Wilbur's Place

Melbourne might have the hip laneway thing all buttoned down, but Sydney is cottoning on fast to the idea of dining in shady back alleys. Wilbur's Place makes it even more fun with its fuss-free fit-out, wraparound dining counter and easy, breezy, pegboard menu. Wilbur's is the brainwave of the Bourke Street Bakery gang, so bread is a mainstay. It's on the side; it's on the plate; it turns up as croutons for the warm porchetta salad; toast for the duck liver pate; and as rolls for the beef brisket and porchetta. They've even invented the dessert toastie - golden brioche oozing ice-cream, which goes over the top in the nicest possible way. Carbophobes can stick with a silky salmon gravlax salad pepped up with radicchio, herbs, cucumber ribbons and dusky preserved lemon, or a homely, twice-cooked, half spatchcock that barely requires a knife. Service is pay-at-the-counter, and the prices are modest enough to make you blink. No wonder the locals are loving it.