Mineral serves a menu with Asian influences, paired with a carefully curated wine and coffee program.

The restaurant serves lunch and dinner, and offers a selection of unusual cold bar small plates as well as a refined list of booze-free temperance beverages.

Most opt to sit at the bar or facing a tiny open kitchen equipped with six burners and a binchotan grill, rather than at cramped booths. Four high tables at the front provide standing room for a quick snack, drink or coffee.

A seared chicken thigh ($22) is available exclusively at lunch, upscale yet comforting, accompanied by a soy vinegar jus, yu choy, soft buttery garlic and rice.

Some dinner options, like glazed pork neck or mushroom noodles, are available at lunch, some other items from the dinner menu reinterpreted for lunch.

A pineapple kombu selection from the cold bar ($9) basically feels like a plant-based crudo. Pineapple is sliced extremely thinly and topped with crunchy puffed grains and kombu doused in spicy oil, creating explosions of flavour for such small bites.

It leaves me interested in trying other cold bar pairings in the future, like oyster and grape, shrimp and chili, scallop and apple, or king oyster mushroom and truffle.

Liver mousse dumplings are steeply priced at $18 for a little plate, but feel worth it: delicate dumplings are stuffed with chicken liver pate, further enriched by folding in luxurious foie gras.

Vidalia onion, macerated pear, and radish break up the fattiness, chicharrones adding contrasting textures of chew and crunch.

Seafood noodles ($26) see prawns and house raised alkaline noodles with squid ink folded in seared annatto seed, kombu and shell broth, then topped with very salty uni, ikura, a torched scallop and a huge crispy shrimp head.

A five-ounce glass of floral Rosewood Estates rose for $11 provides a fruity, yet nicely dry accompaniment to the food.

An ensaymada ($3) is positioned at the beginning of the menu, but it's sweet enough to be enjoyed as a dessert or on its own, as part of an extremely tight pastry program.

The puffy little bun is packed with cultural history that extends back hundreds of years and has touched Latin American and the Philippines. Aged white cheddar, smoked butter, hojicha tea and honey come together in a harmony of sticky, sweet and savoury.

It goes well with Santa Rosa pour over ($8), which has notes of red fruit and subtle hints of pecan pie. 

There are usually two to four options available for pour over from an in-counter slow bar, which rotate every few weeks.

Interior Design by Rikki Papa of Architecture for All and mural work by Tisha Myles distinguish the space, while overhead arches are particularly photogenic and memorable.