Rubyos

Standing on a corner at the top of King Street, Rubyos inhabits a spacious and elegant site. It's a serene and airy space with striking paintings, high ceilings and suspended lights that resemble clusters of floating petals.

There's a small bar area inside the front door furnished with red- and orange-hued pouffes and, to the right, a tall wall of wine bottles in wooden shelves.

Dining tables edge this area, spreading into a spacious main room with various-sized tables, some with banquette seating and cushions. We're seated against the back wall with King Street's busy evening traffic framed and muted by Rubyos' deep, wide windows.

Easygoing staff explain the menu - a wide selection of hot and cold grazing dishes. Two choices per person is usually sufficient but we're assured we can order more any time.

From a list of nearly 30 cocktails we sip on a restoring Rubyos Martini (ruby red grapefruit juice, Absolut Kurrant and Cointreau) and several Kir Royales. The drinks menu features more than 30 Australian, French, New Zealand and Spanish wines and we choose a Tatachilla chardonnay from South Australia.

Choosing food is trickier. Amid plenty of vegetarian choices - tofu, green beans, risotto, halloumi, eggplant - are dishes featuring seafood, chicken, beef, duck, lamb and venison. The menu has Spanish, Chinese, Moroccan, French and Italian influences, most of which carry over into the lunch and weekend breakfast menus.

Picture-perfect pork, chicken and plum terrine arrives first. Served with crunchy toast and a salsa of apple and cornichon, it's dense but light, packing in pale-pink meat flavours.

Next is eggplant curry, made with fire-roasted eggplant, tomatoes and garam marsala and served with spiced lentil puffs that resemble smooth medallions.

We break them into pieces and scoop up the thick curry goodness. Grilled chicken fillets arrive - moist and marinated in the Middle Eastern spice black lime - with a chilli relish and excellent sweet potato chips.

It's top-notch but overshadowed by the night's star dish - pumpkin, walnut and sage risotto cakes. They come with a green olive tapenade and crumbled feta. Inside is luscious rice - soft, fat and steeped in warm, nutty flavours.

To finish, we devour spicy green beans - topped with tamari-roasted almonds and a rice wine, sesame and chilli dressing - and pinchos, a popular tapas dish. Here it's skewered vegetables - zucchini, tomatoes and pumpkin - with an olive, quinoa and Spanish onion salad and a zesty herb pistou dipping sauce.

The food quota has been spot-on. We're pleasantly full but more importantly, lulled by myriad tastes. Our dinner has combined good, fresh ingredients with pungent spices, herbs and oils.

For dessert we share a dark chocolate brulee with a staggering richness, and a gingerbread pudding served with brown sugar-roasted pineapple, honey almond parfait and a creamy golden syrup sauce.

Service has been fast and the food terrific - in a poised and welcoming space.

Menu

Modern Australian.

Value

Good. Breakfast: $5.50-$17; grazing menu: $9.50-$29.50; dessert: $12-$24.50.

Recommended dish

Pumpkin, walnut and sage risotto cakes.

RUBYOS

18-20 King Street,

Newtown

9557 2669

Tues-Thurs 5.30pm-late; Fri noon-late; Sat and Sun 9am-late