's fish cookery is precise and a point. His barigoule ($24) is a brothy bowl of just-cooked mussels and fleshy, sweetly-flavoured, pink-skinned red mullet, larger than the tiny Mediterranean rouget, strewn with fennel and carrot and swirled with olive oil and lemon juice. Clever, light, deeply flavoured.

Exactingly pan-fried john dory ($32) is accompanied, somewhat surprisingly and almost successfully, by smooth pools of black poppyseed and white yoghurt. Those all-important frites ($8.50) are great - crisp, dry and salty - and a side of chiffonaded silverbeet ($10) is light and fresh.

Desserts are fashionable compositions of figs with champagne jelly, chamomile granite and vanilla ice-cream ($14.50), or burnt vanilla meringue with watermelon and caramel cream.

By way of disclaimer, I've known Fratelli Fresh owner Barry McDonald for 20 years and collaborated with him on the new Fratelli Fresh cookbook. Josh Niland, I've not known for long at all, but it's a good fit.

The young chef concentrating on the kitchen, lifting the food from the everyday; the older restaurateur concentrating on infrastructure, so that the systems work every day. There's nothing new about this synergy, and yet, there's everything new. Plus ca change …

THE LOW-DOWN
Best bit: Food is both nicer and Nicoisier
Worst Bit: It's still bloody noisy
Go-to dish: Red mullet and mussel barigoule, $24

Terry Durack is chief restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald and senior reviewer for the Good Food Guide. This rating is based on the Good Food Guide scoring system.