Rockpool Bar & Grill

Squint and you can almost make out Mad Men's Don Draper in the corner cradling a whisky, because Rockpool has Manhattan-like qualities, with double-height ceilings and claret-coloured banquettes. Equally impressive and seductive, it's apt for business lunches or romantic dinners. Though dry-aged, wood-fire grilled meat is the restaurant's stock in trade, the broad menu offers a wealth of options, from confit duck to crisp-fried flathead, shucked-to-order oysters and an elegant starter of raw tuna, ocean trout and kingfish with fresh wasabi and finger lime. Though a generous, juicy rotisserie chicken may tempt you to stray away from the paddock, it's the beef - world-class wagyu, grass- or grain-fed, from minute-steak to rib-eye - that lures most. Sides are terrific, perhaps wagyu-fat garlic and rosemary potatoes, bitey Warrigal greens or cheesy macaroni. A huge service team means the odd hitch occurs: sticky wine perhaps arriving with the last bite of a luscious fig tart. Otherwise, like Don, Rockpool is a smooth operator.