15/20
$$$
Call this a canteen? I was expecting trays. And a counter where you line up for service. And chefs dolloping ladlefuls of food onto your plate. But no,A1 Canteen is more your post-canteen canteen. It is,at least,A1.
This high-ceilinged,light-filled space in Chippendale is a room for now;an all-day diner that echoes the mighty Cumulus Inc in Melbourne with its breakfast,lunch and dinner democracy.
Automata's Clayton Wells has walked across the laneway – along with talented head chef Scott Eddington and spirited manager Rachael Trewin – to open in The Old Rum Store.
Interior designer Matt Darwon came along for the ride,keeping the textures concrete and stainless steel and the vibe chilled. There's a coffee window upfront,with cafe seating barely divided from the dining space,softened with curved booths and banquettes,and a long,low,bottle-lined service bar.
The food and mood change constantly from dawn to dusk. Breakfast runs from a theatrical granola with black sesame paste and mauve rhubarb yoghurt ($12) to a blinder of a grilled mortadella and fried egg roll ($12) with fermented chilli and the crunch of fried shallots.
Breakfast is a tough gig for a chef,but A1 makes it look easy. Curdy,curried,scrambled eggs ($17) come with LP's bespoke pork sausages,which are just what you want from a breakfast sausage but never get.
Cruise in for a weekday lunch and choose a main and any two small salads ($22) – OK,so that's very canteen – or maybe a sandwich ($12 to $16),built tall with chicken and chiffonade lettuce or leg ham and sauerkraut.
It might sound a bit thrown-together,but this stuff has been worked and reworked until it works. I'm thinking here of the muffuletta,a pressed baguette of olive,mortadella,salami,ham,provolone,peppers and artichokes ($14).Like its Provencal cousin,the pan bagnat,it usually ends up as something nasty and soggy at the bottom of a picnic basket,but here,the right bread,rich layering,and those deal-breaking artichoke hearts make it an out-and-out success.
At dinner and weekend lunch,the vibe changes to bistro,and the rob roys and old-fashioneds come pre-batched and bottled. Automata's fried anchovy-stuffed olives ($10) are so moreish that I account for seven without even realising.
There's drama in a daring pairing of two of the reddest things on the planet – blood and beetroot – in a deeply rich,sweetly savoury,house-made blood cake under swathes of pickled beetroot ($22). A meaty whole flounder awash in peppery espelette under a shower of crisp curry leaves ($40) is good to share.
The dinner winner is lamb tartare ($22) that's like a lush kibbeh,the gnarly,hand-chopped meat entwined with eggplant and sumac on a pool of tahini yoghurt,with slices of pickled green almonds on top that look like evil eyes.
Wines are as natural as the dishes,and a 2017 Sud de Frank"White"($60) brings a zesty,organic blend of sauvignon blanc and petit manseng grapes from the Adelaide Hills and New England to the table.
Desserts are freshly composed,with roasted quince and pistachio sorbet ($14) proving to be as lovely a seasonal pairing as it sounds.
Egg-and-sausage breakfasts,door-stopper sandwich lunches,big-flavour bistro dinners and high-level snacks – it's got the lot. Except for trays.
The low-down
Vegetarian The choice isn't overwhelming,but what's there is as thought-through as the rest of the menu.
Drinks Single O coffee,pre-batched cocktails,cold-press juices and a discriminating list of naturalish wines
Go-to dish Lamb tartare,eggplant,tahini yoghurt and sumac,$22
Pro tip After 10am,you can add on a beautifully balanced pre-batched negroni
Terry Durack is chief restaurant critic forThe Sydney Morning Herald and senior reviewer for theGood Food Guide. This rating is based on theGood Food Guide scoring system.