The Hot List is the definitive guide to Sydney’s most essential food and drink experiences, updated weekly. Learn more.

This week’s Hot List activity

• Added: Myra’s Kitchen
• Most trending restaurant: Fontana
• Most trending bar: Letra House
• Most trending cafe: Superfreak

To achieve greatness, a lunch spot has to nail a handful of things.

We think you might like Access. For $12 a month, join our membership program to stay in the know.

SIGN UP

It needs to have plenty of proteins to choose from, as well as at least one super-solid vego option. You have to have a grain bowl of some kind, and other portable carb vessels like bread or a wrap are a must. And there needs to be a salad. There should also be good coffee and a fridge full of fun sodas. Lastly, it all needs to be served pretty quickly.

That’s literally it. It’s a simple formula, but it’s not easy. That’s why when you find a lunch spot that ticks all of these boxes, you tend to fall for it quickly. And Newtown has fallen for Myra’s Kitchen. Hard.

This pint-sized King Street shop opened back in October last year, but it already has the kind of rabid fanbase that some places spend years cultivating. It’s easy to see why. The falafel –cooked Egyptian style with a family recipe passed down from owner Chris Rummey’s grandparents – are absolutely glorious. Cooked to order, neon green, faintly nutty and spicy. They might just tie with nearby Cairo Takeaway as the best falafel in Newtown.

Then there’s the meat. Rummey’s Greek Cypriot heritage is on ample display here. You can load up your bowl, salad, or pita sandwich with juicy keftedes (Greek meatballs), 12-hour slow-cooked lamb, or smoky sheftalia (pork and cinnamon sausages). It’ll all come topped with one of Rummey’s excellent sauces: from classic tahini and tzatziki, to mayonnaise-like skordalia, a thick combo of mashed potato, garlic, lemon and dill.

Myra’s is a one-man show. Rummey is the head chef, maître’d, dishie and barista of the whole operation with a million little jobs in between. But if that kind of workload gets to him, you wouldn’t know it looking at him: his big smile is constantly flashing around the space like a tiny moving strobe light.

Amazing food, warm service. No wonder the retention rate’s so high. No one goes to Myra’s just once. Go have lunch there, and after about two bites of whatever you’re eating, you’ll already be thinking about what you’ll get the next time you go.

broadsheet.com.au/hotlist/sydney