Kerasma Souvlaki Merchant (CLOSED)

Order the haloumi. Why? They make their own at Kerasma, and you can tell at first bite. It’s milkier than what you get at the supermarket, and far less salty. You get a massive slab here for $26 - you’ll want to share between two - crusted in sesame seeds and fried so the cheese takes on a slight gooeyness, but there’s still that signature squeak.

They make their own sausages too. And pita bread. And ice cream. Half of the produce on the menu is sourced from their family farm in the Hunter Valley. Even the raw honeycomb on the lemon and extra virgin olive oil cheesecake is made by their own bees.

But you wouldn’t know any of this by looking at the menu. Or the restaurant. You’ve probably walked past this Cypriot joint a million times on your way to Newtown Station – it's more kitchen than dining room and dominated by a long charcoal grill. It’s small but cosy, the kind of spot you could easily head to for a low-key date night, group dinner or just a good quality souvlaki plate. That means your choice of skewer (pork, chicken, lamb, liver, vegetables or haloumi) served with salad, tzatziki and fluffy pockets of pita bread ($16.50-$21.50). Sheftalies, a skinless pork and herb sausage wrapped in caul fat, is particularly good, like chunky rissoles sweetened with onion. The sheftalies are made in-house, as well as the loukaniko pork and red wine sausages.

Sure you could order the ofto kleftiko roast lamb shoulder ($32) but wouldn’t you rather have spiced deer instead? Tavas lefkaritikos ($35) dates back to the 16th century, a mix of venison, koosa (Lebanese zucchini), tomatoes and spiced rice cooked in a clay pot. The best bits are the caramelised rice bits at the bottom, like a Cypriot version of the soccarat you find at the bottom of a paella. It’s a huge portion, and rich too, offset by a dollop of creamy yoghurt and pickled wild dandelions.

There’s plenty of temptation on the dessert menu, like shamishi filo pies filled with semolina, daktila fried pastry fingers stuffed with almonds and loukoumades syrup-soaked donuts (each $12). Prefer something light? Get the pagoto kaimaki ($12), an ancient gum mastic ice cream that harks back to 2BC, churned inhouse using orchid roots imported from Cyprus.