And brings some Spanish culture and tradition to Adelaide.

Bistro Dom is known for its leisurely, long degustation dinners, but owner Marcus Carter is aiming to make it a quick city lunch destination as well with new outlet .dom CBD.

Fronting on to Halls Court, which itself runs off Anster Street (home to Proof), .dom CBD is a literal hole in the wall servery built into the back of the Bistro Dom premise.

While the colourful exterior and Spanish street food-inspired menu stand in stark contrast to the restaurant’s existing aesthetic, head chef Luke Southwood says the approach and philosophy of Bistro Dom has been carefully carried over into the lunch time fare.

“Our aim is to hit the same price point as what other takeaway venues are doing around here but raise the bar on quality, because Bistro Dom does have a name for high quality so certainly we’re going to be maintaining that,” he says. “Everything is freshly made, nothing is pre-prepared but it is still very quick, street-style food.”

To achieve the seemingly impossible goal of creating something high quality, super quick and affordable, Luke is drawing on his experience as a young chef in Spain.

“Spanish food is a never-ending gold mine of really simple food with really complex flavours,” he says. “That’s what I love – in essence it’s the handling of the food and the technique involved and the love you put into it that makes it.”

From the first dish on the menu – the Papas Arrugadas, which are baby potatoes cooked in a sea water solution and then fried off, resulting in a crisp and salty skin and creamy interior – it’s obvious that the techniques he speaks of are the difference between something ordinary and something extraordinary.

The same effect can be seen across the menu, with dishes like the Fresh SA Squid given an extra lift from a squid-ink aioli and a lemon emulsion, and the open steak sandwich benefitting greatly from the meat’s low-temperature sous vide cooking and the use of house-made sourdough.

In addition to his own knowledge of how to work with produce, Luke says the produce itself is key to the development of his lunch time menu.

Through the strong relationships developed with growers and producers via the restaurant, Bistro Dom are sourcing stock with minor visual blemishes to keep quality up and cost down for the customer.

“Some people look at it as a second product, we look at it as an A-Grade product we can get at a lower price and offer at a lower price. It’s exactly the same product, there’s just a slight aesthetic difference,” says Luke.

There’s also a medicinal element to Luke’s cooking which is finding its way into the .dom CBD menu. Developed while he worked as a private chef in an exclusive rehab facility, Luke’s interest in how food can promote health and well being is well-researched and passionate.

At the centre of the Dom kitchen is a physical manifestation of that interest – a huge jar of kefir, a live grain that feeds on the lactose in fresh milk to produce an incredibly strong probiotic. This is used as a starter culture in the house-made sourdough seen on the takeaway menu.

Luke with the jar of kefir, which he says is a “member of the family”

“Every time you eat it, it’s lining your stomach with the good bacteria that help you digest the meal and it helps you feel better after, sleep better and then the next morning you’re going to wake up with a sense of wellbeing,” says Luke.

“As a chef, to have that opportunity to think about how it’s going to make people feel mentally and physically is really wonderful.”

And after sampling the entire menu, we feel pretty good. And we feel even better that’s it’s soon going to be available to us regularly from .dom CBD, which is thankfully just around the corner from our office.