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Gigibaba

Gigibaba might look like a hipster bar you’d expect to find on this hipster stretch of Smith Street, but there are more reasons than a cleverly constructed, flexible wine list (everything available by the glass, carafe and bottle) to pull up a stool or claim a table in the long, narrow shopfront. Ismail Tosun’s take on modern Turkish food, a skilful balance that honours tradition without being hidebound by it, is arguably the best of its kind in the country. Dishes might include an ezme with the usual slippery, crunchy mix of capsicum and eggplant enlivened by tangy, jewel-like pomegranate, lamb cutlets crunchy with sea salt and wild oregano, sour-sweet pickled watermelon and baklava textured with almonds. Flavours are clean, the atmosphere fashionable but unpretentious and the no-bookings policy more easily negotiated now the neighbourhood is bristling with bars.