This low-key Lygon Street bar typifies why Melbourne is one of the best eating cities in the world

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There are so many factors that make for a world-class food city. Obviously, when you hear the term “world-class”, you think of restaurants that might bear that distinction, the ones that wind up on fancy lists and with fancy awards.

But I’d argue that just as important, if not more so, are the places that require no planning at all, no particular occasion, that nonetheless delight and surprise you.

To me, the best food cities are the ones you can walk out into on any given day and find yourself eating and drinking extremely well without referring to the lists, the guides or anything but your own sense of exploration.

Melbourne has a number of neighbourhoods that would support that kind of wandering culinary exploration, and Brunswick and Brunswick East are prime examples. The stretch along Lygon Street just above Brunswick Road is exploding with bars, cafes, breweries and small independent restaurants that are purpose-built for the casual joy of stumbling into something delicious.

One of the newer additions to this area is Bahama Gold, a small wine bar and shop in the space next to Old Palm Liquor. Owned by the same team as Old Palm (as well as Carlton North’s Neighbourhood Wine), Bahama Gold is as inviting as can be: its front side is usually totally open to the street, with heat lamps inside to fight the cold when needed. The bar has space for 12, and a wine-lined back room is warmed by an open fire.

Bahama Gold opened just over a year ago but has only recently added a significant food offering. Chef Jane Low, who has worked at Old Palm Liquor and Neighbourhood Wine but also in London, is putting out a menu of bar snacks and slightly heftier dishes from a space behind the bar that can barely be called a kitchen – just a couple of burners and some other very basic equipment.

If Bahama Gold’s overall vibe is decidedly lo-fi – and it is, from the music via vinyl on a turntable to the low-intervention wines on offer to the cosiness of that open fire – Low’s cooking setup fits right in. It makes the most with very little, taking it back to basics.

What she does with that basic setup, however, is truly impressive. There are bar snacks, yes, and they’re all very delicious, but I’ll start instead with an agnolotti ($24) that wouldn’t be out of place on some of the most ambitious pasta restaurants in town. Perfectly al dente pasta wraps a silky potato filling, topped with nutmeg, sage and a shower of grated cheese.

Low took a sabbatical last year and spent some of that time travelling in Italy, and this pasta eats like it was made by someone who has done the miles and learnt the techniques and finished it off with a deep love of cooking.

Low’s Malaysian and Chinese cultural background shows up in certain dishes, like a lap cheong XO that comes with a quarter poussin ($19) that has been confit-cured in wagyu fat. If this sounds outrageously decadent, you’d be right – the poultry flesh takes on a glorious richness.

A broad bean dip topped with crudites ($17) gets a hefty dose of chilli crisp, giving the classic nibble excitement and verve.

There’s good bread served with tomato sambal ($10) that goes with many of the dishes: stracchino cheese with mint, lightly pickled squash and fried almonds ($17); heirloom tomatoes with peaches and butter flavoured with curry leaf ($17); and tender squid and mussels with a funky and addictive ’nduja sauce ($17).

A large selection of tinned fish ($18-$28 a can) rounds out the offering – I was particularly enamoured of the Lucas garfish in olive oil ($22), which were meaty and pungent and went fantastically with bread.

The cocktail game is strong here, and there’s an impressive number of beers on tap for such a small bar. Wines are available to drink there or take away, and the staff is knowledgeable and refreshingly un-pushy: my request for a wine that might go with the wide-ranging food I’d ordered was met with some enthusiastic suggestions from the more affordable end of the spectrum when an up-sell would be the norm.

Low’s menu is brief, and part of the joy of that is you can basically eat the whole thing if you bring a couple of friends.

But it also speaks to the utility of the place – this is a bar for everyday eating, a place you come back to every week, a place that has multiple uses for multiple occasions. In other words, it’s the type of unassuming but excellent venue you’d find in one of the most vibrant neighbourhoods in one of the best eating cities in the world.