Chiswick at the Gallery

British artist Richard Hamilton was one of the first to define the Pop Art movement, currently the theme of a major exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Recycled, the words could easily sum up the current state of dining.

"Popular (designed for a mass audience); transient (short-term solution); expendable (easily forgotten); low cost; mass produced; young (aimed at youth); witty; sexy; gimmicky; glamorous; and last but not least, Big Business."

Feeding people in public places, in particular, is Very Big Business. Cue the recent public scuffling over the lucrative catering contracts for the Sydney Opera House Opera Bar (retained by Matt Moran and Peter Sullivan's MorSul group), and the former Guillaume at Bennelong site (awarded to Team Quay). Moran and Sullivan have also taken over the restaurant and café at the Art Gallery of NSW.

Think about it – it's money for jam, with a fresh new audience of diners delivered to the door every day. OK, so they might be here more for the venue than the menu, but smart operators like Moran and Sullivan can cope with that. So there are finger sandwiches next to the jaffles on the Café menu, and fish and chips next to the snow crab slider at the next-level-up Chiswick at the Gallery.

The decision to spin off their charming garden-driven Chiswick brand into the airy, attractive Nordic-inclined restaurant space, with its wide-screen views over Woolloomooloo Bay feels like a good one.

Chef Laura Baratto, who started as an apprentice at ARIA restaurant eight years ago, is rocking no boats with a simple, small and share-plated list of crowd-pleasers. Chiswick favourites include freshly opened oysters, char-grilled, grain-fed sirloin, and the justifiably popular slow-roast Moran family lamb and whole roast chicken to share.

The small plates vary in personality, from a dish of raw yellow fin tuna, dibbed and dabbed with apple gel and compressed cucumber ($20) that has little character, to pale, lightly seared scallops paired with a slightly heavy corn cream ($22). There's more fun in a dude food take on crisply fried quail ($22), easily pick-uppable in the fingers and swiped through sriracha mayonnaise, with a nice little kick from jalapeno. The hand-chopped, sweetly and spicily seasoned steak tartare ($22) topped with a quail egg yolk is the most likeable dish. It comes with a tumble of crisp, golden house-made potato crisps, although you could very happily order an oily, garlicky, grilled Sonoma flatbread ($6) and just slather it on top.

Three of us share a whole snapper ($56), which shows good kitchen timing, strewn with bright, fresh greens (bok choy, edamame) in light soy-based juices. You're left to your own devices for filleting, which is fine by me, but may not suit everyone.

A lively global-roaming wine list runs from "perfumed and dry whites" to "poised and refined reds", including a barely blushing, intense and spicy 2013 Casa Monfort pinot grigio rosé ($14 a glass/$44 a carafe/$66 a bottle) that seems to epitomise the joys of a sunny summertime lunch.

If there's a peach to be had, have it. Chiswick's Peach Melba ($17) is a lovely mix of peach, berries and edible flowers that sits comfortably within the classics-with-a-tweak brief.

The only thing missing is a kitchen garden dictating the menu as it does in Woollahra; something I believe is planned for March. For now, it's a clever re-work of a charming art gallery restaurant for those who may not know a lot about art, but know what they like.

THE LOW-DOWN
Best bit: The wrap-around views
Worst bit: Hard timber banquettes
Go-to dish: Chiswick steak tartare, smoked mushrooms, potato crisps $22

Terry Durack is chief restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald and senior reviewer for the Good Food Guide. This rating is based on the Good Food Guide scoring system.