Elio’s Place

Name a restaurant where you can go for a business breakfast, pre-theatre oysters, a mid-shopping spritz and a slap-up dinner with friends. Stumped? Try Elio’s Place. It’s open for breakfast rolls right through to knock-off drinks with snacks such as duck liver parfait.

The split-level space in an old Victorian building is warmed up by timber, cork, frosted glass and eclectic art. Find a window perch or hidden nook, pick at potato roesti with fondue-like sauce and sip an Americano Perfecto, made crisp with lager instead of the soda.

A sheath of bubbly cheese heralds baked fusilli in a spicy-sweet sugo, while the crackly skin of pan-fried barramundi is a textural foil for its fork-tender flesh. Creme caramel of perfect bittersweet proportions is one of several classic desserts that deliver the comfort you’d expect from an all-day diner.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.

Sink into a chesterfield with an Old Fashioned at this CBD speakeasy styled as a 19th-century dressing room.