Embrace the mayhem at Emma's Snack Bar

"Proudly serving Enmore for over 50 years." The sign on the wall of the newly renovated Emma's Snack Bar says it all.

In 1970, Lebanese immigrants George and Emma Sofy opened a "mixed business" corner store to serve the needs of the neighbourhood. By the late 1980s it was rustling up sandwiches and Emma's Lebanese food. Son Anthony took over as owner-chef in 1999 and opened a restaurant called Emma's on Liberty, which later transformed into Emma's Snack Bar.

The evolution continues, with Emma's reopening after four months' closure with a gleaming new commercial kitchen. The window-lined dining space is much the same, with a long communal table down the centre, a hotch-potch of high and low tables and a stool-lined counter. With a full house, it's pure mayhem, and works only because it has its own unique way of getting things done.

Take the wine list. You can't, because there isn't one. Whatever you order will be $13 a glass, $32 a carafe or $45 a bottle. You're not given wineries or varietals; just choices such as "crisp and zesty" or "floral and friendly" for whites, and "ripe and fleshy" or "light and spicy" for reds. All you need, really.

Water is serve-yourself from the tap on the wall. Staff scurry in and out of the kitchen, clearing tables then covering them again with more small dishes.

Behind the bar, Ethan Dinopoulos pours wine, shakes whisky cocktails, takes phone orders, directs junior serving staff, and pushes takeaway TV dinner packs through the side window to locals and food delivery riders on the footpath outside.

The food is billed as "just good fresh Lebanese food", which pretty much covers it. Hummus, the mortar that holds the bricks of Lebanese cooking together, comes thick and creamy ($13), bolstered by a pile of Lebanese flatbread to rip and dip. It's good with a crisp and refreshing Almaza beer from Lebanon ($10) or a glass of fruity, aniseedy Fakra arak ($10).

One of the big orders – and I mean big – is a serve of ladies' fingers ($18), long filo cigars filled with nutty, spicy, minced lamb, deep-fried and cut in two; great for a group.

The meaty stuff is meaty – order sausages, and you get sausages upon sausages – but just as many dishes are devoted to vegetables such as cauliflower, pumpkin, cabbage, potato and eggplant, in line with traditional Lebanese family-style cooking.

A fattoush salad ($16) is colourful and crunchy with fridge-cold cucumber, tomato and fried bread, but doesn't feel at its best in winter.

House special Moorish chicken ($25) is great for winter, as long as you're as hungry as a horse. Chargrilled chicken thighs, marinated overnight in garlicky toum, chilli and sumac, get wrapped in Lebanese bread with garlic mayo and red onion then put back on the grill until the bread is knock-knock hard. Elegant, it is not. Homely and delicious and filling, it is.

And yes, the Wirra Wirra Scrubby Rise sauvignon blanc is actually "floral and friendly", and the Redbank pinot noir is "light and spicy".

So, welcome back, Emma's. Best to go in a small group so you can cover the table with goodies. Best to order everything while you have a staff member's attention, because you may not get it again.

And best to just take what you get even if you haven't ordered it, and don't fret about your actual order not turning up at all.

Oh, and not best to walk out thinking they don't do dessert, then see baklava and knafeh on a board by the door as you close it behind you.

Next, Anthony Sofy is looking to turn the upstairs floor, where the family lived for 40 years, into a new bar with the nostalgic name of Mixed Business. Sounds like more organised mayhem is on the way, held together by hummus. Excellent.

Vibe Mayhem

Go-to dish Moorish chicken, $25

Drinks Arak, Almaza Lebanese beer, three whites, three reds, Lebanese coffee

Cost About $90 for two, plus drinks