The Panama Dining Room

It's almost de rigueur to have to climb two flights of dusty stairs to reach a hip bar in this town; but here, you get the darkly seductive bar as well as a retro-styled dining room. The restaurant's focus is on clever flavour pairing. A slow-poached egg teams perfectly with rich smoked trout and a fresh nasturtium and frisee salad, or opt for the Glenloth chicken sous-vide, grilled and served with sweetcorn puree, charry corn kernels and sweet baby leeks. Flavourful specials might include a mound of beautifully briny mussels and plump prawns with silverbeet and soft risoni in saffron broth. Desserts may not scale the same heights, but a dense banana loaf with choc-chip icecream and caramel popcorn will thrill a sweet tooth. Staff are efficient and knowledgeable if occasionally distracted, and patrons sensitive to noise should eat early as the happy buzz intensifies as the night wears on.