Helix Bar and Dining - the new restaurant at Vibe Hotel Canberra Airport

The restaurant at Canberra Airport's new Vibe Hotel is Helix Bar and Dining.

Hotel Kurrajong chef Mick Chatto, who runs Chifley's Bar and Grill at the historic Barton hotel, is also in charge at Helix.

Hotel group TFE owns both the Kurrajong and the new Vibe Hotel at the airport.

Chatto says Helix will be more focused on simple, relaxed food with French and Italian influences. "It'll be easy, casual dining style, it's not going to be tricked up smoke and mirrors," he says.

The Vibe Hotel is a funky affair, with a vast, seven-story atrium painted in a swirl of black and white, and a lounge filled with circular couches.

Helix is in keeping with that spirit, with a sort of airport lounge feel to the floor-to-ceiling glass windows and plenty of different spaces - the bar, an outdoor terrace, a casual area and a rather cosy sounding fire pit area.

"Toby Thorley who is my sous chef at Kurrajong will be the head chef here," he says. "We've got a plan together to bring in a lot of wine producers and beer producers come January. We've got tastings to run for a month. We'll bring that in with matching small plates and things, to match what their doing."

The bar is a showcase of mostly local Canberra wines, such as Eden Road, Mount Majura, Clonakilla and Nick O'Leary.

In the kitchen you can expect mostly European dishes - pastas, confit duck, a fish of the day.

Helix will be open from 10am to 10pm daily.