Tramsheds has opened and the pick of the eating is decided: Bodega 1904 is the smoothest ride

Address: Tramsheds, 1 Dalgal Way, Forest Lodge

Phone: 8624 3133

Food: Continental

Score: 15.5/20

“It’s very London, sitting here,” observes my friend, perched at the counter of Bodega 1904. She is looking around the expansive industrial space that is the Tramsheds redevelopment — the reimagining of what was for 50-odd years the dilapidated space left over after Sydney’s tram station was decommissioned. With its restyled warehouse feel, it seems, indeed, very London or, to my mind, very New York. Very somewhere cool anyhow, the sort of space that takes you out of your own head and to somewhere else, somewhere better.

Queen bee in the new hub that houses a variety of food outlets, from Middle Eastern cafes to Tokyo-style noodle bars, is this sparkling venue from the skilful restaurateurs behind Porteno and, of course, Bodega, a pair of seminal Sydney restaurants that remain style leaders a decade after the original Bodega was launched in a poky location in Surry Hills.

You might wonder how an off- beat tapas bar such as Bodega could fit within this quite commercial and mixed concept but what owners Ben Milgate, Elvis Abrahanowicz and Joe Valore — with chef Joel Humphreys — have created is both cool and exciting.

Alongside the thriving open kitchen is a small dining room replete with sage-coloured padded leather booths, a wine store and, most enticingly, a counter where diners sit on soft, sage leather stools to dine at a shiny silver countertop overlooking the working bar. It reminds me of New York’s Grand Central Station’s Oyster Bar. Very cosmopolitan indeed.

The menu steers away from the South American bent of the original Bodega list to be more Euopean, more French in origin. It might be described as Continental-ish — beautiful, simple food done with a light hand and deft touch.

Start with simple dishes of goodness — pickled green tomatoes ($7), an almost earnest plate of cured pork (jamon, essentially) with two pale chillis ($12), pickled mussels with cured cabbage and celery ($16), a soft, dreamy baba ganoush of sorts described as smoked eggplant ($14) with caramelised baby onions and sheep’s milk feta. Move on to larger plates that include asparagus with runny, rich deep-fried eggs and harissa ($26) that offers a faint Moroccan touch, or pork sausage ($24) with “soft and crispy potatoes”, with plum sauce, potato mash and fine little crisp fries on top. It’s humorous, unfussy very European.

Fabulous, too, are boiled prawns ($24) offered in the shell with a bowl of rich burnt butter for dipping into and, perhaps the pick of the savoury dishes, an elegant arrangement of spatchcock with spring vegetables — broadbeans, peas, artichoke — with luxe tarragon mayo and watercress. Elegant and delicious.

Some may find the menu rather bistro and austere but for me that lends it an ease that’s enticing.

A ginger malt loaf with brown butter ice-cream to finish ($12) exemplifies the simple but satisfying eating that’s so easy and so fun. In fact, once you’ve been you almost immediately feel like returning.

And while many in this complex are struggling with the hordes, Bodega 1904 is already as smooth as a high-speed train rolling through the European countryside.

Get your ticket — quick.

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