Coda

Coda burst on to the scene with rock-star appeal and, entering its fifth year, still pulls crowds. Adam D'Sylva's versatile menu offers a double act of lively Asian and classic French dishes inside a laneway basement with a modish minimalist fitout and an energetic buzz. You might begin with two plump tempura bugs ready to dip in soy sauce before pressing into Sichuan pepper and chilli salt for kick. Or a stately pan-fried scallop in its shell, indulged with salmon caviar and pearl tapioca. Bigger plates include scotch fillet in beurre noisette, but more exciting are six juicy, sizzling king prawns piled with wood-ear mushrooms, crunchy okra, chilli and XO sauce. A stunning dessert of popcorn parfait salted with caramel and sweetened by raspberry sorbet is, well, a rock-star dish. It may have started out as an upstart, but Coda is becoming a classic.