Where: Bodega

At: Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills, Sydney

Style: Spanish, Portuguese tapas

Business category: Casual restaurant

I HAVE almost missed out on one of Sydney’s most enjoyable dining experiences on principle. I hate restaurants who don’t take bookings, I hate the uncertainty of organising a few people for dinner and not knowing if you are going to get a table. I hate the idea of being told by some pompous over confident maitre d to ‘go to the nearest pub and we’ll give you a call when we can squeeze you in’.

So for more than 18 months I have refused to go to Bodega, the very popular and very cool restaurant in grungy Surry Hills, just a couple of minutes from Central Station. But my curiosity got the better of me—as well as pressure from friends—and I’ve now been three times in the space of three weeks—the first on a Thursday night when we had to put our names down and then go and wait in a nearby pub for more than 90 minutes and the second time my dining partner and I arrived deliberately early at 15 minutes before the 6.30 opening time only to find a dedicated scrum of hopeful diners outwardly forming themselves into a civilised queue but inwardly all planning their shoulder charge into the restaurant when the doors opened.

The third time was very civilised I have to confess—a table for our six-some was available straight away. But it was a cold and windy Tuesday night after a long weekend after all.

But I am very glad I was able to overcome my prejudices. I still hate the nervousness I experience about heading to a no booking restaurant, and the unpleasantness of queuing or that slightly embarrassed feeling of walking into a room full of happy smug diners clinking their sparkling (and good quality) glassware and wolfing down their delicious morsels only to be told that there is at least an hour’s wait, and then wandering head down out into the street to contemplate your next dining move. I am glad because of the quality of the simple rustic food designed to be shared, the atmosphere, and the friendliness and professionalism of the front of house staff that has created such a winning sexy formula for Bodega. And I would have missed out on the smile delivering sight of the big chested gorgeous bull on the bright feature wall that’s become the symbol of the restaurant.

One of the great things about Bodega and its tapas-style menu that slipped straight into the trend that consumers are lapping up in Sydney of a casual grazing style of dining is that you can come for a quick nibble accompanied by a glass from the interesting Spanish, Chilean and Argentine wine list or go full on.

The menu lists dishes under different prices ranging from $6 for a bowl of warm glistening olives to $26 for a Moroccan-braised veal with saffron quinoa. For $8 choose from dishes like a bowl of white anchovies, some Spanish salami or eggplant ‘en escabeche’, for $10 something like some spiced pumpkin and feta empanadas with yoghurt sauce, or shoot up to $18 for some Grilled veal tongue with cabbage and beetroot salad, or for $22 ‘Cerda al Col’ pork and cabbage rolls with grapes and semi dried olives. There also specials added nightly—on our last visit there was Slow Cooked Suckling Pig served with chunky roasted potatoes and onions.

Amongst my favourites are the Empanadas ($10) both the Pumpkin and Feta ones, and the Argentinian-style with the spicy flavours of cumin and paprika with their mouth- wateringly soft and buttery pastry. I also love the Fried Spiced Calamari ($16) coated in an alluring blend of pepper and paprika served with aioli, the subtle flavours of the Mackerel “fish fingers” ($16) that come in hearty servings atop garlic toast with cuttlefish cerviche, the Mushrooms in Garlic ($12), and ‘Salad’ of Fried Cauliflower, Chickpeas and Silverbeet ($16). So far the only dish I’ve been a little disappointed with has been the Piquillo peppers stuffed with salted snapper. I found the filling was a little too soft and wet and lacking in flavour. It was a glorious-looking dish however, the red of the peppers surrounded by a moat of salsa verde.

Of dessert I’ve tried just one but it may have spoiled me forever, so memorable was it. Called Banana Split ($12) it was a slice of of the smoothest banana flan with a thin crisp toffee top, accompanied by a house-made vanilla bean ice-cream studded with peanuts.

Or perhaps you’d like to finish with Bodega’s very Spanish take on an Affogatto, a scoop of ice cream, topped at the table with a shot of coffee and a shot of Spanish sherry. Or you could just bypass that entirely for a sublime end with a glass of the top shelf sherry on the lengthy sherry list—a “La Sacrista” de Romate Pedro Ximenez ($19.50 for 60ml).