Now four years into its run, Mr Morris has settled into a relaxed maturity that perfectly suits the outwardly cool exterior and stoic-seeming interior of its executive chef, Michael Meredith. The Nat Cheshire-designed interior is ageing nicely, too — probably helped by the original design’s nod (in its roughly exposed brick and concrete walls) to the pre-renovation decay of the Excelsior House building the restaurant sits in. Amid all this, the recent appointment of Georgia van Prehn (ex-Alta) as head chef signals a new and unfolding era for the restaurant.

The floor staff at Mr Morris have been and continue to be among the best in the city, with a chameleon-like ability to meet the mood of the diners in the room. They’re equally expert at corralling a large group threatening to capsize into raucousness, thoughtfully guiding a good-humoured but indecisive couple, and quietly taking care of the needs of gruff businesspeople. 

If you’re dining solo, we recommend securing a booking at the open kitchen for a front-row seat at the show. Here you can watch the small team of cooks orbiting the open-fire grill or tweezing various tiny details on expertly designed plates of food in near silence, with furrowed brows of tight concentration. All that pedantry pays off, as the food here is as attractive as it is tasty. The menu is a fairly changeable thing, but classics like the grilled octopus and the duck have lasted for a reason and should be tried at least once — as should the passionfruit and rhubarb dessert. The proteins are smoky and sauces flavourful, but mercifully they lack the heavy richness that’s running rife in the city at the moment. You may be used to rolling out of restaurants in a state of discomfort, but you’ll be much less likely to suffer that here.

There is a calm serenity about the dining room at Mr Morris. With almost no outlook to its Britomart surroundings, it’s one of the only restaurants in the city that seems truly removed from the world outside. That seclusion contributes to a real feeling of being ‘out’, but also provides the perfect backdrop for a focus on your dining companions and the artfully crafted food and drinks emanating from the kitchen and bar, which always seem so much more than the sum of their parts.